by Walther Ploos van Amstel
While many postal companies are reducing the number of mailboxes on the streets, Royal Mail is converting theirs for parcels. Royal Mail is introducing the UK’s first ever parcel postboxes in 1.400 locations across the country after a successful trial.
Deutsche Post stops testing several new delivery technologies, says CEO Frank Appel in an interview in Tagesspiegel. In the foreseeable future, no drones will be used and no parcels will be delivered in the trunk of cars and behind the house door. Consumer interest is not big enough for profitable use of the new technology.
Norwegian Posten Norge has entered into an agreement with Buddy Mobility to develop the world’s first self-driving mail and parcel robot. In selected cities, the new robot could replace the mailbox as we know it today. The customers will be notified that mail or parcels are on their way, and they can decide whether to meet …
The delivery of packages ordered online can be made much more sustainable: “Unnecessarily large vehicles are essentially transporting air,” says Walther Ploos van Amstel, professor of city logistics at Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, on Twinkle. The way he sees it, there are twice as many delivery vans driving around in the city as necessary.
Last week a webinar focused on US and European research efforts to gain deeper insights from urban freight data, with a particular focus on how freight data has supported the development of urban freight plans and other technical documents, stakeholder engagement, and infrastructure investments.
City logistics makes an important contribution to the quality of life that people experience in cities. The liveability of cities is under pressure, partly caused by growing number of ‘last mile’ E-commerce deliveries. Various (f)actors involved in the last mile have led to smart initiatives in the sector.
Growth in e-commerce has led to increasing use of light goods vehicles for parcel deliveries in urban areas. A new paper by UK researchers provides an insight into the reasons behind this growth and the resulting effort required to meet the exacting parcel services offered by e-retailers which often lead to poor vehicle utilisation in the …
Pick any other major city the US, and the situation’s probably the same: a massive surge in deliveries to residential dwellings, one that’s outstripping deliveries to commercial establishments and creating a traffic nightmare. Citylab reports on the changing parcel delivery market from B2B to B2C.
Working with parcel carriers in the UK, the FTC2050 project examines the potential for closer operational collaboration between carriers to reduce urban traffic and energy demand whilst maintaining customer service levels. The project evaluates to what extent collaboration can develop within a commercial setting or whether a 3rd party ‘Freight Traffic Controller’ (FTC) would be necessary …
Lots of attention has been given in recent years to the “massive” increase in delivery traffic in cities and residential districts. Web stores and the vans that deliver their parcels often get the blame for that. My neighbors wonder if it really can’t all just fit into one delivery van. They see PostNL, DHL, Albert …