by Walther Ploos van Amstel
Scroll through any academic journal on city logistics, and you will find the same framing: how do we scale out-of-home delivery systems to keep pace with the rapid growth of e-commerce? It is an important-sounding question. It is also, increasingly, the wrong one. The inconvenient truth is this: e-commerce is no longer growing the way …
Amazon’s first quarter 2026 results reveal a company investing heavily in its physical logistics infrastructure, even as that spending compresses free cash flow to near zero. The obsession with improving customers’ lives every day comes at a cost. A big one. Scale and speed Total net product sales reached $296 billion, up by almost 9% …
From 29 April 2026, Boon’s Dagmarkt in the heart of Utrecht will be supplied by an electric boat. No more delivery trucks through the city center, no emissions, no vibrations beneath the historic vaulted cellars. Just goods delivered by water, as Utrecht did for centuries, but now emission-free. It sounds almost obvious. Yet this is …
DHL is expanding its pioneering water-based delivery project in Berlin, launching a second solar-powered ship route along the Spree. The new route runs from Köpenick through several stops — including Rummelsburg Bay — to the Osthafen near the Oberbaumbrücke, with solar-powered DHL parcel stations at each stop. The first solar ship has been operating between …
Failed deliveries are one of the most stubborn headaches in urban logistics. The courier arrives, nobody’s home, and the whole costly cycle begins again: a second attempt, extra fuel, more emissions, and a frustrated customer. A new study published in Research in Transportation Economics (Escudero-Santana et al., 2026) takes a fresh angle on this problem: …
PostNL opened 2026 with a notable shift in its e-commerce operations: total parcel volume dropped 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Yet the company made this choice deliberately. So what’s going on? Fewer parcels, but worth more Revenue from the e-commerce segment came in at €451 million, down from €473 million in Q1 …
Urban Freight at a Crossroads: What the EU’s new Transport Study tells us about the future of city logistics. A new exploratory study commissioned by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport (DG MOVE) has shed light on one of the most pressing challenges in urban mobility: getting freight smarter, cleaner, and better connected …
If you’ve ever sat through a transport planning meeting, you’ll recognize the pattern. Slides on walking, cycling, public transit, maybe some discussion of electric vehicles, and then, right at the end, almost apologetically: “…and freight.” Dr Daniela Paddeu has spent her career pushing back against exactly that dynamic. As Associate Professor of Sustainable Freight Futures …
Electric cargo bike market hits growth milestone A new market analysis published on 23 April reports that the global electric cargo bike market, valued at USD 4.8 billion in 2025, is projected to reach USD 18 billion by 2035, growing at a CAGR of 14.2%. Analysts note that for logistics providers and urban mobility planners, …
Last-mile delivery is a critical component of the logistics and supply chain industry, especially in densely populated urban areas like Mumbai. This study aims to analyze the key challenges affecting last-mile delivery efficiency and evaluate the role of technology and operational strategies in improving performance. Recent research was based on primary data collected through a structured survey of delivery personnel and consumers in Mumbai. Key factors such …