by Walther Ploos van Amstel
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 …
What should be included in the election programs of parties that truly care about a livable, accessible, and vital city center? It is commendable that a local party commits to smarter urban logistics… but with the right starting points. D66 Eindhoven states: “We are investing in smart urban logistics. With transshipment hubs, we ensure that …
Diesel prices are hurting the logistics sector. The debate has fixated on excise cuts and fuel surcharges. But these are the wrong answers to the right question. The real challenge facing freight transport isn’t the price of diesel. It’s a deep, systemic dependency on it and a long-overdue productivity deficit that the industry can no …
Here’s a roundup of the most relevant city logistics news from the past two weeks: Urban consolidation centers: context matters more than the concept A recent analysis by the Dutch Kennisinstituut voor Mobiliteitsbeleid (KiM), published on 21 March, reviewed urban consolidation centers and reached a key conclusion: their effectiveness is highly context-dependent. In dense urban …
Here’s a roundup of the most relevant city logistics news from last week and the past few weeks: Urban Consolidation Centers: No Silver Bullet A recent analysis by the Dutch Kennisinstituut voor Mobiliteitsbeleid (KiM), published on 21 March, provides a systematic review of urban consolidation centers (city hubs) and reaches a key conclusion: their effectiveness …
The Cargo Sous Terrain-CST working paper presents a forward-looking vision of a multimodal freight transport system that integrates rail, road, inland waterways, and urban logistics into a coherent, high-performance network. The core argument is clear: current freight systems are too fragmented, too road-dependent, and insufficiently aligned with sustainability and capacity constraints. What does the future …
This report by the Dutch Topsector Logistiek, &Morgen and TwynstraGudde examines how the growing demand for urban logistics can be efficiently and sustainably accommodated within limited urban space. The authors distinguish between different types of logistics hubs and conclude that carriers’ commercial interests often conflict with municipalities’ societal objectives. Using the Double Diamond methodology, real-world …
The receiver is the forgotten director of urban logistics. But what do we actually know about the receiver? Last week I wrote about stricter restrictions on heavy freight traffic in city centres. From the perspective of vulnerable quay walls and urban liveability, these measures are understandable. Yet in cities such as Utrecht and Amsterdam, they …
In his 2026 opinion article in Frontiers in Sustainability, Gilles A. Pache challenges the dominant narrative that e-commerce is inherently less sustainable than brick-and-mortar retail. He argues that environmental performance depends far more on logistics system design than on the retail channel itself. The key determinants are consolidation intensity, routing optimization, fleet composition, demand stability, …
Parcel delivery is structurally failing due to a race-to-the-bottom price war that undermines service quality, labour conditions, and customer trust.Consumers face unreliable delivery, poor tracking, and weak customer service, while retailers’ focus on the cheapest delivery shifts responsibility and accelerates the decline in service.The sector needs consolidation, fair pricing, stronger collaboration, and online retailer accountability …