by Walther Ploos van Amstel
The Amsterdam metropolitan region faces a major spatial challenge. New housing, the energy transition, green infrastructure, and economic activity are all competing for scarce urban land. At the same time, the city aims to become fully circular by 2050. That immediately raises spatial questions: which circular functions are needed, how much space each requires, and …
The rapid growth of e-commerce has intensified pressure on urban logistics systems, particularly in the last mile. This segment is both the most expensive and environmentally impactful part of parcel distribution, due to fragmented routes, failed deliveries, and a lack of economies of scale. To mitigate these externalities, parcel lockers (PLs) have emerged as a …
Electric Road Systems (ERS) – allowing trucks to charge while driving via overhead lines, inductive systems, or rail – are often presented as a promising solution for one of the main bottlenecks in heavy-duty electrification: large battery packs, long charging downtimes, and limited range. In theory, ERS could accelerate the shift to clean regional and …
Artificial Intelligence has moved beyond exploratory pilots in transport and logistics. While autonomous trucks and drone delivery continue to grab headlines, the real transformation is happening deeper inside the supply chain stack: in planning, forecasting, routing, exception management, terminal operations, data orchestration, and real-time decision support. The exploratory study on AI in transport & logistics …
Customers increasingly expect fast and precise delivery information, yet logistics service providers know that committing too early to delivery time windows can seriously undermine route efficiency. A recent paper tackles that tension head-on by asking a deceptively simple question: is it worth waiting before communicating delivery time windows to customers? The authors focus on next-day …
Europe’s transition to zero-emission trucks (ZETs) has reached a decisive phase. While EU CO₂ standards for heavy-duty vehicles are among the most ambitious globally, the pace of real-world deployment still lags what is needed to meet the 2030 target of roughly 35% zero-emission truck sales. The Smart Freight Centre report, with contributions from ACEA and …
U.S. city logistics teams don’t need to wait for a perfect “European-style” Zero- or Low-Emission Zone authority to start decarbonizing urban freight. The key lesson from the Urban Freight Lab’s 2025 framework is that many Z/LEZ outcomes can be achieved with tools cities already control, if those tools are combined into a deliberate package and …
The recent study Logistics for Building Circular, Biobased, and Modular: Environmental Impacts in Amsterdam, published in the Journal of Circular Economy, examines the role of logistics in circular construction practices, with a specific focus on the urban context of Amsterdam. The article analyses how logistics systems influence the environmental performance of circular, biobased, and modular …
Cities are increasingly adopting zero-emission zones (ZEZs) as a core strategy to reduce local air pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, and road transport noise. While much of the policy and research attention has focused on passenger cars and heavy goods vehicles (HGVs), there is growing interest in the role of light electric freight vehicles (LEFVs), including …
Heavy-duty road transport is one of the most persistent sources of greenhouse gas emissions, and reducing its climate impact is essential to meeting global decarbonisation targets. In their review in Nature, Zhang and colleagues evaluate the feasibility, economic viability, and emissions reduction potential of key clean pathways: chiefly battery electric trucks (BETs), fuel cell electric …