by Walther Ploos van Amstel
The rapid emergence of direct-to-home delivery models has quickly changed the spatial and temporal distribution of both individual travelers’ trips and of urban goods movements. A growing number of household and consumer products now being delivered directly to homes rather than being picked up in retail stores.
Coincident with the rapid growth of omnichannel retailing, growing urbanization, changing consumer behavior, and increasing focus on sustainability, academic interest in the area of last mile logistics has significantly increased. The influx of research spans multiple disciplines and various methodologies, underlining the complexity and fragmentation of last-mile logistics research, which leads to a lack of …
From September 2019 up to and including January 2020, students of Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences provided the last mile for HoReCa establishments in the inner city of Rotterdam and Schiedam under the name HR Cargo for logistics service provider Nedcargo. The results of a first pilot in 2018 led to an expansion of HR …
When you think about the energy transition, what images come to mind? Wind turbines in the sea? Arrays of solar panels? Maybe an electric truck? All these things will have a significant part to play in the world’s future energy systems. And all of them illustrate one of the defining characteristics of the change that …
Smart, efficient and innovative solutions are needed to optimize urban transport. What distribution and infrastructure technologies have vast potential in providing integrated logistics solutions for the city of Amsterdam? What role could waterway networks play with regard to the transportation of people and goods?
In a recent paper, researchers analyze the route efficiency trade-offs that emerge from combining first-mile pickup and last-mile delivery operations in an urban distribution system. They build on the literature on continuum approximation of optimal route distances and propose adjustment factors that account for the effects of integrated pickup and delivery operations.
A lot of attention has been paid in the last years to city logistics activities generated by specific market segments such as food, retail, or home deliveries, while relatively little attention has been paid to the transport of goods to and from construction sites in urban areas.
Cargo bikes may be cleaner, faster and quieter. But today, cargo bikes are more expensive than light commercial vans. ‘Only local policy measures can reverse that.’ According to Jochen Maes (University of Antwerps in Belgium) they find it difficult to compete with the conventional delivery based on his Phd study.
To achieve a more climate-friendly future practical steps need to be taken in the development and construction of cities. C40 Cities partnered with Arup and the University of Leeds to publish Building and Infrastructure Consumption Emissions, a report highlighting key opportunities to reduce construction emissions.
The number of consumers that make online purchases is growing, together with the frequency in which these purchases are made. This change in consumer behavior revitalized the practice of home delivery. Consumers prefer their homes in favor of alternative locations, despite the fair chance that they are not present at the time of delivery.