by Walther Ploos van Amstel
The impact of urban mobility, and urban freight transport in particular, on the liveability of an urban area is elevated. Growing urban road congestion in most European cities, to which urban freight transport is an active contributor, vehicle emissions and road safety are big challenges for society.
Containerization will play an important role in success of cargo bikes. This research paper by Tom Assmann and Fabian Behrendt presents a quantitative model to determine economically viable container heights for three-wheeled rear loading cargo bikes in crossdocking and intermodal truck-based last mile distribution schemes.
Technology is driving a heightened level of innovation in product and service offerings in the last mile parcel delivery market, and is transforming the way delivery providers interact with their customers. Customers have ever-increasing demands for delivery to be flexible, visible and fast all at a low price.
Urban living labs have become a popular phenomenon. The Living Lab approach would provide real life research with its multiple stakeholders in a co-innovating inclusive setting, crucial in creating metropolitan solutions with impact, that will be adopted smoothly and swiftly by all involved, and thus help achieve prosperous living environments that are more liveable, sustainable, …
With the emergence of e-commerce in grocery retail, the food supply chain faces new challenges. In a new paper Shenle Pan et. al. of MINES ParisTech focus on such a challenge regarding the successful delivery of on line grocery orders.
Customer involvement is regarded as a new way to increase last mile efficiency. Improved delivery designs call for customer involvement although it is not clear how customers can be involved and what the consequences are for organizations and customers involved in the last mile.
Regulatory policies aim at reducing the negative effects of urban freight transportation, especially those related to traffic, emissions and noise. Nonetheless, stakeholders in city logistics often have divergent objectives, which lead to difficulties upon defining the best possible choices regarding regulation. A new paper on HoReCa deliveries in Paris by MINES ParisTech presents a multi-agent …
The advent of new technologies in last mile deliveries is about to cause a disruption in the traditional business model applied in city logistics. In this context, identifying new business and operations models and vehicles that could be applied for last mile deliveries in urban areas becomes crucial
The light commercial vehicle, or delivery van, is the workhorse of both companies and the self-employed in the Dutch economy. And with good reason: it is a multifunctional and flexible mode of transport and compared to (smaller) trucks and cars it is also cheap to buy and use. Moreover, a ‘lighter’ drivers license B is sufficient to …
Passenger car occupancy has been falling for years. Partly empty vehicles on our road networks decrease passenger transport sustainability but also contain an opportunity for freight transport. Within crowd logistics, delivery operations are carried out by using passengers’ excess capacity on journeys that are already taking place, resulting in economic, social and environmental benefits.