by Walther Ploos van Amstel
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 …
Ross Phillips, Sustainable Transport Manager at Cross River Partnership (CRP) — a London-based public-private partnership — offers a grounded and practical perspective on the decarbonization challenge facing urban logistics. His answers cut through the ambition and land on the structural barriers practitioners actually face day to day. The most honest observation in the interview is …
The Dutch postal market is presenting a peculiar spectacle. PostNL wants to shed its legal obligation to provide the universal postal service because it is threatening to become loss-making. A consortium of Business Post and Spotta offers to take it over. The minister turns that offer down. And then the consortium doesn’t lodge an objection. …
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 …
Most discussions of city logistics focus on getting goods to people. The harder, less glamorous challenge is what happens when those goods reach the end of their useful life. Packaging, electronics, batteries, textiles — the volumes are enormous, growing with every e-commerce surge, and the urban infrastructure to handle them sustainably barely exists. A chapter …
Few logistics questions seem more mundane than where to put a parcel locker. Research papers in Urban Logistics Transformation (Springer, 2026) make a compelling case that this is actually one of the most consequential spatial planning decisions a city can make; touching on equity, emissions, local commerce, and the circular economy all at once. Location …
How do we want the ‘liveable city’ to look? And what concrete steps are needed to get there? The delivery van is blocking the pavement. The cargo bike is maneuvering through a narrow alley. The parcel locker is disrupting the streetscape. Familiar scenes in almost every Dutch city. But are these logistics problems or design …
Urban freight is messy, fast-moving, and politically contentious. Deliveries compete with pedestrians for space, logistics providers compete with each other for efficiency, and city planners are left trying to regulate a system they can barely see. Digital twins (virtual replicas of city systems that can simulate, predict, and advise) are increasingly being positioned as the …
Cities are getting busier, more crowded, and increasingly strained by the consequences of e-commerce growth. According to recent estimates, urban freight traffic already accounts for around 25% of traffic emissions in major European cities and occupies more than 30% of available road capacity during peak hours. Without targeted intervention, these figures risk climbing even further. …