A new study compares how five global cities handle e-commerce deliveries — and finds that context is everything.
City logistics keeps growing, and with it, the pressure on urban streets. More parcels, more vans, more congestion — and more urgency for cities to find smarter solutions. But which solutions actually work?
A new study published in Case Studies on Transport Policy by Sakai, Kin, Buldeo Rai, Conway, Cheah, Dalla Chiara, and Ploos van Amstel takes a close look at last-mile delivery in five cities across three continents: Brussels, Amsterdam, Singapore, Tokyo, and New York. The core message is both simple and important: there is no universal best practice. Context shapes everything.
The Same Problem, Very Different Answers
All five cities face the same fundamental challenge: rapidly growing parcel volumes in dense urban environments, with limited space and increasing pressure to reduce emissions. Yet the way each city responds differs dramatically.
In Tokyo’s central business districts, the dominant solution is the trolley-and-microhub system. Major carriers like Yamato and Sagawa operate a dense network of roughly 1,300 small urban logistics facilities, some as compact as 50 square meters, from which delivery staff fan out on foot with handcarts. This works because demand density is extraordinarily high, the market is highly concentrated, and zoning has historically permitted these facilities in urban cores. Strict parking enforcement has made van-based delivery in central areas effectively impractical, nudging the sector toward non-motorized solutions.
New York tells a similar density story but with very different infrastructure. With over 2.3 million parcels delivered daily, micro-distribution happens informally from parked trucks and vans at the curb, with porters completing the final steps by handcart. The market is dominated by Amazon, UPS, FedEx, and USPS. Regulation has lagged behind reality, though the city’s 2024 zoning update and the introduction of congestion pricing in Manhattan are beginning to reshape the landscape.
Brussels and Amsterdam, both medium-sized European cities with historic cores and dense cycling infrastructure, are moving toward cargo-bike deliveries, but at different speeds and through different mechanisms. Brussels has a more fragmented delivery market, which has actually helped: smaller specialised operators are driving cargo-bike adoption, supported by a public-private Green Deal and an expanding network of shared nanohubs. Amsterdam’s approach is more top-down, centered on its zero-emission zone policy, which phases out conventional vans starting in 2025. The city has, however, banned parcel lockers from public space, complicating alternative delivery options.
Singapore stands apart. Its population lives largely in high-rise public housing with ample planned parking, and a government-initiated courier hub scheme now allows logistics providers to sort parcels in residential parking facilities during business hours. A federated locker network and freight-on-transit trials with the urban rail system reflect a city-state culture of top-down innovation and tight spatial management.
Seven Factors That Explain the Differences
The authors identify seven key contextual factors that explain why last-mile delivery looks so different from city to city: demand density, size of the urban agglomeration, built environment characteristics, zoning restrictions, building codes on parking, zero-emission policies, and the structure of the delivery service market. None of these factors operates in isolation. It is their combination that shapes what is feasible, affordable, and effective in any given city.
What Cities Can Learn
The study also identifies five strategies that appear across all cities, even if implemented very differently: enhancing market cooperation, promoting out-of-home and unattended handovers, establishing regulatory frameworks for non-motorized delivery modes, creating urban logistics space, and exploring intermodal alternatives to road transport.
The takeaway for planners and policymakers is clear: before copying a solution from another city, ask whether your context supports it. Does your demand density justify microhubs? Does your zoning code permit them? Is your delivery market structured to use them?
Last-mile logistics is local. Understanding your own city before looking elsewhere is the smartest first step.