Europe is pushing hard for a sustainable, smart, and inclusive transport system. The logic is straightforward: if we want cleaner cities, resilient supply chains, and competitive logistics, we need better coordination across modes, across borders, and across public–private boundaries. Digitalisation is the lever, and data spaces are becoming the infrastructure behind it.
Step 1 — Start with the real problem: fragmented data, fragmented decisions
Transport and logistics already generate enormous volumes of data (vehicle locations, delivery events, curb access, terminal status, emissions, traffic). The problem is not scarcity; it’s fragmentation. Data sits in disconnected silos: city systems, carriers, shippers, platforms, rail operators, hubs. That fragmentation blocks innovation and makes multimodal and last-mile optimisation harder than it needs to be.
Step 2 — Understand what a data space is (and what it is not)
A data space is a trusted environment where organisations can share, access, and reuse data under agreed rules. It is not one central database. Think “federation”: data stays with the owner, but becomes discoverable and usable through common governance, technical connectors, and standardised agreements. This is exactly the direction of the European Mobility Data Space (EMDS) approach: interlink existing ecosystems and create an “interlinking layer” that improves discoverability and access—securely and at scale.
Step 3 — Translate EMDS into city-logistics use cases
For city logistics, the value comes from system efficiency, not just better dashboards. Typical high-impact use cases include:
- Dynamic routing and ETA reliability using real-time disruptions, curb availability, and access rules
- Hub-and-spoke orchestration: aligning inbound linehaul with micro-hubs and last-mile capacity
- Emission accounting that is auditable and comparable across operators
- Returns and reverse logistics visibility (packaging, waste streams, reuse flows)
- Policy targeting: cities using data to tune loading zones, time windows, and enforcement
Step 4 — Look at what’s already happening: practical data-space experiments
Spain’s Mobility Lab is a concrete example of how a data space becomes actionable: a cohort of initial participants (public and private) join as both data providers and consumers, and use living labs to test solutions. Two flagship initiatives illustrate the “end-to-end” ambition:
- DATADUM: data for sustainable urban goods distribution, covering planning, routing, delivery, and returns
- DATALOG: data for intermodal logistics, improving handovers between modes and nodes
Add-ons like cooperative last-mile concepts (GREEN-LOG), efforts to reduce dependency on closed platforms (DISCO), and traceability pilots for rail composition and terminal visibility show the breadth: last mile, governance, and intermodal transparency.
Step 5 — Connect data spaces to physical corridors and nodes
Data spaces are most powerful when linked to critical infrastructure and corridors, such as rail terminals, ports, urban consolidation centres, and dense city districts. Intermodal projects, such as “motorways of rail” concepts and terminal upgrades, depend on synchronised schedules, booking, tracking, and handover data. Without shared data, intermodal remains theoretically attractive but operationally brittle.
Step 6 — Build the Dutch lane: from iSHARE to a Logistics Data Space
In the Netherlands, initiatives such as DASLOGIS point to a Dutch Logistics Data Space (DLDS): a scalable environment for the controlled sharing of commercially sensitive data. The ambition is to go beyond today’s bilateral agreements by supporting three exchange modes: transactional data for operations, big data for analytics, and supply-chain data for real-time visibility, aligned with the International Data Spaces (IDS) reference architecture.
Step 7 — What to do next: a pragmatic adoption path
- Identify “shareable minimum datasets” (ETA, stop events, capacity signals, emissions)
- Choose a pilot corridor or district with a clear KPI (reliability, km reduction, curb efficiency)
- Agree governance first: roles, access rights, liability, auditability
- Scale through federated connections; don’t rebuild platforms, connect them.
The opportunity is big: data spaces can become the operating system for city logistics, enabling collaboration without forcing consolidation of ownership. In a world of scarce space, labour, and energy, that is not a nice-to-have. It is a strategy for competitiveness and resilience.
Walther Ploos van Amstel.