by Walther Ploos van Amstel
Can city deliveries be made quietly, emission-free, and stress-free? Hamburg is testing exactly that. As part of the InnoWaTr project’s Freight Flow Coalition No. 3, the city launched its first pilot runs using fully electric boats on the Alster lake and canals. The pilot was carried out by Logistics Initiative Hamburg and TOP Mehrwert-Logistik, in …
Federated learning (FL) and collaborative AI (CAI) offer new ways to make city logistics more efficient, sustainable, and resilient while protecting sensitive data. In traditional logistics, sharing operational data between companies or with cities is often difficult due to competition and privacy concerns. FL solves this by allowing each company to train AI models locally …
Delivering goods safely and cleanly – and collecting waste efficiently – in our city centers is a significant challenge. This is especially true since the introduction of zero-emission zones on January 1, 2025, while urban populations continue to grow. The Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (PBL) predicts that by 2035, the four largest cities will experience …
A recent thesis addresses one of the most pressing challenges in contemporary urban planning: how to reconcile the growing intensity of urban logistics activities with broader sustainability and livability goals. It adopts a spatial-temporal perspective on logistics operations, combining spatial analytics, machine learning, and case studies from Dutch cities. Conceptual framing The thesis rightly identifies …
Cities increasingly use experimentation to tackle complex sustainability challenges. Experimentation allows actors to test new interventions in real-world contexts, creating opportunities for learning-by-doing. Yet, whether this learning translates into actual organizational change remains unclear. Recent research examines this relationship through four city logistics experiments in Bergen (Norway) and Groningen (Netherlands), offering insights into the dynamics …
Food delivery platform Just Eat Takeaway.com has partnered with robotics company RIVR to introduce autonomous delivery robots in Europe. The first pilot has started in Zürich, Switzerland, where robots are now delivering meals from local restaurants. Expansion to other European cities is planned later this year, with possible applications in retail and convenience delivery. The …
The last mile is one of the most critical and costly segments in logistics. It directly shapes both operational efficiency and profitability. Yet, managing courier workflows remains complex due to varying work patterns, route deviations, traffic congestion, and other external factors. A recent study based on real-world data from a Spanish logistics company sheds light …
The strategic design of city logistics networks is fundamental to enhancing efficiency, sustainability, and resilience. Key dimensions of this strategic design include network structure, mode selection, fleet composition, governance, service design, regulatory adaptation, and digital infrastructure. The network is determined by balancing high service standards, economic efficiency, optimized network configuration, and market responsiveness. A complex …
In cities around the world, logistics plays a crucial but often invisible role. From early morning supermarket deliveries to the increasing number of parcel vans navigating through neighborhoods, urban freight is an integral part of daily life. Yet, despite its importance, city logistics remains under-researched and poorly understood, mainly due to a lack of good …
Urban logistics is at a turning point. Today, last-mile operations already account for 30% of transport-related CO₂ emissions in cities. While the EU Green Deal targets a 50–55% reduction in emissions for vans and cars by 2030, many local authorities are also moving toward zero-emission zones to advance clean urban logistics. To address these challenges, …