by Walther Ploos van Amstel
Urban freight transport is under increasing pressure. Rapid urbanization, the growth of e-commerce, and stricter climate targets are forcing cities to rethink how last-mile logistics (LML) is organized. Against this backdrop, Sobrino et al. (2026) propose a novel sustainability impact assessment framework and apply it to an Urban Consolidation Center (UCC) in Madrid’s city center. …
When discussing urban logistics, the focus often lies on parcel deliveries to consumers—a trend that the rise of e-commerce has amplified. Yet, cities are also home to industrial zones with manufacturers and producers who have very different logistics needs. These areas depend on the timely delivery of bulky, perishable, or production-critical goods. Despite their importance, …
Land scarcity near major Dutch cities is becoming a serious challenge for governments, developers, and occupiers—especially for businesses involved in last-mile logistics and local services. These “caring businesses” are essential for maintaining urban life, yet they’re increasingly pushed out by housing development and the repurposing of commercial areas. As urban populations grow and land becomes …
Proximity logistics offer a counter approach to logistics sprawl, bringing logistics operations back to urban centers. In the example, a logistics provider in the groupage and less-than-truckload (LTL) segment operates an urban consolidation center (UCC) in Düsseldorf. This provider supports inner-city businesses by offering receiver-led consolidation, stockholding, and other services. The case presented in a …
The focus must extend beyond merely reducing emissions to achieve a more sustainable city logistics system. Alongside adopting zero-emission vehicles, it is crucial to decrease urban logistics trips due to various urban, environmental, and economic challenges. To optimize city logistics, a new paper emphasizes the role of hubs and decoupling points, which separate the logistics …
A new paper examines the role of supportive policies and value-added services that may incentivize retailers to use an urban consolidation center (UCC). The methodology is a case study of Edinburgh, Scotland, based on semi-structured interviews with 30 retailers. Results show that retailers are generally not positive towards using UCCs, and the services that they …
A New Ph.D. thesis by Dávid Lajos Sárdi of Budapest University of Technology and Economics looked at hubs for city logistics in Budapest (Hungary). First, he looked at urban concentrated sets of delivery locations (CSDLs). Then, he presented the application of a new consolidation-based concept to the city logistics system of the CSDLs and the …
Urban deliveries of goods have become a rising challenge due to the increase of online shopping and the traditional business-to-business (B2B) dynamics. To maintain a satisfactory level of service, carriers must conduct delivery operations under restrictive environments, creating undesirable externalities such as congestion and pollution. Urban micro-consolidation centers (UMCs) are defined as on-street or off-street …
An Urban Consolidation Centre (UCC) can decrease the number of freight vehicles and their mileage in urban areas. In practice, however, UCCs often rely on subsidies and seldom make it past their starting period. Understanding how UCCs affect urban freight transport is mostly based on mathematical models and on the opinions of stakeholders who do …
City logistics challenges require logistics companies to adopt logistics solutions to minimize these negative impacts and increase the efficiency of logistics activities and use urban consolidation centers (UCCs). Electric vehicles (EVs) are a popular and widely adopted initiative. The purpose of research by Duy Nguyen was to analyze and evaluate the benefits in terms of …