The Logistic Hub supplies the city in a smart and sustainable manner, gets rid of inefficient courier routes and replaces smelly delivery trucks with clean electric vehicles.
Watch the movie
Watch the movie about the logistic hub for smart and sustainable supply on youtube:
Slim en duurzaam bevoorraden UvA-HvA
Check the article about the Logistics Hub/Simply Mile featured in our online magazine 'Smart Stories':
The AUAS and the UvA have a tremendous amount of goods and services delivered. The two educational institutions, which have combined the purchasing of goods and services in a single purchasing organisation, deal with a total of around 16,000 suppliers. Each year, all of those suppliers combined make 90,000 delivery trips amounting to a total of 2.8 million kilometres, which is equivalent to circling the earth 70 times. This enormous number of deliveries places a major burden on the environment, and adds to the hustle and bustle and traffic build-up and congestion in the city.
This hub is aimed at suppliers of goods (some 8,000) who together make around 30,000 delivery trips per year, covering a distance of 1 million kilometres. The goal is to reduce the number of trips into the city over time, while simultaneously increasing the load in each vehicle. The hub will use clean, electrically powered vehicles and bicycles and should reduce the number of trips from 30,000 now to around 750 clean delivery trips per year in the future.
De AUAS and UvA initiated the project. The hub has been achieved in Duivendrecht in cooperation with logistics partners Deudekom (hub manager), PostNL (electric cargo bikes) and Transmission (electric trucks). The first suppliers (Canon, Maas International, Heijmans, CWS and Staples) are already cooperating with the hub.
The two organisations are currently in the process of contacting all of their suppliers and asking them to join the hub.
The use of a hub is one of the specific outcomes of a long-term study on improving the sustainability of purchasing by the UvA and the AUAS , conducted by AUAS researchers and students, which preceded the development of the hub. AUAS professor Walther Ploos van Amstel and researcher Susanne Balm have been working with suppliers since 2014 to identify the steps needed to make the traffic flows of the UvA and the AUAS more sustainable. Combining deliveries in a hub outside the city was an important recommendation from the study. This has now been achieved in Duivendrecht in cooperation with logistics partners Deudekom (hub manager), PostNL (electric cargo bikes) and Transmission (electric trucks). The approach to the hub is what makes it unique. Whereas other logistics hubs are established using government subsidies, often from municipal authorities, this hub will run without any subsidy at all. Thanks to a smart redistribution of costs between the suppliers and the two educational institutions, the total costs will be no higher than they were previously. At the same time, both parties will benefit from lower fuel costs and less time lost by the suppliers, as well as more effective and cleaner deliveries for the AUAS and the UvA.
On December 18, join us for an evening in Amsterdam where we talk about Speed and Safety in cities. Do safer vehicles make us forget the need for safer streets?
Townmaking Institute in collaboration with Gemeente Amsterdam
In conversation with
Carl Honoré: Writer, speaker, broadcaster, advocate of the Slow Movement
Luca Bertolini: Professor of Urban Planning UvA
Onno Kramer: Head Collection Management at Accel
Vehicle speeds, whether cars, trucks, or e-bikes, profoundly affect our experience of cities. What feels too fast or too slow often depends on the place we occupy in traffic: a pedestrian may feel endangered by a motorist’s speed, while the motorist simply wants to reach their destination.
Traditionally, fixed speed limits have been the solution, but these don’t account for the dynamic nature of urban spaces, nor the emergence of new vehicle types. Unsafe streets push people into safer vehicles, but in doing so, we risk neglecting making safer streets.
To create safer, more livable streets, we need to rethink our approach to speed regulation, considering the evolving complexity of urban life.
This event marks the start of our journey towards the Speed Summit in 2025. The conversation opens with Carl Honoré, Luca Bertolini, and Onno Kramer exploring what should come first for liveable cities: safe streets or safe vehicles.
Event Details:
Wednesday, 18th December 2024
At 20:00 hours.
Grote Zaal, Pakhuis de Zwijger,
Piet Heinkade 179,
1019 HC Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Townmaking Podcasts.
Listen to the Townmaking episodes to dive deeper into the ideas that help shape the conversation.
https://www.townmaking.com/search/cls-townmaking-podcasts/cnt-s1e7-speed-liveability-and-safety
In early November, I travelled to Barcelona for the third time to attend the Smart City Expo World Congress. Together with the Amsterdam InChange Team, some of our network partners, and the Dutch delegation, we put together a strong content-focused programme, gained inspiration, and strengthened both international and national connections. In this article, I’ll briefly share some of my personal highlights from this trip.
During the congress, I organised several guided visits from the Dutch Pavilion in collaboration with the DMI-Ecosystem. The aim of these visits was to connect the Dutch delegation with international colleagues and facilitate knowledge exchange. At the busy expo, full of companies, cities, regions, and conference stages, it’s really appreciated to join planned meetings on specific themes. It’s also a great chance to meet many international representatives in just a few days, since everyone is in the same place at the same time.
We visited and connected with the pavilions of EIT Urban Mobility, Forum Virium (Helsinki), the European Commission, and Catalonian innovations. Topics such as The Future of Mobility, Digital Twins, and Net Zero Cities were central to the discussions. It was a good opportunity to strengthen existing networks and establish new connections. For myself, for Amsterdam InChange, and for the participants joining the meetings.
A few aspects of the visits particularly stood out to me. At Forum Virium Helsinki we met with Timo Sillander and Jaana Halonen. I was impressed by their work with Digital Twins. They focus not only on the technology itself and the efficiency of urban systems, but also on the social dimensions a digital simulation can play into. Think of; unequal distributions of risks related to climate change and extreme weather conditions.
I also appreciated the efforts of the European Commission. They are working to make it easier to navigate research topics, funding opportunities, and findings related to themes like energy-neutral cities. With their new marketplace, there is more focus on small and medium-sized cities across Europe, helping them to benefit from innovations that are often developed in larger urban areas.
On Tuesday, my colleague Chris and I organised a session on zero-emission city logistics. We brought together representatives from Oslo, Helsinki, Stockholm, Munich, and EIT Urban Mobility, as well as the Dutch municipalities of Haarlemmermeer and Amsterdam.
The session built on connections we made during other events on Sunday and Monday, bringing together an international group of stakeholders interested in this topic. During the discussion, we compared how different cities are approaching zero-emission zones and identified shared challenges, particularly in policymaking and working with logistics companies and local entrepreneurs.
It was interesting to see how this topic lends itself so well to international comparison and exchange. For instance, while Amsterdam will be one of the first to implement a strict ZE zone in the city centre, other cities are already ahead in areas like charging infrastructure and the transition to cargo bikes. The group was eager to keep the discussion going, and we’re already planning a follow-up online meeting to continue learning from one another.
Finally, a few other topics worth mentioning: I joined an international session hosted by the City of Amsterdam about future-proof sports fields. It was inspiring to reflect on the value and potential of sports fields for neighbourhoods, as well as their use as testing grounds for sustainable innovations. For me, the session reinforced how important these spaces are for local communities in cities, and sparked a new personal interest in this subject.
I also really enjoyed both our own international changemakers’ dinner and another international dinner hosted by Drees & Sommer (thanks for the invitation!). Bringing together an international network — whether as individuals or in small groups — and mixing them at the table sparked meaningful conversations that felt different from those during the formal congress sessions or workshops.
Lastly, it’s great to see more Superblocks and bicycles in the city every year! Go Barcelona!
This free of charge training will be given in Dutch!
Protect your ideas and strengthen your competitive advantage with the basic Intellectual Property Rights training.
What will you learn during the training?
- Introduction to different IP rights: get a clear understanding of the IP rights that protect you.
- Real-life examples of collaboration and ownership: Learn how IP rights work in collaborations.
- Freedom to operate: discover how to preserve room to innovate without legal risks.
- The value of technical details in patent publications: Understand how these details give you an advantage in the market.
When: Monday, 9 December 2024 15.30 - 18.00
Location: Ondernemersplein Almere (cityhal Almere), Stadhuisplein 1, 1315HR Almere
Hi Jelle,
That sounds interesting! I am sure that the logistics service providers would like to talk about this too. Let's plan a meeting after the summer (in September).
Hi Susanne,
interesting study! In the Port of Amsterdam we are also checking the support level for city distribution via the Amsterdam waterways and the need of a hub in the port to facilitate this need. Can we exchange (or maybe combine) our experiences? Hope to hear from you.
Cheers, Jelle