Electrification is essential, but switching to electric vehicles doesn’t automatically make logistics more efficient. The real challenge is a shift from vehicle efficiency to system efficiency.
The truck levy being introduced in three months will increase pressure on transport companies, but through its revenue recycling mechanism, it also creates a concrete financial incentive for more efficient organization and cleaner technology.
Today, carriers, shippers, policymakers, and knowledge institutions came together at the RVO Working Conference on Logistics Efficiency. The central question was as simple as it was urgent: are we doing enough, or is it time to accelerate? The answer that echoed through the room: we are doing too little, too slowly. Not for lack of will, and not for lack of technology. The logistics system fundamentally needs smarter organization.
Efficiency is a societal prerequisite
Freight transport volumes continue to grow towards 2030, driven by imports, transit flows, and rapidly expanding consumer and circular logistics. At the same time, climate targets are unforgiving: by 2050, freight transport must be fully climate-neutral.
On top of that, space is becoming increasingly scarce. The Netherlands must fit housing, energy, nature, and economic activity into the same small country. Dispersed, inefficient logistics land claims no longer fit that picture.
There is no sustainability problem, really. There is a productivity problem. Without significant efficiency gains, sustainable logistics will become unaffordable, the driver shortage will worsen, diesel scarcity will bite harder, and goods will become more expensive for everyone.
Electrification is essential, but switching to electric vehicles doesn’t automatically make logistics more efficient. The real challenge is a shift from vehicle efficiency to system efficiency: fewer kilometers per delivery, higher load factors, fewer failed deliveries, and better use of existing networks and infrastructure.
Recent research shows that better alignment between shippers and carriers can reduce logistics costs per shipment by 20 to 40 percent. The Netherlands has around 300 distribution hubs for urban logistics — the infrastructure is already there. We just too often drive to it half-empty and leave it empty. Many trucks in the Netherlands cover fewer than 70,000 kilometers per year, including cross-border trips. That is simply too little to make electrification financially viable.
Frontrunners show it can be done
Anyone who thinks system efficiency is out of reach isn’t looking closely enough at the sector’s leading companies. CB Logistics has been consolidating book deliveries through a single, finely meshed distribution network for 160 years, achieving higher load factors and fewer transport movements as a result.
Albert Heijn works with a limited number of strategic transport partners, focusing on long-term collaboration, full loads, and efficient planning. By pooling volumes, deploying electric trucks, and sharing data, costs and CO₂ emissions fall simultaneously.
Measurement pays off, too. Transport companies Cornelissen Transport and Van der Wal applied the Logistics Performance Indicator (LPI) across more than 9 million driven kilometers. The findings were surprising: activity-driven routing actually reduced vehicle utilization — the exact opposite of what had been expected. Without that measurement, the inefficiency would have remained invisible. Measuring is the first step towards improving.
Carrier Millenaar & Van Schaik goes a step further, operating as a logistics partner embedded in construction projects, consolidating earthworks and materials transport into circular, low-emission construction logistics. Many other companies have similarly improved their logistics efficiency. What remains is scaling it up.
Why isn’t progress faster?
Because collaboration is uncomfortable. Operators rightly value their autonomy, sharing data feels risky, and trust doesn’t build itself. Those who optimize within their own silo optimize collectively suboptimally. That is the hard reality.
A business that doesn’t have its own data in order cannot share data with others. Digitalization and AI offer enormous opportunities to surface inefficiencies and support smarter decisions, but only if the foundations are sound.
Five keys to acceleration
The working conference today explored five tracks that are inseparably linked: collaboration, digitalization, artificial intelligence, support for small operators, and behavioral change. None of the five works without the others. A sector that digitalizes but doesn’t collaborate remains suboptimal. A sector that collaborates but excludes small operators loses the breadth needed for genuine system change.
Successful acceleration requires strategic alignment, transparency, trust, and consistent policy support. Not new structures — better use of what already exists.
From analysis to action
The conference closed with a clear message: efficiency is not a cost-cutting exercise. It is a prosperity exercise. Lower costs, more reliable deliveries, accessible city centers, and a stronger economy — that is what smarter logistics delivers.
2050 doesn’t start in 2049. The sector is at a tipping point. The question is no longer whether we need to accelerate. The question is who takes the initiative today.
Walther Ploos van Amstel