GREENLOG Pilot Making Sustainable Deliveries a Choice in Mechelen
Image by GREEN-LOG Project
Mechelen is a Flemish city of approximately 86,000 inhabitants and a frontrunner in promoting sustainable urban logistics. Through its Covenant for Sustainable Urban Logistics—an agreement signed by 31 logistics companies and stakeholder organisations—the city aims to achieve zero-emission logistics by 2030. Mechelen is actively exploring how to make its logistics system both more sustainable and more efficient.
Alongside Leuven and Ghent, Mechelen was selected to test an innovative Logistics-as-a-Service (LaaS) platform as part of the GREENLOG project.
A Pilot Centred on Consumer Choice
The Mechelen pilot focused on consumer logistics and sought to answer a key question: What impact does consumer choice have on the logistics process of online order deliveries when individuals can decide how and at what price they are delivered?
To explore this, a group of 60 residents from a specific neighbourhood participated in a three-month living lab between November 2024 and February 2025. Their online purchases were delivered to a central city hub and redistributed via the LaaS platform, which functioned as a digital marketplace offering a range of delivery options.
By using dynamic pricing and behavioural nudging through credits, participants were encouraged to select more sustainable delivery options. The core objective was to enable bundling of deliveries, thereby reducing the number of vehicle movements and kilometres travelled. All last-mile deliveries were carried out by cargo bike, operated by the ECOkoeriers city hub. The pilot was also accompanied by a city-wide awareness campaign promoting e-commerce sustainability and local shopping.
Results: Reduced Vans, Increased Satisfaction
Over the course of the pilot, participants placed 497 online orders, primarily through bol.com, followed by Amazon and Zalando. Residents could select preferred delivery time slots and were encouraged to align with their neighbours’ choices to further reduce van traffic. As a result, 178 different vans delivered 497 parcels to the city hub, which were then distributed using 94 cargo bike trips across 140 time slots.
By tailoring deliveries to user preferences via the LaaS platform, the neighbourhood saw a 47% reduction in vehicle movements.
Overall satisfaction with the platform was promising, scoring 3.74 out of 5. When asked why they didn’t use the platform for every purchase, users cited longer delivery times (48%), the effort required to navigate the website (23%), forgetfulness (11.5%), and concerns about package size (7.7%). Still, 66% of users said they would be willing to pay €1 for LaaS services, and 44.3% would even pay €2–3.
Key features such as the ability to choose a delivery time slot (4.15/5) and receiving insights into the sustainability impact of their choices (4.21/5) were particularly appreciated.
A Promising Step Forward for Urban Logistics
The GREENLOG pilot in Mechelen clearly demonstrated the potential of LaaS systems as a tool for more efficient, citizen-centric logistics. Benefits were observed across the board:
- For logistics providers: Fewer journeys and greater bundling led to savings in time and operational costs.
- For consumers and webshops: Added value through greater convenience and flexibility.
- For the city: Fewer emissions and reduced congestion.
The integration of LaaS systems into major webshops is a logical next step—one Mechelen is well-positioned to take in its pursuit of sustainable urban logistics.
Author: TRT TRASPORTI E TERRITORIO
