Great challenges life ahead for low-carbon long-haul transport

The supply chain of goods delivered in urban areas is larger than the transport associated purely with the ‘last mile’ in city distribution. In retail, for example, the flow of goods is often routed via regional or national distribution centres. The transport of goods towards and between these centres is often characterized by long-distance trips with heavy loads. This so-called long-haul road transport is by far the most dominant modality and is responsible for nearly half of all CO2 emissions in heavy-duty freight transport in the Netherlands, as figure 1 shows