November 03, 2021
On 16 November, Renault will present to the public the new fully electric version of its popular compact van, baptized ‘Kangoo Van E-TECH Electric’. An upgraded battery of actual usable 45 kWh extends its range to 300 km (WLTP). That’s roughly 100 km more than the current Kangoo Z.E. with a 33 kWh battery. Since […]
October 29, 2021
Stellantis has presented a new generation of Fiat vans and a ‘reborn’ Multi-Purpose Van (MPV), a people carrier with familiar names: Scudo and Ulysses. They’ll come with a classic ICE (diesel) powertrain, but also as a fully electric (BEV) alternative. Both vans will be built on Stellantis’ EMP2 platform that it already uses for the […]
October 18, 2021
This year, Flanders counted 4 821 vacancies for truck drivers during the first eight months of the year. The acute shortage of drivers is not so dramatic as in the United Kingdom, but Flemish transport companies are struggling with a lack of drivers year after year. In 2019, the number of vacancies reached a record […]
October 18, 2021
The Princess Elisabeth zone, the second zone in the Belgian North Sea where wind farms will be installed, will be expanded. As a result, the capacity of offshore turbines will be almost tripled. On top of that, there are plans for an artificial energy island in the North Sea. That is what the federal government […]
October 15, 2021
Alitalia, the flagship of Italian air transport, will end its 74-year history. On Thursday, it made its last flight, crippled by long-standing financial problems. Today, the new airline Italia Trasporto Aereo (ITA) will take off with the help of the Italian government. But there is deliberately no talk of a relaunch. Instead, the new player […]
October 14, 2021
This Tuesday, the Belgian government suggested introducing a tax on short-haul flights less than 500 km from Brussels Airport. In its estimate, it should bring in 30 million euros by 2022, and 40 million in the next two years. The opposition was quick to berate the suggested bill, pointing out obvious flaws. They include the […]
October 14, 2021
At the budget conclave finalized on Tuesday morning, the Belgian government decided to invest an additional 250 million euros in NMBS/SNCB. This makes the Belgian railways one of the big winners in the De Croo government’s plan to invest an extra billion euros over the next three years. “This climate government invests in sustainable mobility […]
October 14, 2021
HYVIA, the joint venture between Renault and Plug Power, has unveiled its first prototypes of the Renault Master van on hydrogen. The latter, due for delivery in 2022, will have a range of approximately 500 km. The Renault Master H2-Tech gets a 30 kW fuel cell, a 33 kWh battery, and four tanks of 1,5 […]
October 12, 2021
On Monday, the construction works of the Oosterweel knot in Antwerp, connecting the future Scheldt tunnel with the channel tunnels, have officially started. Also, the works to renovate and enlarge the Royers lock can start. Flemish Minister of Mobility, Lydia Peeters (Open Vld), was invited on Monday to lay – or rather remove – the […]
October 08, 2021
According to a new report by the Federal Plan Bureau (FPB), greenhouse gas emissions in Belgium were 2% higher in 2019 than in 2014. Carbon dioxide (CO2) represented 86% of total greenhouse gas emissions in 2019. Greenhouse gas emissions decreased by 16% between 2008 and 2019. But, after a gradual decline until their lowest level […]
October 05, 2021
Belgian bpost has ordered 400 new electric vans and will launch a tender by the end of this month for 800 more to be delivered before the end of 2022. The financial newspaper De Tijd broke the news on Saturday. Spokeswoman Veerle Van Mierlo told the newspaper the order is spread over different brands (Renault […]
October 04, 2021
In England, Germany, Poland, and Belgium, there is an acute shortage of truck drivers. According to Febetra, the federation of Belgian transport and logistics service providers, there are currently 5 000 vacancies for truck drivers in Belgium. “If we want the shop shelves to remain filled in the future, then extra drivers are urgently needed,” […]
September 28, 2021
Britain puts its army on standby to help with the ongoing fuel crisis. Gasoline and diesel stations have been short of gasoline because there are not enough truck drivers to supply them, and Brexit worsening the situation. The problems are aggravated by worried Britons rushing to gasoline stations hoarding up, leaving many running dry. “A […]
September 23, 2021
According to the World Health Organization, the recommended limiting values for six polluting substances in the air have to come down. The new WHO Global Air Quality Guidelines (AQG) are far more stringent than those of the EU and aim to save millions of lives from air pollution. Several recent studies have indicated that air […]
September 23, 2021
Still waiting on the Taxi Plan promised by the Brussels regional government for this summer, Uber makes its discontent known. In March, legislators dusted off a 1995 order banning chauffeurs from using their smartphones for their activity. Since then, Uber drivers have worked in legal uncertainty. The American ride-hailing company calls for a harmonized status […]
September 21, 2021
EXia, a spin-off of the Brussels University VUB, founded in 2013, has developed a sensor system for trucks that actively warns the truck driver of vulnerable road users in the blind spot zone around the vehicle. Insurer Ethias supports this technology and hopes to reduce the number of blind spot accidents causing serious injuries or […]
September 21, 2021
In Antwerp, city distributor CityDepot and bicycle courier Cargo Velo had some 3 000 delivery trips made by cargo bikes, which delivery vans would have normally made. The trips were made during the first year of their collaboration. Both consider this a success and are continuing their collaboration. Sustainable distribution CityDepot, a division of BD […]
September 15, 2021
An association of Flemish entrepreneurs (Vlaamse Ondernemers) asks authorities to install a budget-neutral smart form of road pricing as soon as possible. This should be accompanied by extended use of technology to steer traffic flows. The corona pandemic halved traffic congestion last year, but traffic was increasing again with every relaxation of measures. Furthermore, the […]
September 13, 2021
The federal government has decided to ban palm and soybean oil for transport as of 2023. Basically, both products are biofuels, but they’re usually cultivated on deforested land, making them even more polluting. Biodiesel, based on palm and soybean oil, is increasingly popular in Belgium, despite the negative impact on the climate. The main reason […]
September 13, 2021
Waiting on the Brussels Region’ Taxi Plan, the sector has come up with its own proposals regarding the operating conditions of chauffeur-driven cars. According to the three associations, a distinction between the two jobs must be made clear, with taxis on one side and private chauffeurs such as those by embassies and VIP events on […]
September 07, 2021
After successful trials in Germany and Italy, French train company Alstom hopes to bring its hydrogen-powered Coradia iLint on its home rails. On Monday and for the first time in France, one of Alstom’s train cars has driven on a test site in Valenciennes. With its 800 to 1 000 km range, the hydrogen train […]
September 07, 2021
212 km, or about the distance between Brussels and Ostend, both ways. That is the number of kilometers of traffic jams in Belgium yesterday morning. Between 30 August and 3 September, congestion on Flemish motorways was even 14% higher than in the same week in 2019. It is the first time since the start of […]
September 01, 2021
Swiss e-truck conversion brand Futuricum and Deutsche Post’s DPD have set an official Guinness World Record, winning the title of the longest distance covered by an electric truck without a charging stop with 1 099 kilometers driven. The truck was already in daily use for six months by DPD Switzerland for runs up to 300 […]
September 01, 2021
After a pilot of six weeks in the Antwerp harbor at two container terminals, the Hydrolog project shows the feasibility to operate forklifts and terminal tractors on hydrogen, WaterstofNet, and the Flanders Innovation cluster for Logistics (VIL) conclude. Getting the official licenses proved to be time-consuming and costly as legislation still has to follow. The […]
August 30, 2021
British transport companies should better recruit British drivers to solve the lack of drivers in the country instead of drawing drivers from abroad. The British Ministry of Economics calls on British employers to invest in native staff. The United Kingdom suffers from a severe lack of drivers. Transport companies have difficulties with the distribution of […]
August 27, 2021
Brussels Airlines will again fly to more remote tourist destinations in the coming months. It will add Marrakech in Morocco and Hurghada in Egypt to its offer, destinations that the government currently strongly discourages because of the corona pandemic. According to the airline, the demand for those sunny winter destinations is increasing, especially with the […]
August 27, 2021
On the 15th of October, Alitalia (AerolineeInternazionali Italiane, also called ‘the wings of Italy’) will not exist anymore and be replaced by ITA, for Italia Trasporto Aereo). As a result, the fleet of Alitalia will be halved; the personnel is waiting anxiously for the impact on their lives. Alitalia was created in 1947, after World […]
August 27, 2021
Danish shipping giant Maersk announced this week it has ordered eight new ocean-going container ships that will run on carbon-neutral methanol instead of heavy fuel. The vessels will be built by Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) by 2024 and have a capacity of approximately 16 000 containers (Twenty-Foot Equivalent – TEU). Methanol can be burned in […]
August 18, 2021
Adaptive City Mobility GmbH (ACM) is targeting mass production of the ACM City One in 2024. The Munich-based company and contract manufacturer Magna have signed a memorandum of understanding to sell 208 000 vehicles. ACM founder and CEO Paul Leibold plans to present the City One for the first time at the IAA trade fair, […]
August 10, 2021
The Ghent-based mobility company and Proximus daughter Be-Mobile will develop an application to manage the logistics flow for the construction of the athletes’ village for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. The estimated 400 trucks that will pass through Paris daily will be guided along their entire route by this fleet management system, Be-Mobile reported […]
August 10, 2021
On August 15th, between 3 and 5 p.m., the car carrier Helios Ray which left Shanghai on July 12th, is to dock at the Belgian Zeebrugge harbor with the long-awaited first Tesla Model Ys for Europe. The Model Y for Europe was scheduled to be built at the new Giga Berlin Tesla factory starting in […]
August 06, 2021
As the summer holidays are in full swing and air transport is taking off, Brussels Airline is at half-mast with an EBIT loss of 143 million euro at mid-2021. Revenues have dropped by 45% compared to the same period last year while the number of passengers transported between January and June fell by 57%. Mother […]
August 04, 2021
DHL Express, the international courier and package delivery service division of Deutsche Post DHL Group, has ordered a fleet of twelve fully electric eCargo planes from the electric airplane manufacturer Eviation in Seattle. Alice, as the plane is baptized, is flown by a single pilot and can carry a load of 1 200 kg. It […]
July 28, 2021
Daimler Trucks is currently submitting its electric version of the Econic, its low-floor truck for municipal operations, to the final technical tests on the circuit, preparing for series production at the Wörth factory in the second half of 2022. The eEconic refuse truck shares its basic technology with the eActros. As a result, the eEconic […]
July 16, 2021
The EU Commission Fit for 55 proposals are finally targeting the maritime shipping sector left undisturbed for decades regarding CO2 emissions. Shipping will be included in the Emissions Trading System (ETS), where companies will have to buy CO2-quotas from 2023. In Europe, shipping companies are not averse to using the EU ETS system, although it’s […]
July 15, 2021
The British government has presented a plan to decarbonize the transport sector. It includes stopping the sale of all road vehicles with internal combustion engines (ICE) by 2040. The end date for passenger cars was already set for 2030 – now, there is also a roadmap for commercial vehicles. Last autumn, Prime Minister Boris Johnson […]
July 14, 2021
Dutch dairy company FrieslandCampina has commissioned its first hydrogen-driven 50-ton milk truck on the roads in the Groningen region. Today, only there is enough hydrogen filling infrastructure to roll out H2-trucks, says FrieslandCampina. But it is looking to expand to the rest of the Netherlands too. FrieslandCampina is running a durability program called ‘Nourishing a […]
July 12, 2021
The Flemish Minister of Mobility, Lydia Peeters (Open Vld), has the ambition to reduce the number of traffic deaths by 25% in 2025 (from 315 to 237), 50% in 2030 (still 158), and she aims at a zero vision by 2050. The number of injured victims has to come down too. To achieve this goal, […]
July 12, 2021
On Monday, the third experimental ‘eHighway’ was opened in Germany, a 3,4 km stretch on the national B 462 road between Kuppenheim and Gaggenau. Electric trucks can get their energy directly from the catenary while driving, using a pantograph on the roof. The eHighway system was developed by German Siemens Mobility and implemented on the […]
July 08, 2021
Finally, in August, Dutch brewer Heineken will start shipping 2,5 million bottles of export beer at once packed in containers on the fully electric inland barge Alphenaar. Two ZESPack containers onboard are stuffed with batteries, delivering two megawatt-hours each. After being stuck in the Suez Canal literally, they are to arrive after a delay of […]
July 06, 2021
Although MSC – the Mediterranean Shipping Company – claims its fleet is young, modern, and environmentally friendly, the company has climbed to sixth place in the ranking of Europe’s top CO2 polluters. Alarming is that the shipping operator has overtaken the pollution of coal plants in Poland and Germany. “MSC promotes cleaner seas, land, and […]
July 06, 2021
The world’s three major truck manufacturers, Daimler Truck, Traton Group, and Volvo Group, are setting up a joint venture and put half a billion euros on the table to roll out 1 700 fast-charging points for electric long-haul trucks across Europe. The joint venture, based in Amsterdam, will be owned equally by the three parties […]
June 30, 2021
Mercedes-Benz Trucks has launched on Wednesday, 30 June, its final version of the electric eActros, “with range, drive power and safety considerably improved in the series-production model.” While clients in Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands tested with a version capable of 200 km, that range is doubled to 400 km with an optional 420 kWh […]
June 30, 2021
ACM Adaptive City Mobility GmbH, a starting German manufacturer, shows the series version of its modular electric vehicle and the associated ecosystem created with funding from the German government. The ACM City One can be converted into two simple steps to carry up to four passengers besides the driver or loads of up to 1 […]
June 29, 2021
On Monday, three Limburg Ministers of the Flemish government – Lydia Peeters (Open Vld), Zuhal Demir (N-VA), and Wouter Beke (CD&V) – have fired the starting signal for the reorganization of the former Ford site in Genk. The conversion of the former Ford site now will be called ‘Logistics Valley Flanders’. The shutdown of the […]
June 24, 2021
The Flemish majority parties (N-VA, Open Vld, CD&V) seem to be opening the door to road pricing for passenger cars again. In any case, they think that the debate should be held. This appears from a question in the Flemish Parliament. The debate on the introduction of road pricing in Flanders thus seems to be […]
June 24, 2021
Port of Antwerp is converting one of its tug boats to methanol propulsion, a world first. The so-called ‘methatug’ should be operational by 2022. The initiative is part of the European Fastwater project, set up by a consortium of European maritime research and technology leaders, including the Port of Antwerp. Together, they want to demonstrate […]
June 23, 2021
From the 39 million trucks spotted by the Viapass cameras on Belgian roads in 2020-2021, almost 80% complied with the currently most stringent standard, Euro 6. Five years ago, when Belgium introduced road pricing for trucks, this was only 30,6%, Viapass signals in its latest yearly report. It means the greening of the fleet of […]
June 21, 2021
Last Friday, Walloon renewable energy provider Enora, transport company Fockedey, and vehicle manufacturer Iveco inaugurated Belgium’s largest gas station in the industrial park Leuze Europe in Leuze-en-Hainaut. Ten trucks can refuel simultaneously in the new CNG gas station. Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) can be an interesting intermediate alternative for the transport sector, as long as […]
June 16, 2021
After two years of intensive testing, Mercedes-Benz Trucks says it’s ready to launch its first serial produced battery-electric truck, the eActros, in a world premiere on June 30th. Actual production will start in the second half of this year at the Wörth am Rhein plant of the truck maker near Karlsruhe. During the development of […]
June 14, 2021
Air Antwerp is shutting down its operations. The company, known for its connections between Antwerp and London, has been bankrupted by the corona crisis. The airport is now looking for a new airline to operate the route. Air Antwerp hardly operated any flights between the two cities since March 2020 and the start of the […]
June 14, 2021
Brussels Airlines resumes flights to the United States on Monday. A flight to New York will be the first transatlantic flight since March 2020. “A symbolic milestone in our relaunch,” says the airline. This week, Brussels Airlines, wholly owned by the airline giant Lufthansa, will resume flights to New York (three times a week) and […]
June 09, 2021
European car and truck manufacturers federation ACEA has commissioned a study with the German Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research ISI to map out the precise locations for truck stops with charging facilities needed in Europe for future electric trucks. Raw data on a total of some 750 000 currently used truck stop locations […]
June 08, 2021
A 110 m long, semi-autonomous container barge now connects the ports of Antwerp and Liège. Born from Seafar and Tercofin (Novandi Group) collaboration, it is remote-controlled from a control room in Antwerp. Due to the different legislations, the barge can only run semi-autonomously in Flanders, and the captain on board, for safety reasons, takes the […]
June 08, 2021
The Leuven-based company OTRA Solutions is launching a digital platform for drivers, companies, and parking operators in the transport sector. The real-time parking tool has to offer a solution for the increasing parking problems along the major European traffic axes. Every day, there is a shortage of 100 000 parking spaces for trucks throughout Europe. […]
June 04, 2021
Near the Port House on the Antwerp Eilandje, the company CMB has opened a multimodal hydrogen filling station on the border of the city and the port. According to CMB, an Antwerp shipping company that focuses on hydrogen solutions for maritime and industrial applications, it’s the first filling station in the world that produces green […]
June 04, 2021
The transportation and logistics sector is moving towards a zero-emission scenario just as rapidly as the car sector. But since fuel cost has a severe impact on their business models, the switch is much more significant. The willingness from the sector is already in place. According to a survey conducted by the bank ING (jointly […]
June 03, 2021
Air transport professionals worry about the possible upcoming chaos in airports this summer due to increased waiting times caused by the multiple ID and corona passport controls. According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), holidaymakers could spend up to eight hours in airports if the volume of passengers equals that of 2019. According to […]
June 02, 2021
Due to the pandemic, Brussels Airport lost € 147 million in 2020, saw its passenger count drop from 26,4 million in 2019 to only 6,7 million last year, and lost 4 000 direct jobs. Looking towards the future, with a difficult summer combining holidaymakers with social distancing and vaccines, Brussels Airport hopes to get up […]
May 31, 2021
Flemish Minister of Mobility, Lydia Peeters (Open Vld), wants to test, via pilot projects, how bicycles can be more easily used for goods transport. She has drawn up a regulatory framework for this. “Certainly, in an urban context, transport by bike can mean an enormous relief for the traffic volume,” says the minister. To stimulate […]
