European research project · Austria · Sweden · France · Finland
.
Most urban logistics hubs fail
CO4HUB changes that
Not because the technology doesn’t work — the vehicles, software, and delivery math all check out. They fail because nobody solved the governance, business, and policy problems that make hubs viable at scale. 23 organisations are working to change that from 2026 to 2028.
- 14 funded partners
- 9 cooperation partners
- Jan 2026 – Dec 2028
- 4 countries represented
- €2 million in funding
- DUT Partnership
Which problems are we solving?
01
Space is scarce
Suitable inner-city locations are rare and costly. Viable hubs have competing operators sharing the same infrastructure. This requires governance and financing arrangements that most past projects never designed.
02
Customers will not pay more
Sustainable last-mile deliveries need to be economically efficient. This requires companies to adopt new business models and revise value propositions.
03
Competitors avoid cooperation
Freight optimisation conventionally happens within company boundaries, not across them. Changing that requires public policies that incentivise cooperation.
What we are building
Organisational setups
Financing arrangements, governance mechanisms, and operational structures that allow competing operators to share hub infrastructure — drawing on ecosystem research to understand what sustains participation across rivals.
Business models
Stakeholders co-design models that bundle hub services with complementary offerings, creating value propositions strong enough to shift customer behaviour, analysed from each stakeholder’s perspective.
Public policy recommendations
Policy instruments that encourage cross-company shipment consolidation, with documentation of which instruments transfer well across different national and municipal contexts.
What the project produces
For hub operators
& city planners
Tested organisational models for shared infrastructure, with documentation of governance rules, financing structures, and operational arrangements under different regulatory contexts.
For businesses
Business model blueprints combining hub services with complementary offerings, supported by analysis of which value propositions shift customer willingness to pay.
For policymakers
A policy toolkit identifying regulatory instruments and incentive structures that encourage shipment consolidation, with transferability evidence from four countries. Simulations run alongside the empirical work to assess how each solution scales to cities beyond the immediate research context.
The consortium
14 funded partners:
Sweden
KTH Royal Institute of Technology
Swedish lead · state of the art · empirical work · policy
GoCimo (Cellswap AB)
Battery swapping technology
Clean Motion
Electric cargo vehicle engineering
Helsingborgs Kommun
City authority
Ragn-Sells Recycling AB
Waste and logistics operations
France
University of Bordeaux
French lead · simulation & transferability
Excelia Business School
Urban logistics research · business model & policy
Coopérative Carbone
Carbon accounting · environmental impact measurement
ELISE Atlantique (ACTES)
Social enterprise · reverse logistics
Austria
TU Graz
Project coordinator · organisational setups & governance
Herry Consult GmbH
Transport modelling · freight data · policy analysis
VCÖ – Mobilität mit Zukunft
Finland
Aalto University
Finnish lead · business model development · dissemination
Yeply
Fleet management · e-cargo bike maintenance
9 Cooperation partners:
Stadt Lienz · Stadtgemeinde Tulln · LogPoint · WienIT · Wirtschaftskammer Wien · Merinova · Wolt Enterprises OY · NSR AB · Stadt Graz
