---
title: "Service Time, Not Drive Time: Routing Vans and Cargo Bikes in Dutch City Centres in 2026"
id: "27454"
type: "post"
slug: "service-time-van-cargo-bike-routing-dutch-cities-2026"
published_at: "2026-10-14T14:00:00+00:00"
modified_at: "2026-10-14T15:12:54+00:00"
url: "https://locus.sh/blogs/service-time-van-cargo-bike-routing-dutch-cities-2026/"
markdown_url: "https://locus.sh/blogs/service-time-van-cargo-bike-routing-dutch-cities-2026.md"
excerpt: "In dense Dutch cities, service time at the stop, not driving, often sets the plan. How to measure it, model it by vehicle and place, and route vans and cargo bikes on stops per hour."
taxonomy_category:
  - "General"
---

#### [General](https://locus.sh/blogs/category/general/)

# Service Time, Not Drive Time: Routing Vans and Cargo Bikes in Dutch City Centres in 2026

[Anas T](/author/anas_locus/)

Oct 14, 2026

10 mins read

Service time is the time a delivery vehicle spends at a stop rather than between stops: finding a place to park, unloading, walking to the door and back. In dense city centres it is often a larger share of the working day than driving, so a route plan that models driving time alone is wrong in the cities where delivery is hardest. Dutch cities add reasons to look at it closely: zero-emission zones for city logistics are spreading, parcel lockers are multiplying and cargo bikes are a serious option in streets where a van struggles. For heads of transport and last-mile operations at Dutch retailers, parcel operators and 3PLs, this guide sets out a six-step method for measuring service time and routing vans and cargo bikes on stops per hour, with a worked example on illustrative numbers. Locus, the world’s first Decision-Intelligent, Agentic TMS, plans routes against 250+ real-world constraints, including service times.

## Key Takeaways

- In dense urban areas the time at the stop, including parking, unloading and walking, is a major and often overlooked part of delivery time.
- Research suggests more than half of urban van deliveries could be replaced by cargo bikes, because of faster speeds, shorter parking times and more efficient routes.
- Measure service time by stop type and vehicle, and model it by urban context, before comparing vehicles.
- Choose vehicles stop by stop on payload and service time, then compare plans on stops per hour and cost per stop, not on kilometres.
- Parcel lockers and shared handover points remove stops from the plan, so plan them in, not around.

## Why Service Time Matters in Dutch City Centres: The Business Case

Service time is a recognised blind spot. Researchers modelling urban delivery performance describe [service time](https://arxiv.org/abs/2409.06730)
, which includes cruising for parking, unloading and walking to the destination, as a major but often overlooked part of delivery time modelling. Their 2023 paper finds that urban context is a critical predictor of delivery performance.

Cargo bikes can replace many van stops. The same research group cites expert estimates that [over half of urban van deliveries](https://arxiv.org/abs/2301.12887)
 could be replaced by cargo bikes, because of faster speeds, shorter parking times and more efficient routes. These are estimates from earlier studies, not Dutch operating data.

Volume is high. Dutch consumers made 347 million online purchases in 2025, worth [€35.7 billion](https://www.betaalvereniging.nl/en/news/more-online-product-purchases-less-spending-on-travel-and-events-in-2025/)
, according to the Thuiswinkel Markt Monitor reported by the Dutch Payments Association.

Handover points are growing. The Dutch market regulator ACM reported that the number of parcel lockers increased by more than 90%, and Dutch press, citing ANP, put the total at [9,309](https://nltimes.nl/2026/06/22/postnl-removes-800-mailboxes-dutch-mail-reliability-stays-legal-standard)
 after nearly doubling.

Access rules are tightening. RDW reported in March 2026 that [20 municipalities and Schiphol](https://www.rdw.nl/over-rdw/nieuws/2026/ontheffingen-voor-zero-emissiezones-alleen-via-de-rdw)
 had introduced a zero-emission zone for city logistics, which narrows which vehicles may serve city-centre stops.

| Also Read: Fleet Routing and Tracking: A 2026 Guide To Improve Efficiency |
| --- |

## What Is Different About Routing in a Dense Dutch Centre

**The stop dominates the route.** When streets are short and stops are close, the time at each stop is a bigger share of the day than the time between them.

**Place type changes service time.** A ground-floor shop, an apartment block, a canal-side address and a pedestrianised street each take a different time to serve.

**Vehicle type changes both halves.** A cargo bike may take longer between stops and less time at each, while a van does the opposite, so the better vehicle depends on the stop.

**Handover points change the stop count.** A locker or shared pick-up point replaces several door stops with one, so the plan has to include it.

**Rules narrow the choice.** Zone access and street restrictions decide which vehicles can serve a stop at all.

## How to Route Vans and Cargo Bikes on Service Time in Six Steps

### 1. Measure service time at the stop

Record arrival and departure for every stop by vehicle type, place type and time of day, separating parking, unloading and walking where the data allows. Use the app’s timestamps, not the plan’s assumptions.

### 2. Model service time by urban context

Fit service time to the features of the place, such as street type, building type, pedestrianisation and parking availability, so a new stop gets an estimate before it is served. Research on this uses grid cells of the city and map data, and a simple version groups stops into five or six place types.

### 3. Set vehicle eligibility by stop

For each stop decide which vehicles can serve it, based on parcel size and weight, access rules and zone status. A bulky order is a van stop, and a small parcel in a pedestrianised street may be a cargo bike stop.

### 4. Cluster stops and plan handover points

Group stops around a shared point, such as a micro-depot, a locker or a trusted neighbour point, and decide which vehicle runs from where. A cluster of close stops suits walking from one parking spot.

### 5. Route on stops per hour

Optimise each vehicle’s route for stops served per working hour, with service time and drive time both modelled, and respect time windows and breaks. Compare the cost per stop of the mixed plan against an all-van plan.

### 6. Feed actuals back

Compare planned and actual service time by place type each week and update the model. A service time estimate that is not corrected drifts away from the street.

| Also Read: Best Route Optimization Software for E-Commerce Delivery (2026) |
| --- |

## A Worked Example on Illustrative Numbers

The numbers are illustrative, not benchmarks. They show how the ranking of two vehicles can change when service time is included.

For one cluster of 12 stops of small parcels, the planner estimates, per stop:

| Vehicle | Drive time between stops | Service time at the stop (parking, unloading, walking) | Time per stop | Stops per hour |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Van | 6 minutes | 7 minutes | 13 minutes | 4.6 |
| Cargo bike | 8 minutes | 4 minutes | 12 minutes | 5.0 |

On drive time alone the van looks faster, 6 minutes against 8. With service time included the cargo bike serves about 8% more stops an hour, and the van wins only where parcels are too large or heavy for the bike. A plan that sends the bulky stops to vans and the small-parcel cluster to a bike beats an all-van plan on stops per hour, and the answer depends on service time, which a drive-time-only planner cannot see.

## Drive-Time Routing vs Service-Time Routing vs Mixed-Fleet Routing: Key Differences

| Dimension | Drive-time routing | Service-time routing | Mixed-fleet routing |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Time model | Distance and speed | Drive plus service time by place type | Drive plus service time by vehicle and place |
| Vehicles | One type | One type | Vans and cargo bikes chosen by stop |
| Handover points | Ignored | Optional | Lockers and micro-depots planned in |
| Objective | Fewest kilometres | Most stops per hour | Lowest cost per stop within windows |
| Learning | None | Planned vs actual service time | Actuals by vehicle and place type |

## What to Look for in Route Planning Software for Dense Cities

**Service time as a modelled input.** Look for service times by stop, place type and vehicle, not a single flat figure.

**Vehicle-by-stop eligibility.** Check that parcel size, access rules and zone status decide which vehicles can serve each stop.

**Mixed-fleet optimisation.** Ask whether one plan can allocate stops across vans and cargo bikes, with different speeds and capacities.

**Handover points in the plan.** Look for micro-depots, lockers and shared points as planning objects.

**Actuals and correction.** Check for planned-against-actual service time reports and automatic updating of estimates.

| Also Read: Hybrid Fleet Management: How Owned, 3PL, Gig, ICE, and EV Capacity Actually Operate at Most Enterprises |
| --- |

## Dense Delivery Planning in Action: Real-World Results

Neither deployment below is in the Netherlands or uses cargo bikes. They show planning around stop-level reality.

**A leading Vietnamese beverage company serving thousands of small retail points a day.** Distributors ran mixed fleets of vans, trucks and motorbikes, many shops had no validated delivery location and routes were built by hand. With automated route planning, address validation and mid-route re-optimisation, the company saw 22% more orders per delivery trip, 12% less distance, 37% less fuel consumed and 35% less time on route planning. [Read the beverage distributor case study](https://locus.sh/case-studies/beverage-distributor-route-planning-dispatch/)
.

**A global FMCG leader running route-to-market across ten countries in Asia.** The company served 1,000+ distributors with 5,000+ riders. With agents planning and sequencing routes against live constraints, plan run time fell from 3 hours to 5 minutes, 12,000+ fewer trips ran each month and distance fell 15%. [Read the FMCG case study](https://locus.sh/case-studies/fmcg-route-optimization-dispatch/)
.

## Common Dense-City Routing Mistakes to Avoid

**Using one flat service time.** A single figure hides the difference between a shop, an apartment block and a canal-side address, so model by place type.

**Comparing vehicles on speed.** Speed between stops is only half the time, so compare stops per hour and cost per stop.

**Planning lockers as an afterthought.** A handover point changes how many stops a route has, so plan it with the routes.

**Never correcting the estimate.** Without planned-against-actual feedback, service time drifts and plans become optimistic.

| Also Read: Electric Vehicles for Last Mile Delivery: The Strategic Guide for Enterprise Logistics |
| --- |

## How Locus Approaches Service-Time-Aware Routing

Locus, the world’s first Decision-Intelligent, Agentic TMS, was recognised by [Gartner for seven consecutive years](https://locus.sh/analyst-recognition/)
 and appears in the 2026 Hype Cycle for Supply Chain Execution and Logistics Technologies. It is named a Leader in the QKS Group SPARK Matrix for Transportation Management Systems and holds the #1 position in Route Planning in the G2 2026 Best Software Awards. In October 2025, Ingka Investments, the investment arm of Ingka Group, the world’s largest IKEA retailer, acquired Locus. Locus continues to operate independently.

Locus’s [route optimisation](https://locus.sh/route-optimisation-software/)
 engine plans against 250+ real-world constraints, including time slots, service times, one-way streets, traffic rules, vehicle limits and driver availability, and recomputes routes during delays. Address validation gives each stop a confirmed delivery location, and the Hub and Dispatch agents coordinate handover points and routes. Six governance mechanisms, including autonomy levels and human-in-the-loop approval, keep planners in control of what runs automatically. Locus has optimised 1.5B+ deliveries for 360+ enterprise customers across 30+ countries. Public sources do not state that Locus models cargo bikes as a vehicle type or models service time by place type, and they show no Dutch deployments, so during evaluation ask how service time is set and corrected by stop type, whether cargo bikes and vans can be planned in one mixed fleet, how lockers and micro-depots are represented and how planned and actual service times are reported. To see how Locus would plan your dense city routes, [schedule a demo](https://locus.sh/schedule-demo/)
.

For heads of last-mile operations asking how to route in dense Dutch centres, Locus offers one planner that treats service time, vehicle limits and handover points as constraints, so plans are compared on stops per hour and not on kilometres.

## Frequently Asked Questions

**What is service time in last-mile delivery?** It is the time a vehicle spends at a stop, including finding parking, unloading and walking to the door and back. In dense city centres it is often a larger share of the day than driving between stops.

**Can cargo bikes replace vans in Dutch cities?** Research cites expert estimates that more than half of urban van deliveries could be replaced by cargo bikes, but that is an estimate and not Dutch operating data. The answer depends on parcel size, weight, distance from the depot and local access rules, so test it stop by stop.

**How should I compare a van and a cargo bike?** Compare stops per hour and cost per stop with service time included, not speed between stops. A slower bike with a shorter stop time can serve more stops an hour on small parcels.

**How do parcel lockers change route planning?** A locker or shared pick-up point replaces several door stops with one, which reduces stops per route, so plan the handover point and the vehicles that serve it together.

**How do I measure service time?** Record arrival and departure at every stop from the driver app, by vehicle type, place type and time of day, and compare planned with actual each week.

**Does Locus plan for cargo bikes and service time?** Locus plans against 250+ constraints, including service times and vehicle limits. Ask Locus whether cargo bikes can be planned as a vehicle type, how service times are set by place type and how actual times correct the plan.

MEET THE AUTHOR

Anas T

Senior Content Writer - Product Marketing

Anas is a product marketer at Locus who enjoys turning complex logistics problems into simple, clear stories. Outside of work, he’s usually unwinding with a book or catching a good movie or series.

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## Service Time, Not Drive Time: Routing Vans and Cargo Bikes in Dutch City Centres in 2026

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