Author: Amalia Bozinaki / Frontier Innovations
A few years ago, we asked a simple but ambitious question: what if ordering a delivery could be as easy as booking a ride — and just as smart about sustainability? That question was the seed of the GREEN-LOG LaaS Marketplace.
In an earlier article, we introduced the concept: a digital platform connecting local businesses, consumers, and logistics providers under one roof, making sustainable delivery options visible, comparable, and accessible to everyone. Today, that concept is a working reality – tested, used, and refined by real people in real cities.
What is the LaaS Marketplace, in practice?
Imagine you run a small shop in Ghent. You need to send a package across town. Instead of calling around or defaulting to whatever courier you always use, you open the LaaS Marketplace, enter your pick-up and delivery details, and within moments you see a list of available options – each with its price, delivery type, time slot, and sustainability profile. You choose the one that works best for you, complete the checkout in a few clicks, and you’re done.
That’s the core of the platform: a Get a Quote flow that turns a traditionally fragmented and opaque process into a transparent, user-friendly experience. The platform handles the complexity behind the scenes, such as matching your request with available providers in your area, factoring in the type of goods, size, timing, and even whether refrigeration is needed.
Image above: The LaaS Marketplace “Get a Quote” results screen, showing available delivery options with pricing, time slots, and sustainability information.
And it doesn’t stop at the quote. Once an order is placed, users can track all their shipments in one place, manage their account settings, and submit feedback – all from the same interface.
Built for different cities, different needs
One of the most distinctive aspects of the LaaS Marketplace is how it adapts to the specific context of each city. The platform was piloted across three cities in the Flanders Living Lab, each with a different focus:
This flexibility – one platform, three different operational models – reflects the ambition of GREEN-LOG: to build solutions that are not just innovative in the lab, but transferable across diverse urban environments.
The numbers speak for themselves
Perhaps the strongest evidence that the LaaS Marketplace has moved from pilot to production is in the data from the first demonstration round:
What comes next
The production version of the LaaS Marketplace is not the finish line – it’s the foundation. The second round of demonstrations is already underway, incorporating refinements shaped directly by the feedback of the people who used it first. Track-and-trace features, improved status visibility, and deeper integration with logistics providers’
systems are among the improvements on the horizon. The vision from 2023 hasn’t changed. But the platform has grown to meet it.
Title photo credits: Cargo-biker in action – Ghent Living Lab www.stad.gent/greenlog