Logistics Industry Report 2026

Electrification is moving faster than the grid can handle. Logistics operators face rising energy costs, connection limits, and stricter CO₂ targets — all while trying to keep fleets, sites, and schedules running.

This report shows how smart energy control turns these pressures into advantages: using existing capacity more efficiently, cutting energy costs, and staying compliant without slowing growth.

  • Policy timelines and what they force operationally

  • Grid bottlenecks and flexible access models

  • Solar, storage, and smart charging that scales

  • Energy economics: dynamic pricing and flexibility revenues

  • The 2026 playbook for simulation, pilot, and rollout

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Logistics at the crossroads of electrification, regulation, and grid congestion

Logistics in the Netherlands is entering what we call the hard-constraints era: tighter EU climate legislation, expanding local zero-emission zones, and a congested grid that can no longer absorb growth without intelligent coordination.

The business case for electrification has moved from voluntary sustainability initiative to regulatory requirement.

Companies will pay for carbon emissions and road use while facing connection limits that delay or block expansion.

The winning logistics and transport companies won’t be those with the biggest budgets for infrastructure; they’ll be the ones who treat energy control as a core operational capability.

Why energy is now a business lever

Three forces are reshaping the economics of logistics and transport:

  • Power price volatility means the cost of charging a single truck can swing depending on the hour.Day-ahead and intraday markets fluctuate with wind patterns, solar output, and cross-border flows. Companies that react to these signals save; those that ignore them — overpay.
  • CO₂ pricing through the EU Emissions Trading System 2 (ETS2) will directly affect fuel and electricity costs from 2027 onward.Carbon will no longer be an abstract target. It will show up as a line item on the profit and loss statement. The cheapest energy hours often overlap with the cleanest, which means timing suddenly matters for both cost and compliance.
  • Kilometer-based truck charges penalise polluting vehicles more heavily. The Dutch truck toll (vrachtwagenheffing) (starting July 2026) adjusts rates by weight and CO₂ class, creating a direct financial incentive to deploy zero-emission vehicles faster, but only if your site can handle the load.Add scarce grid capacity to the mix, and the picture becomes clear: timing and coordination of energy flows will make or break both compliance and margins.

    The logistics companies who can forecast demand, simulate scenarios, and orchestrate charging, solar, and storage in real time will scale faster than those still hunting for more connection capacity.

 

Quick stats that set the stage

Let’s ground this in numbers:

  • Zero-Emission Zones (ZE-zones) are live.

From 1 January 2025, Dutch municipalities can implement ZE-zones for vans and trucks. Dozens of cities, including Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht, and Eindhoven, have started rolling out restrictions.

By 2030, ZE-zones will cover most urban logistics routes. Miss the deadline, and your trucks lose access.

  • EU CO₂ standards for heavy-duty vehicles (HDVs) bite hard.

EU law mandates fleet-average CO₂ reductions for new HDVs: -45% by 2030, -65% by 2035, and -90% by 2040 (vs. 2019 baseline).

Manufacturers face fines if they miss targets, which will trickle down as higher vehicle costs or restricted supply for diesel models.

  • Grid reality: capacity depends on when you use it.

European transmission system operator TenneT unlocked approximately 9.1 GW of off-peak capacity via flexible grid contracts in 2024. Applications exceeded 70 GW — more than seven times available capacity.

Translation: you can’t assume a connection will let you pull maximum power at any hour. Flexible users get priority; rigid ones have to wait.

  • Road charges reward zero-emission.

The Dutch truck-kilometer charge (vrachtwagenheffing) starts 1 July 2026. Rates vary by vehicle weight and CO₂ class.

Zero-emission trucks pay the lowest rate, while Euro VI diesel pays significantly more per kilometer. Over a year, this adds up to tens of thousands of euros per vehicle.

Key insight:

The regulatory and economic tailwinds for electrification are clear. The bottleneck isn’t technology. It’s energy orchestration at the site level.

What this means for strategy

For the next five years, logistics growth and ZE-zone compliance will be gated less by the availability of vehicles and more by site-level energy coordination: when to charge, from which source, and at what price.

This isn’t a future problem. It’s a 2026 planning requirement.

Fleet managers who treat depot energy like a static utility will hit limits fast: grid connection refusals, demand charge spikes, or trucks sitting idle because chargers can’t run at peak hours.

Companies that build energy control into operations will scale faster under the same grid connection. They’ll avoid costly upgrades, turn policy headwinds into predictable gains, and win tenders that require verifiable ZE-zone compliance.

The competitive gap won’t come from buying more chargers or bigger batteries. It will come from knowing how to use them intelligently, continuously, and automatically.

How to operationalise: the three-layer approach

Winning operators are building energy control across three layers:

1. Contracts: dynamic pricing and market access

Move beyond fixed tariffs. Combine dynamic contracts with access to flexibility or imbalance markets (via your Balance Responsible Party (BRP) or aggregator partner). This lets you charge when prices dip and, in some cases, earn revenue by curtailing load during peak events.

2. Assets: the right mix, sized for coordination

Pair depot-first EV charging with rooftop or canopy solar (PV) and right-sized battery storage (BESS). Design for two priorities: peak shaving (capping demand charges) and PV soak (absorbing midday solar to avoid export curtailment). Oversized chargers without coordination create new bottlenecks; right-sized systems with control unlock hidden capacity.

3. Control: orchestration with real-time intelligence

Deploy a hardware-agnostic Energy Management System (EMS) that plans ahead, re-optimises in real time, and adjusts for weather, price signals, and vehicle schedules. Measure cost, CO₂, and uptime monthly: what you measure, you manage.

What leading logistics and transport companies will do differently in 2026

The playbook for logistics leaders is shifting. Here’s what separates those who scale from those who stall:

1. Plan for access, not averages

Stop designing around average load. Instead, align fleet duty cycles to ZE-zone access rules and quarter-hour price dynamics. Contract for dynamic tariffs where operationally suitable, especially if your depot has flexibility in shift timing or break windows. Access trumps average cost.

2. Simulate before investing

Use a Digital Twin of your site to test different combinations of solar, battery storage, and charger layouts. Quantify savings, compliance risk, and payback periods before committing capex. This approach turns planning into a continuous feedback loop rather than a one-time spreadsheet exercise.

3. Exploit time-bound capacity

Design charging windows (overnight off-peak, midday solar soak) around dynamic contracts. Reserve fast charging for utilisation-critical turns — the moments when a truck absolutely must leave on schedule. By concentrating high-power draws into low-congestion periods, you maximise throughput without triggering connection limits or demand charge penalties.

4. Automate the playbook

Run an EMS that plans ahead and re-optimises in real time across solar, battery, chargers, and flexible loads. Automation is what lets you monetise volatility. Manual switching can’t keep up with intraday price swings or sudden weather changes. Real-time orchestration can — and does, reliably.

  • Anticipates grid congestion before it hits.

  • Orchestrates assets every 5 minutes to keep costs, CO2 emissions, and capacity in check.

  • Unlocks hidden capacity within existing connections.

The bottom line

Logistics in 2026 expands beyond just moving goods. It’s about moving energy intelligently: matching supply to demand, cost to opportunity, and compliance to growth.

The grid won’t expand fast enough to absorb every electrification plan. Regulation won’t pause for companies that aren’t ready.

That’s why energy control is the new competitive lever. The companies that build it into operations now will lead the market. Those that treat it as a future problem will find themselves left behind, or worse, locked out.