Nearly 30% fewer van-miles, in 5 minutes Jan 4th, 2026

Better Mobility is a complex matter. Intelligent Deliveries Need Two Things: 

1) Right-Sized Vehicles

2) Smarter Demand

LEVE Mobility’s work on the eMoTria ™  MiniVan and the FlexiVaaS model has been guided for years by a straightforward proposition: urban logistics will not be decarbonised merely by electrifying vehicles. Deliveries will be decarbonised by transforming operations, with fewer miles, fewer vehicles, and less time wasted at the kerb—through a combination of (i) right-sized vehicles for dense routes and (ii) an operating model that improves utilisation and delivery consolidation through order bundling.

eMoTria ™  MiniVan versions are being advanced for the UK as compact, zero-emission last-mile vehicles designed for high-frequency stop-start work in constrained streets—where manoeuvrability, rapid parking, and kerbside efficiency matter as much as payload. FlexiVaaS extends that hardware into a service model, aiming to maximise vehicle productivity and enable adoption through flexible access, orchestration, and performance reporting.

This is the essence of “intelligent deliveries”: not faster at any cost, but optimised deliveries that respect city space, emissions targets, and practical operations.

Why this thinking has roots in earlier dialogue with Carlo Ratti

LEVE Mobility’s founder had early inspirational exchanges with Carlo Ratti in 2011 and again in 2016, at a time when “smart city” debates were still dominated by infrastructure narratives rather than platform behaviour and demand shaping. Those early contacts were influential in reinforcing a direction of travel: the most scalable urban gains would likely come from system design—how demand is shaped and how city resources are managed—rather than solely from availability of new hardware.

Today, Ratti has put a crisp evidence-based argument into the public domain, which aligns closely with long-held principles.

A timely validation from large-scale delivery data

In a recent Financial Times article, Carlo Ratti argues that last-mile congestion is being amplified by the “arms race” for ever faster delivery slots—and that the remedy can be remarkably small: a few minutes of patience. Ratti references analysis of more than 8 million grocery deliveries in the UAE and reports that a five-minute relaxation in promised delivery times can reduce total vehicle-miles by around 30 per cent, because it enables far more effective bundling of orders into compatible routes.¹

The underlying research paper, co-authored with Ratti, describes the same mechanism in more formal terms: the relationship is non-linear—the first minutes of flexibility deliver the largest gains—because a small amount of slack unlocks route matching that is otherwise impossible under ultra-tight time promises.²

For LEVE Mobility’s strategy, this matters because it validates a central assumption: the operating model can create more impact than marginal vehicle optimisation, and can do so without waiting for new infrastructure. Meetings with boroughs in Barcelona and in the Midlands were instrumental in understanding that more vans, even electric, still create costly congestion and secondary emissions of vehicles trapped in queues.

What this means for eMoTria ™ in the UK

If flexibility allows for better grouping, three implications emerge that strengthen the argument in favour of eMoTria’s MiniVan approach for UK cities:

1. Right-sizing is easily justified commercially. 
   Greater delivery consolidation justifies smaller vehicle fleets. By reducing mileage and optimising route planning, operators can replace under-utilised vans with compact vehicles better suited to dense, narrow streets and constrained kerbside space.¹ ²

2. Stops per Hour: The New Urban KPI
   When policy and operations prioritise stops per hour, kerb efficiency becomes critical. As order bundling increases stop density, manoeuvrability and parking speed become the binding constraints, increasing the value of compact vehicles that reduce network friction and make better use of scarce kerb space.¹

3. Decarbonising the System
   Research shows that minor delivery flexibility significantly cuts total mileage and emissions. This shifts the focus from just “cleaner miles” (electrification) to “fewer miles,” decarbonising the entire delivery network at its source and on route..

What this means for FlexiVaaS: turning “no-rush” into “green-preferred”

Ratti’s article is, in effect, a call for platforms and cities to treat order bundling as a civic optimisation tool. He suggests that platforms should highlight “green” delivery slots where order bundling is easiest, and that local authorities could reward operators who demonstrably reduce traffic and support right-sizing, through measures such as preferential access or improved loading, enabling a lower cost per stop.¹

This maps directly onto FlexiVaaS, a pay-per-use or vehicle subscription model, as an enabling layer:

• Demand steering:
  nudges, defaults, and incentives that, combined, make “environmentally preferable” time slots the preferred choice, rather than a second-rate option.¹

• Proof for cities:
  consistent reports of miles avoided, stops per route, indicators of kerbside dwell-time and service performance, turning claims into auditable evidence.¹

• Improved unit economics:
  order bundling typically reduces time in traffic and cost per stop; the platform can share those gains with customers, whilst maintaining stable service quality.¹ ²

Equity: a design principle, not a marketing tactic

Ratti also flags an equity risk: ultra-fast services tend to cluster in wealthier areas while the burdens of congestion are distributed across the wider metropolis.¹ For LEVE Mobility, this reinforces a further design principle: intelligent deliveries should avoid creating a two-tier city. If “green-preferred” becomes the default choice—supported by evidence, incentives, and smart kerbside policy—cities can reduce congestion more fairly, rather than simply shifting it.

Proposed next step: a London pilot that tests the “five-minute” lever

The logical progression following a short production run is a UK demonstration that combines modest delivery-time flexibility with compact zero-emission vehicles and borough-level outcomes:

• Intervention: a “green-preferred” slot option that introduces small flexibility (starting at ~5 minutes) to enable greater order bundling.¹ ²

• Assets: compact last-mile vehicles designed for dense routes (where kerbside efficiency is decisive).

• Measurement: vehicle-miles, stops per route, dwell-time indicators, and service performance, packaged for borough engagement.¹

The objective is simple: show that a small behavioural/platform change—paired with right-sized vehicles—can reduce congestion and emissions meaningfully while maintaining or increasing customer satisfaction.

For LEVE Mobility, Ratti’s publication is therefore more than an interesting article: it is a welcome external validation of principles pursued for years, and a timely prompt to re-engage with partners around an implementation-grade UK pilot.

References:

1. Carlo Ratti, ‘How to unclog our cities’, Financial Times, 3 January 2026, https://www.ft.com/content/62fa4670-0ba6-467b-94a5-f3a4068ad390 (needs subscription, contact us to discuss contents)

2. Javad Eshtiyagh et al., ‘The Value of Patience in Online Grocery Shopping’, arXiv 2510.19066 (2025), https://www.arxiv.org/abs/2510.19066 ).

3. World Economic Forum, Sustainable and Efficient Last-Mile Delivery in Cities (2024), https://reports.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Transforming_Urban_Logistics_2024.pdf (accessed 3 January 2026). reports.weforum.org