“On the way” to sustainable last-mile: seeing delivery work as logistical assemblage

The shift from fossil-fueled to electric delivery fleets is reconfiguring freight mobilities in cities. To understand how electrification — and, more specifically, the introduction of light electric freight vehicles (LEFVs) into last-mile operations — is experienced on the ground, this paper develops the concept of the logistical assemblage. This concept captures the emerging configurations of human and non-human elements through which sustainable freight mobilities are collectively assembled rather than simply implemented. Challenging dominant operational logics that equate sustainability with optimization, the paper foregrounds the frictional, negotiated, and embodied mobilities through which delivery work is performed in dense, time-sensitive urban environments. Drawing on 26 interviews with delivery drivers, warehouse process managers, and headquarters project managers across eight locations, in the Netherlands, the paper demonstrates how workers continuously adapt to and work around algorithmic and operational inefficiencies, collectively mobilizing embodied knowledge and adaptive capacities. In doing so, it shows that socio-spatial interactions surrounding LEFVs do not merely sustain everyday operations but also shape how sustainable logistics is understood, and practiced in specific contexts. The study contributes to mobilities scholarship by connecting delivery labor to tightening environmental regulations, and wider logistical systems that enable, constrain, and direct the mobilities of goods, vehicles, and working bodies.