By Datuk Ts Dr. Hj Ramli Amir, former President of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT) Malaysia and Vice-President of CILT International for Southeast Asia
KOTA KINABALU: When I read CNN’s explainer on the wave of Gen Z protests sweeping Europe this October, I didn’t just see politics. I saw a blueprint for our industry’s future.
The headline was blunt: “Gen Z are leading the European protests. Here’s why they’re angry.”
From France to Spain, Italy to Portugal, young people aged roughly 13 to 29 are shutting down streets because the promise that the next generation will enjoy a better life than the current one “simply doesn’t hold true anymore.”
As someone who has spent my career in logistics, I kept asking myself: If this is how Gen Z challenges governments, how will they challenge supply chains? And the answer is: completely.
Here are five shifts I believe are coming, directly inspired by what is happening on the streets of Europe right now.
Shift 1: From Cost-Efficiency to Cost-of-Living Logistics
Look at what triggered this wave. In Spain, it was the eviction of an 87-year-old woman from her home that became the catalyst for nationwide housing protests. In Portugal, thousands pitched tents in Lisbon’s Rossio Square, chanting “Casas para morar” — homes to live in.
In France, students marched against overcrowded classes and teacher shortages.
The common thread? Cost of living and access. Gen Z in Europe is saying: you cannot build a system that is efficient on paper but unliveable in reality.
Logistics has obsessed over cost per mile and cost per parcel for 30 years. Gen Z will force us to ask: cost for whom?
This generation will demand a logistics model that doesn’t externalise costs onto drivers, warehouse workers, and communities.
They grew up watching delivery riders strike in Milan and seeing truckers in Italy blockade highways because fuel costs after the Iran war made their work impossible. They will not accept a last-mile model built on precarious gig work.
The future is what I call “Fair-Wage Logistics” — transparent pay structures, guaranteed rest, housing support near logistics hubs.
Companies that still treat labour as a variable cost to be squeezed will face the same fate as governments that ignored housing. In Spain, those housing protests ultimately forced snap elections.
In logistics, they will force customers to boycott.
Shift 2: From Greenwashing to Non-Negotiable Circularity
Every European protest statement includes climate. French students now demand investment in infrastructure that can withstand the climate crisis. Italian students are marching for “schools that don’t collapse on our heads”.
For Gen Z, sustainability is not a marketing department. It is infrastructure.
They have watched 12 countries erupt in 48 hours because of interconnected frustrations. They understand systems. They will apply that same systems-thinking to supply chains.
This means three things for logistics:
First, **reverse logistics becomes the main logistics.** They will not accept take-make-dispose. Expect mandatory take-back, refurbishment, and resale loops built into every e-commerce contract.
Second, **carbon transparency at SKU level.** Not “we are carbon neutral as a company,” but “this parcel moved 432km, produced 2.1kg of CO2, here is how we offset it.”
They grew up with flight trackers; they will want shipment trackers that show emissions, not just location.
Third, **low-emission last mile as a right, not a premium.** Look at Milan — shops boarded up after cost-of-living protests turned violent. Citieswill not tolerate diesel vans idling in neighbourhoods where Gen Z cannot afford rent. Cargo bikes, micro-hubs, night deliveries by electric rail — these will be mandated by the very city councils Gen Z is now pressuring.
Shift 3: From Black-Box Supply Chains to TikTok-Transparent Chains
What fascinates me about these protests is how they spread. Protesters in Italy and Greece referenced their French
counterparts in slogans. Housing protests in Spain spread into Portugal. Student unions across Europe are sharing advice directly.
This generation organises horizontally, peer-to-peer, without waiting for legacy institutions. As one French student union leader put it:
“We are all talking about the need for investments in education, in universities, in youth in general.”
They will do the same to supply chains.
They will demand to know where their mozzarella comes from—and when Italian truckers blocked buffalo mozzarella production in protest, Gen Z noticed.
They will film warehouse conditions. They will crowdsource supplier audits on Discord.
The future of logistics is radical traceability powered by Gen Z tech. Blockchain not for hype, but for proof. AI not to replace entry-level jobs — which is already one of their core fears — but to make supply chains auditable by anyone with a phone. If you can’t show the journey, they won’t buy the product.
Shift 4: From Centralised Mega-Hubs to Distributed, Resilient Networks
The EU countries most affected — Greece, Italy, France, Belgium, Spain and Portugal — share high debt and an inability to increase public spending.
Gen Z has learned not to trust big, centralised promises.
In logistics, this translates to distrust of single-point-of-failure mega-hubs.
Gen Z will push for distributed, community-based logistics. Think dark stores becoming community co-ops.
Think neighbourhood parcel lockers powered by solar, owned by residents.
Think Albanian and Serbian anti-corruption protests — where young people demanded a whole new government, not just a negotiation — applied to logistics: they don’t want to negotiate with a giant 3PL for a better rate; they want to build an alternative.
In Sabah, where I am, this already makes sense. Why should a parcel go to Kuala Lumpur only to return to Putatan? Gen Z’s hyper-local mindset plus their digital nativity will accelerate regional fulfilment networks, print-on-demand, and micro-manufacturing. The most resilient supply chain is the shortest one.
Shift 5: From Jobs vs. AI to Jobs *With* AI**
Finally, the most important lesson. Julius Fintelmann told CNN these protests reflect “the feeling that Europe’s politics is failing to deliver for the next generation,” especially with AI disproportionately hitting entry-level jobs.
Gen Z is not anti-tech. They are anti-tech that leaves them behind.
In logistics, we have spent five years talking about autonomous trucks and lights-out warehouses to cut headcount. Gen Z will flip that. They will demand “augmented logistics” — AI that handles route optimisation so a driver can finish at 5pm and be home, exoskeletons so warehouse work doesn’t destroy bodies, generative
AI that translates customs paperwork so a small trader in Kota Kinabalu can export like a multinational.
If we build AI to replace them, they will protest us, just as they protest schools and parliaments. If we build AI to empower them, they will build the world’s most efficient, ethical, and resilient logistics system.
The kids are not alright. That is not a warning. It is an invitation to build something better.
They are not asking us to fix the old promise — that each generation would live a little better, a little easier than the last.
They are telling us that promise is already broken. In Madrid, it broke on a doorstep where an 87-year-old woman was evicted. In Paris, it broke in a classroom with no teacher. In Lisbon, it broke in a tent pitched because rent had become a ransom.
And yet, they are still showing up. Still marching. Still believing that streets can be redrawn, that systems can be rewritten.
That is what logistics has always been at its best: the quiet belief that there is always a way to get from where we are to where we need to be.
Gen Z is not asking for faster delivery. They are asking for a delivery that matters. A supply chain that delivers dignity as reliably as it delivers parcels.
One that carries a fair wage, a lower footprint, a traceable truth.
They are not alright with what we built. So let’s not defend it.
Let’s build with them.
