The VITAL-5G proposal has the vision to advance the offered transport & logistics (T&L) services by engaging significant logistics stakeholders (Sea and River port authorities, road logistics operators, warehouse/hub logistic operators, etc.) as well as innovative SMEs and offering them an open and secure virtualized 5G environment to test, validate and verify their T&L related cutting-edge Network Applications (NetApps). The combination of advanced 5G testbeds (offered through participating MNOs / vendors) with vertical specialized facilities and infrastructure (offered by participating key logistics stakeholders) through an open service validation platform (repurposed and created by the project) will create a unique opportunity for third parties such as SMEs to validate their T&L related solutions and services utilizing real-life resources and facilities, otherwise unavailable to them. The platform will provide to 3rd party experimenters, the necessary testing and validation tools, offering them a trusted and secure service execution environment under realistic conditions that supports multi tenancy. Such an elaborate validation mechanism will allow for the further refinement and fine-tuning of the provided services fostering the creation of new services and the evolution of existing ones, while boosting the SME presence in the emerging 5G-driven logistics ecosystem. The VITAL-5G proposal plans to showcase the added-value of 5G connectivity for the European T&L sector by adopting a multi-modal approach containing major logistics hubs for freight and passengers (sea ports, river ports, warehouse / logistics hubs, highways, etc.) as well as the respective stakeholders (road operators, port authorities, 3rd party logistics (3PL) operators), thus creating an end-to-end chain of connected T&L services accommodating the entire continent.