Energy efficiency of road freight hauliers—A Nordic comparison

doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2013.11.074

Energy Policy

Volume 67, April 2014, Pages 378-387

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2013.11.074 Get rights and content

Highlights

•
Energy efficiency index proved to be a very useful tool for comparing the hauliers.
•
Shipper's interest in hauliers’ performance improves the level of energy efficiency.
•
Fuel monitoring practices are fairly similar in the four countries.
•
Level of implementation of energy efficiency actions is similar in the four countries.

Abstract

In order to promote policy targets for decarbonising road freight, it is important to gain knowledge on the current energy efficiency practices of hauliers in various countries. This research aimed to provide such knowledge to enable international comparison of the energy efficiency practices of road freight hauliers. This was achieved by replicating the Finnish haulier survey in Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Energy efficiency index was developed to provide a simple metric for international comparison. The EEI covers various aspects of energy efficiency to provide a comprehensive outlook into the issue. The monitoring practices are fairly similar in all four countries, with typical monitoring done manually when filling the tank and data kept on a computer. Tonne-kilometre data is rarely monitored, but some other performance measures may be used. Current level of implementation of various energy efficiency actions is rather similar between the four countries. The simple and inexpensive actions, like choosing the lorry according to the cargo and idling avoidance, are most widely implemented. The energy efficiency index developed in this research proved to be a very useful tool for comparing the hauliers in the four countries.

Introduction

There is a wide variety of measures for decarbonising road freight transport. Road freight hauliers always work in inter-company cooperation with the shippers. Shippers have their own requirements and needs regarding the freight transport operations and their decisions enable or disable opportunities to decarbonise road freight operations. However, the hauliers also have possibilities to decarbonise their operations regardless of shippers decisions. Primarily, the hauliers have control over the loading of the lorry, technical specifications of the lorry, type of fuel used and practices of monitoring fuel consumption.

A decarbonisation model by Heriot-Watt University and Freight Transport Association presents 36 decarbonisation measures which may be applied by logistics companies (FTA, 2012). International Energy Agency presents 26 policy measures and analyses the complex outcomes of these measures (International Energy Agency (IEA), 2009). British Freight best practice programme's Fuel Ready Reckoner presents 28 decarbonisation measures for fleet management and analyses their interrelations as well as ease and cost of implementation (DfT, 2010). Léonardi et al. (2006) list 76 decarbonisation measures affecting various indicators of the decarbonisation framework. These examples highlight that road freight hauliers have many ways to change their operations towards more sustainable direction. However, information on the level of implementation of these measures is scarce.

Tacken et al. (2011) interviewed 10 large German LSPs about their measures and AECOM (2010) did a survey among British hauliers on their monitoring practices. Liimatainen et al. (2012) presented the results of a Finnish haulier survey exploring their fuel monitoring practices and level of implementation of energy efficiency measures. This research aims to add more countries to this list to enable international comparison of the energy efficiency practices of road freight hauliers. This is achieved by replicating the Finnish haulier survey (Liimatainen et al., 2012) in Denmark, Norway and Sweden.

Section snippets

Average load on laden trips

Increasing the average load on laden trips increases the fuel consumption on l/100 km basis, but decreases the mileage required to perform the same haulage (tkm) and thus improves the energy efficiency (tkm/kWh) and decreases the total CO₂ emissions. Average load may be disaggregated further to maximum payload weight and vehicle utilisation rate. This disaggregation may be helpful as the largest lorries are not suitable for every operation, e.g. in urban areas, and hence the changes in the

Survey

Structured surveys are methods for collecting data from respondents through questionnaires or structured interviews and they have an important role in many disciplines, including business studies and supply chain management research. Structured surveys can be interviewer-administered or self-administered and performed through personal meeting, on telephone, by post or email and online. Posted questionnaires have been the dominant technique, but web-based techniques are increasingly used (Ghauri

Total energy efficiency index

The energy efficiency index of the respondents is on average 38.5 points (Table 5) with 25% of hauliers having less than 24 points and 25% having more than 51.5 points. The two best hauliers achieved 81 points out of the maximum 100 points. The average points vary somewhat between the countries, but the differences are not statistically significant at 95% confidence level. The larger means of Norway and Sweden compared to Denmark and Finland seem to indicate that the haulier size may have an

Conclusions

The literature shows that there is a wide variety of measures which the road freight hauliers can take to improve the energy efficiency of their operations. However, information on the level of implementation of these measures is rare in academic literature. In order to promote policy targets for decarbonising road freight, it is important to gain knowledge on the current energy efficiency practices of hauliers in various countries. This research aimed to provide such knowledge to enable

Acknowledgements

The authors express their gratitude to the Nordic Energy Research for their funding of the research.

References (45)

J. Åkerman et al.
How much transport can the climate stand?—Sweden on a sustainable path in 2050
Energy Policy
(2006)
T. Bektaş et al.
The pollution-routing problem
Trans. Res. Part B: Methodological
(2011)
J. Léonardi et al.
CO₂ efficiency in road freight transportation: status quo, measures and potential
Trans. Res. Part D: Transp. Environ.
(2004)
H. Liimatainen et al.
Energy efficiency practices among road freight hauliers
Energy Policy
(2012)
T. Wang et al.
Life cycle energy consumption and GHG emission from pavement rehabilitation with different rolling resistance
J. Cleaner Prod.
(2012)
Y. Xiao et al.
Development of a fuel consumption optimization model for the capacitated vehicle routing problem
Comput. Oper. Res.
(2012)
AECOM 2010. Integrated Research Study: Small Haulier. Freight Best Practice Programme. Department for Transport, United...
Barton, R., Tardif, L.-P., Wilde, G., Bergeron, J. 1998. Incentive Programs for Enhancing Truck Safety and...
Blinge, M., Svensson, Å. 2006. Environmental Measures for Freight Transportation, Summary of Practical and Theoretical...
Brown, S., Coyle, M. 2004. Study into the Potential for the Application of a Fuel Bonus System, Department for...

COM/2010/0811. Report from the Commission on Indirect Land-use Change Related to Biofuels and Bioliquids....

S. Cullinane et al.

Benefits and costs of switching to alternative fuels

DEFRA

Guidelines on Measuring and Reporting Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions from Freight Transport Operations

(2010)

DfT 2010. Fuel Ready Reckoner. Freight Best Practice tool. Department for Transport....

Directive 2009/30/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 April 2009 Amending Directive 98/70/EC as...

Erkkilä, K., Laine, P., Nylund, N.-O. 2008. Performance of Euro 4/5/EEV—Vehicles. In: Heavy-duty Vehicles: Safety,...

FTA 2012. Carbon Intervention Modelling Tool. Freight Transport Association, United Kingdom....

Fuel Prices Info 2013. Fuel Prices in Europe by November 27, 2013....

P. Ghauri et al.

Research Methods in Business Studies—A Practical Guide

(2005)

D. Grant et al.

Web-based surveys in logistics research: an empirical application

Hedenus, F. 2008. On the Road to Climate Neutral Freight Transportation—A Scientific Feasibility Study, Publication:...

Heikkilä, T. 2005. Tilastollinen tutkimus. Edita, Helsinki,...

Cited by (28)

Making road freight transport more Sustainable: Insights from a systematic literature review
2023, Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives
Road-based transportation being the most used transport mode globally has associated negative externalities such as traffic accidents, higher product costs, greenhouse gas emissions, air and noise pollution necessitating improvement. The study aims to provide a comprehensive overview of state-of-the-art knowledge about improving road freight transportation sustainability (RFTS) and discuss ways key stakeholders can do for its improvement. Therefore, the study adds to the existing reviews by providing more insights and a nuanced appreciation of improving RFTS. This is of relevance to policymakers, practitioners, and other key actors in the road-based freight transportation sector. The study utilized a meta-aggregation approach involving 75 peer-reviewed articles. Three themes under which RFTS can be addressed, namely (1) policy and regulation-based measures, (2) logistics and transportation efficiency-based measures, and (3) innovative technology-based measures were identified. Furthermore, the study found that the successful attainment of RFTS depends on the cooperative nature of both direct and indirect actors, strengthening of existing laws, capital investment, and stakeholder demands and pressure. However, less focus on stakeholder collaboration was observed to achieve the needed benefits for all three sustainability aspects. The study has limitations as only peer-reviewed articles were utilized. Other literature types including books would have provided a wider view of the topic. Further research area could examine how concepts like collaboration, cooperation, and coopetition affect the three sustainability perspectives.
Climate change impact of food distribution: The case of reverse logistics for bread in Sweden
2023, Sustainable Production and Consumption
Efficient and purposeful transport of food, from primary production to waste management, is essential to drive the necessary transition towards sustainable production and consumption of food within planetary boundaries. This is particularly the case for bread, one of the most frequently wasted food items in Europe. In Sweden, bread is often sold under a take-back agreement where bakeries are responsible for transportation up to the supermarket shelf and for the collection of unsold products. This provides an opportunity for reverse logistics, but creates a risk of inefficient transport that could reduce the environmental benefits of prevention and valorization of surplus bread. This study assessed the climate change impact of bread transport in Sweden and evaluated the impact of alternative food transport pathways. Life cycle assessment revealed the climate change impact of conventional bread transport, from bakery gate to waste management, to be on average 49.0 g CO₂e per kg bread with 68 % deriving from long-distance transport, 26 % from short-distance delivery, and 6 % from waste transport. Evaluation of alternative bread transport pathways showed the highest climate savings with a collaborative transport approach that also reduced the need for small vehicles and decreased transport distances. The overall contribution of waste transport to the total climate impact of food transport was low for all scenario routes analyzed, suggesting that food waste management facilitating high-value recovery and valorization could be prioritized without increasing the climate impact due to longer transport. It has been claimed that conventional take-back agreements are responsible for most of the climate change impact related to bread transport, but we identified long distances between bakeries and retailers as the main contributor to transport climate impacts.
Future of forest industry in carbon-neutral reality: Finnish and Swedish visions
2022, Energy Reports
The forest industry is a significant emitter of CO₂ and thus it needs to transform toward a more sustainable operation in order to contribute to tackling climate change. This paper looks at the progress, tools, possibilities, and barriers of Finnish and Swedish forest industries in achieving deep decarbonization. Finland and Sweden have set ambitious national targets to reach net negative greenhouse gas emissions. The role of the forest industry in reaching national targets in these countries remains unclear even if significant fossil CO₂ emission reduction and efficiency improvement has occurred. If the forest industries in these countries fulfill their planned future visions, their contribution to meeting the targets will be substantial. This study identified the largest CO₂ emitting sectors in the forest industry. They are for both countries, arranged by size, transport including non-road mobile machinery, on-site energy production, fossil fuel use in processes (lime kilns and dryers), and purchased electricity. Viable decarbonization measures exist for key fossil CO₂ emissions sources, but several technical, economic, and political barriers are hindering their implementation. Fuel switching from fossil energy sources to bio-based alternatives is the main tool in the decarbonization of the forest sector in both countries, but also electrification of e.g. transport, provides emission reduction opportunities. The forest industry has a high and sustainable potential to become carbon-negative by investing in bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) but achieving net-zero emissions might not be realistic without changes in policies and suitable incentives.
Assessment of environmental and social sustainability performance of the freight transportation industry: An index-based approach
2022, Transport Policy
The freight transportation activities having an impact on the freight logistics process. The environmental and social sustainability-related processes are poorly managed compared to the economic process. The quality of environmental and social sustainability (EnSoS) practices ought to be enhanced by measuring current sustainability practices, and at the same time, obstacles to sustainability have to be identified. Some of the previous work try to develop a sustainability framework, but less attention is paid to develop the EnSoS assessment framework for the freight transport industry. To bridge this research gap, this study develops an EnSoS framework based on an integrated multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) method, i.e., fuzzy best-worst method (FBWM) and fuzzy logic approach. The proposed framework evaluates the current sustainability performance with an index and highlights the obstacles to the sustainable freight transportation system. The proposed framework presents two sustainability enablers, nine dimensions, and sixty-three sustainability attributes, including ten new attributes. The FBWM method is used to compute the fuzzy importance weight of attributes, whereas the fuzzy logic is used to assess the performance of each attribute. The proposed framework is validated with the case of the Indian freight industry. The fuzzy transportation EnSoS index (FTEnSoSI) is computed as (3.511, 6.366, 8.418), and close to ‘very environmental and social sustainable (VESS)’ label. The fuzzy performance importance index (FPII) is computed to assess the performance of each attribute. Based on FPII value, thirty attributes are identified as obstacles to transport sustainability. The result analysis presented proposed policy measures for improving EnSoS obstacles.
Data and energy efficiency indicators of freight transport sector in Mexico
2021, Case Studies on Transport Policy
Citation Excerpt :
The results show that the current composite indicator evaluation system does not accurately assess old coal mines, and can be replaced by the EEI due to its comprehensiveness, fairness, and it not being affected by any individual indicator. Liimatainen et al. (2014) provide such knowledge to enable international comparison of the energy efficiency practices of road freight carriers. This was achieved by replicating the Finnish carrier survey in Denmark, Norway and Sweden.
Globally, the transport sector represents more than a quarter of the total energy consumed. In Mexico, energy consumption in the road transport subsector alone represented 40.9% of the final energy required nationwide. The national goal of energy efficiency expressed in terms of energy intensity for the transport, industry, buildings, and agricultural sectors, indicates that energy intensity should decrease 1.9% per year during the 2016–2030 period. Besides, the primary strategy proposed by the government to optimize the energy consumption of freight transportation is energy efficiency. This proposal estimates the energy efficiency indicators to make a reliable assessment of the situation of the impact of energy efficiency on demand. If the goal of reducing the transport sector energy intensity is met, the intensity of freight transportation should be reduced from 0.7434 MJ / dollar in 2017 to 0.5793 MJ / dollar by 2030, which represents a reduction of 22.1%. It could represent a reduction in carbon emissions of 33.1% in the same period.
Transition management theory-based policy framework for analyzing environmentally responsible freight transport practices
2021, Journal of Cleaner Production
The freight transport industry of developing nations are trying very hard to achieve environmental sustainability in their logistics business. Meanwhile, it is essential to identify the transformation path towards sustainable freight transport for every nation. This paper has presented a framework based on transition management (TM) theory to identify, classify, and measure the important environmentally responsible transport practices (ERTPs). This work utilizes a two-step methodology comprised of a grey clustering (GC) algorithm and a compromise ranking method, i.e., VIseKriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje (VIKOR) for prioritization of ERTPs performance. The GC algorithm is used to classify the ERTPs based on their impact on selected transport processes. Initially, this study identifies thirty-five ERTPs and four transport performance clusters. The proposed framework is validated with the Indian freight transport industry. The GC algorithm classifies twenty-one and fourteen practices as a high priority and moderate priority, respectively. The VIKOR method is used to compute the group utility, individual regret, and possibility value of high priority ERTPs. The ERTPs such as developing efficient freight terminal, compliance with government transport emission law and practice, promoting the use of the green container, environmental certification of freight carriers, and using alternative fuels are found as poor performing practices in the Indian freight transport industry. The proposed decision model robustness is tested with the sensitivity analysis, and a final ranking of the high priority ERTPs is presented. The outcomes of this research help logistics practitioners and policymakers in managing the ERTPs of freight logistics systems and develop a roadmap for improving freight transport sustainability.

View all citing articles on Scopus

View full text

Energy efficiency of road freight hauliers—A Nordic comparison

Highlights

Abstract

Introduction

Section snippets

Average load on laden trips

Survey

Total energy efficiency index

Conclusions

Acknowledgements

Energy Policy

Trans. Res. Part B: Methodological

Trans. Res. Part D: Transp. Environ.

Energy Policy

J. Cleaner Prod.

Comput. Oper. Res.

Benefits and costs of switching to alternative fuels

Guidelines on Measuring and Reporting Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions from Freight Transport Operations

Research Methods in Business Studies—A Practical Guide

Web-based surveys in logistics research: an empirical application