Operational Freight Transport Efficiency – a Critical Perspective
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Operational freight transport efficiency – a critical perspective Niklas Arvidsson [email protected] Licentiate in Business Administration November 2011 i Acknowledgements I would like to extend my deepest gratitude to my supervisors Johan Woxenius and Catrin Lammgård for mentoring, constructive feedback and allowing me to answer the RQs in a manner I felt comfortable with. I am heartily grateful to my colleagues and friends Ala, Fredrik, Vendela, Helen, Ove, Neil, Allan, Benedikte, Östen, Magnus, Zoi, Mike, Anders, Jonas, Taylan, Ali, Edith, Karin, Marcus, Inge, Anna, Rickard, Martin, Christina, Lars, Carl, Catrin and Johan for fruitful feedback and open discussions. This paper would not have been possible without the support of Vinnova, Northern Lead, the Logistics and Transport Society LTS, Volvo Logistics, DB Schenker, Stora Enso, Västra Götaland Region, and City of Göteborg Traffic & Transport Authority. Finally, I offer my regards to all of those who supported me in any respect during the completion of the project, especially my family and girlfriend. Thanks all for making this process such a great experience, my apologies for those not mentioned here. All remaining mistakes are solely mine. Göteborg, On a beautiful November day 2011 ii Abstract Freight transport efficiency, as one proposed abatement strategy for transport related emissions, is a concept that has received much research attention the last decade, often from the transport buyers’ perspective. In contrast, the aim of this research is to explore the subset concept of operational freight transport efficiency and how it affects transport related emissions. The focus is on the transport operators and their interfaces with other actors such as transport providers/forwarders, transport buyers, and society. The concept is argued to be “fuzzy”, in the sense that it means different things depending on who you ask, and a “wicked problem”, in the sense that the problem has no clear solutions with significant and present tradeoffs. The methodology or vessel used in this licentiate thesis to launch a “critical spirit” is “phronetic social science”. After phronetically testing these efficiency measures some recommendations are presented in paper 1. A suggestion on operational decarbonisation is provided in paper 2 and the attitudes and trade-offs among the actors are explored in paper 3. This thesis identifies a gap in the sense that a common semantic definition of the concept of operational freight transport efficiency measures do not exist. The thesis proposes that the gap be filled with the following derived definition of operational freight transport efficiency: “A set of utilisation measures of time, space, vehicle, fuel and driver in the movement of goods”. From the operators point of view as well as from an aggregated level, another gap is the trade- offs between environmental and economic considerations. Most operational freight transport efficiency improvement measures are likely to reduce emissions, however; it is probable that mere cost-reduction measures will not lead to reduced emissions in the long term. The traverse across these topics represented by the present thesis is offered as a theoretical contribution to the discussion about defining what is meant by sustainable logistics. In other words, what the word sustainable means in a logistics context. Keywords: operational freight transport efficiency, operator, sustainability, logistics, phronetic Author: Niklas Arvidsson Language: English Pages: 124 Licentiate Thesis 2011 Department of Business Administration School of Business, Economics and Law University of Gothenburg P.O Box 610, SE 405 30 Göteborg, Sweden iii Content Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................... ii Abstract ..................................................................................................................................... iii 1 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Framing the problem ................................................................................................... 2 1.2 Purpose ........................................................................................................................ 4 1.3 Research questions ...................................................................................................... 4 1.4 Delimitations ............................................................................................................... 4 1.5 Bridging theory and methodology with research questions and papers ...................... 5 1.6 Outline ......................................................................................................................... 6 2 Theory ................................................................................................................................. 8 2.1 Transportation as a flow .............................................................................................. 8 2.2 Transportation as a chain ............................................................................................. 9 2.3 Operational ................................................................................................................ 10 2.4 Derived or induced demand ....................................................................................... 11 2.5 Business administration perspective on efficiency .................................................... 13 2.6 Operations management and logistics perspective on efficiency .............................. 15 2.7 Examining drivers of output and demand in a transportation context ....................... 17 2.8 Implications from theory ........................................................................................... 18 3 Methodology ..................................................................................................................... 21 3.1 Introducing phronesis ................................................................................................ 23 3.2 Case studies ............................................................................................................... 24 3.3 Data collection and research process ......................................................................... 26 3.4 Critical theory ............................................................................................................ 28 3.5 Critical theory in transportation ................................................................................. 30 3.6 Research quality ........................................................................................................ 31 4 Results ............................................................................................................................... 35 4.1 Defining operational freight transport efficiency ...................................................... 35 4.2 Opportunities and barriers ......................................................................................... 36 4.3 Possible implications ................................................................................................. 40 5 Concluding discussion ...................................................................................................... 41 5.1 Conclusions ............................................................................................................... 41 5.2 Future research .......................................................................................................... 44 References ................................................................................................................................ 48 Appendix A .............................................................................................................................. 58 Appendix B .............................................................................................................................. 59 iv Intervjumall – hållbar logistik .............................................................................................. 59 Målgrupp ........................................................................................................................... 59 Genomförande ................................................................................................................... 59 Intervjufrågor .................................................................................................................... 59 Appended papers ...................................................................................................................... 62 Paper 1: Arvidsson, N., Woxenius, J., Lammgård, C., (2011), Measures for increasing transport efficiency in urban freight distribution—from the operators’ perspective, submitted to Transport Reviews. An earlier version was published in the proceedings and presented at Logistics Research Network, Cardiff, Wales, September 9-11, 2009. ............. 62 Paper 2: Arvidsson, N., (2010), New perspectives on sustainable urban freight distribution: A potential zero emissions concept using electric cars on trams, Published in the selected proceedings and presented at WCTR, Lisbon, Portugal, July 11-15, 2010. ......................... 83 Paper 3: Santén, V., Arvidsson, N., (2011), Road freight transport efficiency and less environmental