Moving Freight with Better Trucks Research Report Moving Freight with Better Trucks Research Report This work is published on the responsibility of the Secretary-General of the OECD. The opinions expressed and arguments employed herein do not necessarily reflect the official views of the Organisation or of the governments of its member countries. Please cite this publication as: OECD (2011), Moving Freight with Better Trucks: Improving Safety, Productivity and Sustainability, OECD Publishing. http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789282102961-en ISBN 978-92-821-0293-0 (print) ISBN 978-92-821-0296-1 (PDF) Corrigenda to OECD publications may be found on line at: www.oecd.org/publishing/corrigenda. © OECD 2011 You can copy, download or print OECD content for your own use, and you can include excerpts from OECD publications, databases and multimedia products in your own documents, presentations, blogs, websites and teaching materials, provided that suitable acknowledgment of OECD as source and copyright owner is given. All requests for public or commercial use and translation rights should be submitted to [email protected]. Requests for permission to photocopy portions of this material for public or commercial use shall be addressed directly to the Copyright Clearance Center (CCC) at [email protected] or the Centre français d’exploitation du droit de copie (CFC) at [email protected]. INTERNATIONAL TRANSPORT FORUM The International Transport Forum at the OECD is an intergovernmental organisation with 52 member countries. It acts as a strategic think tank with the objective of helping shape the transport policy agenda on a global level and ensuring that it contributes to economic growth, environmental protection, social inclusion and the preservation of human life and well-being. The International Transport Forum organizes an annual summit of Ministers along with leading representatives from industry, civil society and academia. The International Transport Forum was created under a Declaration issued by the Council of Ministers of the ECMT (European Conference of Ministers of Transport) at its Ministerial Session in May 2006 under the legal authority of the Protocol of the ECMT, signed in Brussels on 17 October 1953, and legal instruments of the OECD. The Members of the Forum are: Albania, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, FYROM, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Mexico, Moldova, Montenegro, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, the United Kingdom and the United States. The International Transport Forum’s Research Centre gathers statistics and conducts co-operative research programmes addressing all modes of transport. Its findings are widely disseminated and support policymaking in Member countries as well as contributing to the annual summit. Further information about the International Transport Forum is available at www.internationaltransportforum.org FOREWORD – 5 FOREWORD This report Moving Freight with Better Trucks: Improving Safety, Productivity and Sustainability is the result of a three-year co-operative effort by an international group of experts representing 15 countries as well as the European Commission, under the aegis of the Joint Transport Research Centre of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the International Transport Forum. The purpose of this report is to identify potential improvements in terms of more effective safety and environmental regulation for trucks, backed by better systems of enforcement, and to identify opportunities for greater efficiency and higher productivity. The report is based on review of literature, consultation among stakeholders, research and analysis from working group members. It also presents the results of a comprehensive benchmarking study of 39 truck configuration – from typical workhorse vehicles to very high capacity vehicles -- in operation in OECD/ITF countries; to assess their performance in terms of dynamic stability, productivity and impact on the infrastructure. This report presents state of the art research findings, literature survey and benchmarking studies. Key messages are not designed to represent a political consensus on the issues examined and do not necessarily reflect the policy of any individual Government in the Membership of the ITF or OECD. MOVING FREIGHT WITH BETTER TRUCKS © OECD/ITF 2011 ABSTRACT – 7 ABSTRACT ITRD1 NUMBER: E157054 The purpose of this report is to provide insights into the development of the heavy road freight transport system to facilitate development of policies to improve its productivity and its social and environmental sustainability. It presents a comprehensive review of current trucks performance. The report first documents the recent trends in road freight transport in OECD and ITF countries and the logistics challenges in the road transport market, highlighting the need for a more efficient transport system. It reviews the regulations in place in OECD/ITF countries concerning weights and dimensions, technical standards, environmental standards, truck operations and transport operators. The report then presents the summary results of the performance benchmarking of 39 truck configurations across 10 countries, focusing on the safety and productivity impacts of changes in the configuration of heavy vehicles including weights and dimensions and articulation. It reviews the environmental challenges − in terms of local air pollutants and greenhouse gases – the safety challenges and the infrastructure challenges – for roads and bridges –of road freight transport, including technologies to mitigate their impacts. In this context, the report reviews the current use of higher capacity vehicles. The last part of the report focuses on options for an improved regulatory framework, including opportunities offered by performance based standards improved regulations, and the approached used to achieve compliance as well as the role of enforcement. Fields: vehicle design and safety (91), traffic and transport planning (72) Keywords: freight transport, policy, improvement, environment, sustainability, efficiency, weight, safety, pollution, design (overall design) NOTE 1. The International Transport Research Documentation (ITRD) database of published information on transport and transport research is administered by TRL on behalf of the Joint Transport Research Centre. ITRD contains over 350 000 bibliographical references, and about 10 000 are added each year. Input to the ITRD database is provided by more than 30 renowned institutes and organisations from around the world. For more details about ITRD, please contact [email protected] or see the ITRD website at www.itrd.org. MOVING FREIGHT WITH BETTER TRUCKS © OECD/ITF 2011 TABLE OF CONTENTS– 9 TABLE OF CONTENTS FOREWORD ............................................................................................................................... 5 KEY MESSAGES AND CONCLUSIONS .............................................................................. 13 Context ..................................................................................................................................... 13 Key Messages ........................................................................................................................... 14 Conclusions .............................................................................................................................. 16 CHAPTER 1. TRENDS IN ROAD FREIGHT TRANSPORT ............................................. 37 1.1. The role of road freight transport ................................................................................. 37 1.2. Perspectives and issues for this report .......................................................................... 39 1.3. Features of the history of trucking................................................................................ 40 1.4. Public perception and amenity ..................................................................................... 42 1.5. Trends in road freight policies ...................................................................................... 42 1.6. Evolution of freight transport in OECD and ITF countries .......................................... 46 1.7. Road freight costs ......................................................................................................... 51 1.8. Road pricing for trucks ................................................................................................. 56 CHAPTER 2. LOGISTIC CHALLENGES IN THE ROAD TRANSPORT MARKET ... 61 2.1. Loading capacity – Massing out ................................................................................... 61 2.2. Transport as an element in logistics decision making .................................................. 64 2.3. Transport decision making ........................................................................................... 66 2.4. Logistics drivers and trends .......................................................................................... 68 2.5. Organisational structure of the road freight transport sector ........................................ 71 2.6. Development of costs, prices and margins ..................................................................