Decarbonizing Freight Transport

This Open-Access-Book analyzes the acceptance of sustainable freight transport and suggests a new framework for policy measures to decarbonize freight transport. Despite intense political endeavors, the environmental performance of the transport system has not improved in the previous years. It seems that the existing measures are not sufficient to motivate transport users to implement sustainable freight transport strategies. The case of three different strategies for sustainable freight transport is studied: horizontal collaboration in a Physical Internet network, multimodal freight transport and liquefied natural gas (LNG) as alternative truck fuel. Each of these three strategies falls within a different pillar of the avoid-shift-reduce framework. The determinants of acceptance and suggested policy measures in this study reflect transport users’ needs towards sustainable freight transport. This should support policy makers and the logistics industry to implement sustainable practices and achieve the ambitious emission targets by decarbonizing freight transport

Decarbonizing Freight Transport

This Open-Access-Book analyzes the acceptance of sustainable freight transport and suggests a new framework for policy measures to decarbonize freight transport. Despite intense political endeavors, the environmental performance of the transport system has not improved in the previous years. It seems that the existing measures are not sufficient to motivate transport users to implement sustainable freight transport strategies. The case of three different strategies for sustainable freight transport is studied: horizontal collaboration in a Physical Internet network, multimodal freight transport and liquefied natural gas (LNG) as alternative truck fuel. Each of these three strategies falls within a different pillar of the avoid-shift-reduce framework. The determinants of acceptance and suggested policy measures in this study reflect transport users’ needs towards sustainable freight transport. This should support policy makers and the logistics industry to implement sustainable practices and achieve the ambitious emission targets by decarbonizing freight transport

Possible applications and potentials for LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) in Central Europe

Abstract. In the current discussion about alternative energy supply and strategies in Europe, LNG comes to the fore. For the implementation of LNG in Central Europe, there are many hurdles to be overcome. With the "LNG Masterplan Rhine-Main-Danube", a first step is being made to overcome these barriers. Within this Masterplan, a Framework and Market Analysis was conducted. Therefore, extensive literature research was carried out in a first step, to have a detailed analysis and assessment of the developments for the implementation and applications of LNG. The results of this paper should not only point to the problem areas, but to the potentials for LNG as well and make a significant contribution for further implementation steps

Possible applications and potentials for LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) in Central Europe

Abstract. In the current discussion about alternative energy supply and strategies in Europe, LNG comes to the fore. For the implementation of LNG in Central Europe, there are many hurdles to be overcome. With the "LNG Masterplan Rhine-Main-Danube", a first step is being made to overcome these barriers. Within this Masterplan, a Framework and Market Analysis was conducted. Therefore, extensive literature research was carried out in a first step, to have a detailed analysis and assessment of the developments for the implementation and applications of LNG. The results of this paper should not only point to the problem areas, but to the potentials for LNG as well and make a significant contribution for further implementation steps

Das Konzept der quattromodalen Knoten

Die Verknüpfung der vier Verkehrsträger Straße, Schiene, Wasserstraße und Luft an einem quattromodalen Güterverkehrsknoten ist derzeit noch ein Randthema mit vielen Unbekannten. Das österreichische Forschungsprojekt „Q4“ widmet sich dieser Wissenslücke und stellt das Potential sowie die Grenzen quattromodaler Knoten im Güterverkehr in den Fokus der Forschung. Im Zuge dessen werden beispielhaft Möglichkeiten der Umsetzung für den österreichischen Zentralraum Linz-Wels-Steyr und die Metropolregion Wien aufgezeigt

Decarbonizing freight transport: Acceptance and policy implications

Eine der größten Herausforderungen der Logistikbranche ist, den CO2-Fußabdruck des Güterverkehrs zu verringern. Die Europäische Politik hat sich seit Jahren zum Ziel gesetzt, die Emissionen des Güterverkehrs zu reduzieren- bislang jedoch mit mäßigem Erfolg. Die bisherige Forschung auf dem Gebiet hat sich auf die Angebots-Seite fokussiert, um die Bereitstellung von nachhaltigen Güterverkehrslösungen voranzutreiben. Die Nachfrageseite wurde vernachlässigt. Dies ist kritisch, da eine fehlende Akzeptanz auf der Nachfrageseite zum Scheitern der Dekarbonisierungs-Strategien führen wird. Ziel der Arbeit ist es daher, die Anforderungen und Bedürfnisse der Logistikunternehmen hinsichtlich der Implementierung von nachhaltigen Güterverkehrsstrategien zu erheben. Ein Methodenmix aus qualitativer und quantitativer Forschung wurde gewählt, um die Akzeptanzfaktoren zur Dekarbonisierung des Güterverkehrs zu identifizieren. Dazu wurden drei verschiedene Dekarbonisierungs-Strategien gewählt: (1) Das Vermeiden von Transportaufkommen in einem Physical Internet Netzwerk (2) Das Verlagern des Transportaufkommens mittels Multimodalität und (3) das Verbessern des Transportaufkommens durch Nutzung von Flüssigerdgas (LNG) als alternativem Treibstoff. Basierend auf den Ergebnissen konnten nutzer*innenzentrierte Politikmaßnahmen entwickelt werden, die eine gezielte Stimulierung der Nachfrageseite erlauben und die Umsetzung der Dekarbonisierungs-Strategien seitens Logistikunternehmen vorantreiben sollen

Supporting the Selection of Sustainable Logistics Locations

Selecting a logistics location is vital for logistics providers, food retailing and other trading companies since the selection poses an essential factor for economic success. Decisions on logistics locations currently mainly take into account economic factors. Environmental aspects play only a subordinate role, which impedes transparent and sustainable decisions. The result is an impeded dialog between the involved stake-holders within the location decision process, which leads to a dismissive position of municipalities and landowners. Besides logistics location may negatively affect eco systems in terms of sealing the surface, wrecking of biodiversity, or CO2 and noise emissions generated by traffic. The increasing importance of sustainability demands for informed decisions when selecting a future logistics location. Sustainability considers environmental aspects, which should be equally integrated in the process of logistics location search. This paper presents an innovative approach for supporting logistics companies when selecting new logistics locations. Basis for the innovative approach are the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and the Strategic Environmental Assessment tool (SEA). The presented approach extends the AHP method with content and methods out of the SEA tool for considering more environmental aspects in the logistics location selection process. The paper presents the essential steps for developing the innovative approach considering more environmental aspects which leads to more transparent and objective location decisions

Using gamification for sustainable transport education: results from an empirical study

For a sustainable future, the shift to eco-friendly transport modes, such as railway and inland waterway transport, is necessary. One requirement is to create knowledge among decisions makers about these transport modes. Furthermore, the educational sector faces serious problems concerning students’ motivation. Gamification represents a new tool of active learning to increase students’ motivation and improve their learning results. The goal of this paper is to investigate the effects of gamification on knowledge, attitude, and behavioural intention to use with regard to sustainable transport education. Therefore, a longitudinal experiment with 384 logistics students was conducted comparing the results of gamified and non-gamified workshops which were done with future logistics & supply chain managers. Non-parametric statistical tests were used to test for significant effects. The results suggest that gamification is an effective measure to increase students’ knowledge as well as their intention to use sustainable transport. Concerning attitude, the findings show mixed results

Exploring logistics managers' preferences for sustainable freight transport: a literature review on choice experiments

The implementation of sustainable freight transport concepts such as intermodality or synchromodality depends on the preferences of logistics managers and finally their acceptance to introduce these concepts. Discrete choice experiments represent an effective method to elicit logistics managers’ mode choice preferences in freight transport. In this paper, a structured overview of existing discrete choice experiments in freight transport is provided to analyse the characteristics of freight transportation demand and understand how shippers select a transport service. Results from a literature review show that transport cost, reliability, transport time and service frequency represent the most important variables that influence mode choice. This information allows deriving policy implications for the introduction of sustainable transport concepts. Monetary incentives represent an effective political instrument to facilitate sustainable transport. Reliability of a transport service is also of high importance and should be additionally focused to promote synchromodal transport