CO_2 efficiency in road freight transportation: Status quo, measures and potential

摘要

Road freight transport continues to grow in Germany and generates 6% of the country's CO_2 emissions. In logistics, many decisions influence the energy efficiency of trucks, but causalities are not well understood. Little work has been done on quantifying the potential for further CO_2 reduction and the effect of specific activities, such as introducing computer assisted scheduling systems to trucking firms. A survey was survey out and linked fuel consumption to transport performance parameters in 50 German haulage companies during 2003. Emission efficiency ranged from 0.8 tonne-km to 26 tonne-km for 1 kg CO_2 emissions. The results show potential for improvements given a low level of vehicle usage and load factor levels, scarce use of lightweight vehicle design, poorly selected vehicles and a high proportion of empty runs. IT-based scheduling systems with telematic application for data communication, positioning and navigation show positive effects on efficiency. Fuel use and transport performance was measured before and after the introduction of these systems.