IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v13y2021i11p5845-d560250.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Is There Progress towards Environmental Sustainability among Road Haulage Companies?

Author

Listed:
  • Markus Pöllänen

    (Transport Research Centre Verne, Tampere University, 33014 Tampere, Finland)

  • Timo Liljamo

    (Centre for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment for South Ostrobothnia, 65100 Vaasa, Finland)

  • Erika Kallionpää

    (Transport Research Centre Verne, Tampere University, 33014 Tampere, Finland)

  • Heikki Liimatainen

    (Transport Research Centre Verne, Tampere University, 33014 Tampere, Finland)

Abstract

Road freight transport contributes to a significant and growing share of greenhouse gas emissions. This study analyses the development of environmental practices and awareness of road freight hauliers and whether hauliers witness an interest from their shippers towards energy efficiency. Results of an original survey (N = 256) conducted in 2019 among Finnish hauliers are presented and compared with those from a similar survey completed in 2011 (N = 295). The results highlight the lack of improvement in hauliers’ environmental practices during a decade when ambitious climate goals were set. Even though hauliers share the view that emissions from road freight transport must be reduced in future, their environmental practices did not change much during the 2010s. The hauliers rarely perceive an interest from their shippers towards energy efficiency. The results show that hauliers should be supported and encouraged to pursue more environmentally aware practices. Shippers in the supply chain should be a driver, not an obstacle, to increasing road hauliers’ sustainability. There should be more communication between hauliers and supply chain actors, and environmental sustainability should gain more importance when selecting carriers.

Suggested Citation

  • Markus Pöllänen & Timo Liljamo & Erika Kallionpää & Heikki Liimatainen, 2021. "Is There Progress towards Environmental Sustainability among Road Haulage Companies?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-16, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:11:p:5845-:d:560250
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/11/5845/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/11/5845/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Peter Oberhofer & Maria Dieplinger, 2014. "Sustainability in the Transport and Logistics Sector: Lacking Environmental Measures," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(4), pages 236-253, May.
    2. Liimatainen, Heikki & Stenholm, Pekka & Tapio, Petri & McKinnon, Alan, 2012. "Energy efficiency practices among road freight hauliers," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 833-842.
    3. Peter Oberhofer & Elmar Fürst, 2013. "Sustainable Development in the Transport Sector: Influencing Environmental Behaviour and Performance," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(6), pages 374-389, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Pietro Evangelista & Lodovico Santoro & Antonio Thomas, 2018. "Environmental Sustainability in Third-Party Logistics Service Providers: A Systematic Literature Review from 2000–2016," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(5), pages 1-34, May.
    2. Daniele Crotti & Elena Maggi, 2023. "Social Responsibility and Urban Consolidation Centres in Sustainable Freight Transport Markets," Italian Economic Journal: A Continuation of Rivista Italiana degli Economisti and Giornale degli Economisti, Springer;Società Italiana degli Economisti (Italian Economic Association), vol. 9(2), pages 829-850, July.
    3. Rajat Deb, 2016. "Determinants of Savings in Sukanya Samriddhi Account: Evidence from Tripura," IIM Kozhikode Society & Management Review, , vol. 5(2), pages 120-140, July.
    4. Antonio Palmieri & Francesco Pomponi & Angeloantonio Russo, 2019. "A triple‐win scenario for horizontal collaboration in logistics: Determining enabling and key success factors," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(6), pages 1166-1178, September.
    5. Magdalena Mucowska, 2021. "Trends of Environmentally Sustainable Solutions of Urban Last-Mile Deliveries on the E-Commerce Market—A Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-26, May.
    6. Govindan, Kannan & Kilic, Merve & Uyar, Ali & Karaman, Abdullah S., 2021. "Drivers and value-relevance of CSR performance in the logistics sector: A cross-country firm-level investigation," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 231(C).
    7. Rajat Deb & Tapash Paul & Jaharlal Debbarma & Kiran Sankar Chakraborty, 2020. "Breaking the Stigma of Health Insurance," Management and Labour Studies, XLRI Jamshedpur, School of Business Management & Human Resources, vol. 45(1), pages 54-84, February.
    8. Holden, R. & Xu, B. & Greening, P. & Piecyk, M. & Dadhich, P., 2016. "Towards a common measure of greenhouse gas related logistics activity using data envelopment analysis," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 105-119.
    9. David J. Jackson & Katharina Kaesehage, 2020. "Addressing the challenges of integrating carbon calculation tools in the construction industry," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(8), pages 2973-2983, December.
    10. Martina Gogolova & Lukas Vartiak & Erika Kovalova, 2023. "Identification of the Starting Points of the Environmental Responsibility of a Transport Company Based on Multi-criteria Analysis," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 13(4), pages 120-129, July.
    11. Gieri Hinnen & Stefanie Lena Hille & Andreas Wittmer, 2017. "Willingness to Pay for Green Products in Air Travel: Ready for Take‐Off?," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(2), pages 197-208, February.
    12. Michał Comporek & Magdalena Kowalska & Anna Misztal, 2021. "The sustainable development of transport enterprises in the context of macroeconomic conditions. The case of Central and Eastern European countries," Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Issues, VsI Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Center, vol. 8(3), pages 226-247, March.
    13. Vipulesh Shardeo & Bishal Dey Sarkar, 2024. "Adoption of hydrogen‐fueled freight transportation: A strategy toward sustainability," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(2), pages 223-240, February.
    14. Sini Laari & Juuso Töyli & Lauri Ojala, 2018. "The effect of a competitive strategy and green supply chain management on the financial and environmental performance of logistics service providers," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(7), pages 872-883, November.
    15. Rajat Deb, 2018. "Financial Audit or Forensic Audit? Government Sector Panorama," Indian Journal of Corporate Governance, , vol. 11(2), pages 135-158, December.
    16. Sara Perotti & Lorenzo Bruno Prataviera & Marco Melacini, 2022. "Assessing the environmental impact of logistics sites through CO2eq footprint computation," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(4), pages 1679-1694, May.
    17. Banjo Roxas, 2022. "Eco‐innovations of firms: A longitudinal analysis of the roles of industry norms and proactive environmental strategy," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(1), pages 515-531, January.
    18. Rajat Deb, 2019. "Accounting Theory Coherence Revisited," Management and Labour Studies, XLRI Jamshedpur, School of Business Management & Human Resources, vol. 44(1), pages 36-57, February.
    19. Sadia Samar Ali & Rajbir Kaur & Filiz Ersöz & Bothinah Altaf & Arati Basu & Gerhard-Wilhelm Weber, 2020. "Measuring carbon performance for sustainable green supply chain practices: a developing country scenario," Central European Journal of Operations Research, Springer;Slovak Society for Operations Research;Hungarian Operational Research Society;Czech Society for Operations Research;Österr. Gesellschaft für Operations Research (ÖGOR);Slovenian Society Informatika - Section for Operational Research;Croatian Operational Research Society, vol. 28(4), pages 1389-1416, December.
    20. Steffen Maas & Tassilo Schuster & Evi Hartmann, 2018. "Stakeholder Pressures, Environmental Practice Adoption and Economic Performance in the German Third-party Logistics Industry—A Contingency Perspective," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 88(2), pages 167-201, February.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:11:p:5845-:d:560250. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.