Collaborative transportation sharing: from theory to practice via a case study from France

The freight transportation industry is a major source of employment and supports the economic development of the country. However, freight transportation has many negative aspects including congestion and environmental disturbance, which negatively affect quality of life, particularly in urban areas. Both the new trends in retail and commerce organization and the technological innovation in supply chain management and distribution planning have led decision makers to consider collaborative strategies to reduce overall cost and pollution emissions, and improve social management of the supply process (see papers concerned with sustainable development and transport and logistics management). In freight distribution, the most popular collaborative strategy is that of logistics sharing. This can take place at the transport level, but also in warehousing, inventory and other operations. These strategies are based on collaborative decision making and information sharing. They usually take the form of agreements and partnerships. The main aspects of collaborative logistics in production and supply management have been recently reviewed, however logistics sharing in freight distribution remains a less explored subject in the literature, but commonly observed in several real-life cases.