Sustainable Road Freight Logistics - A Holistic New Zealand Perspective on Addressing Roadblocks towards Sustainability

Abstract

Freight logistics has seen a rapid development since containerisation. This led to the industry consuming massive amounts of already depleting resources, like crude oil, and increasing carbon emissions, causing sustainability concerns on environmental and societal dimensions. If this rapid development is not monitored, this may lead to irreversible damage to profits, people and the planet. In the literature, logistics based research tends to address sustainability from a single subject matter perspective, generally from either an economic, environmental, or societal dimension. However, these three dimensions relate to each other; as such, researching them in isolation does not present the complete picture in their sustainability status. Conversely, some of the holistic research that was completed encompassing the three dimensions lacked operational and managerial implications due to its abstract, high level view. This leaves professionals within the industry with few tools and information to reach the necessary sustainability standards. Additionally, the literature lacks freight logistics studies in a NZ context, and the paucity of sustainability based research in freight logistics from a NZ perspective is even greater. The purpose of this research is to attempt to fill an important gap in the literature that relates to sustainability in freight logistics. In order to do this, this research identifies roadblocks in road freight logistics that hinder the sustainability of the three dimensions, within the NZ context. After identifying the roadblocks, this research endeavours to present an understanding of how they relate to each other. This is then complemented by providing road freight logistics professionals with recommendations for measuring and managing sustainability through a synthesis of academia and industry. Ethnographic style research was employed in this study, with qualitative data collected from both fieldwork and interviews. Fieldwork was conducted as part of the researcher's involvement in the field, complemented by interviews undertaken with 10 professionals of various levels of management and operations. The data gathered from 215 combined years of experience provides a holistic view of the roadblocks that have significant impact on sustainability. Key artefacts resulting from this research are:(a) identifying roadblocks with heavy impact on sustainability in road freight logistics, (b) a road freight logistics causal diagram to understand the problem variables and their interrelationships, and (c) recommendations to overcome sustainability roadblocks, which includes a proposal of sustainability indicators specific for road freight logistics. Several roadblocks were found in the industry. The most influential being fierce competition, the newly updated road user charges tax, the current restrictions on maximum size and load weight of current vehicles and configurations, as well as alcohol and substance use by drivers and their subsequent effects on safety. Furthermore, a list of indicators is created from both the current literature and the research for road freight logistics professional's use to aid them in measuring sustainability standards. The key research contributions of this work are manifold, particularly to the fields of sustainability, road freight logistics, and NZ grounded research. Furthermore, this research has both global and NZ specific implications at the operational, tactical, strategic and managerial levels of the road freight industry. Moreover, it has NZ specific recommendations for the road freight logistics industry and the government as to what change is needed in order to increase the current sustainability status within the country. Finally the results of this research are an attempt to fill the literature gaps with the research findings and the tools it has presented.