The longer and heavier vehicle debate: A review of empirical evidence from Germany

Abstract

HIGHLIGHTS• Evaluation of LHVs from a supply chain perspective.• An extensive range of trials in one country, Germany.• According to the findings, the vast majority of the research participants are interested in the adoption of LHVs regardless of the size of their companies.• The feasibility of LHVs is evaluated from eco-efficiency perspective. ABSTRACTThis paper aims to evaluate the likely effects of the adoption of Longer Heavier Vehicles (LHVs) from the perspective of logistics service providers (LSPs). The research consists of six case studies and a survey of companies which were involved LHV trials in Germany. Wider introduction of LHVs is being increasingly demanded so that road freight transport can better serve and support modern supply chains whilst achieving the desired eco-efficiency advancements. Available literature on LHVs puts a particular emphasis on five factors that need to be included in the assessment of their impact: energy efficiency, CO2 emissions, costs, safety and infrastructure. The research provides an original and innovative empirical study refining and validating the current conceptual framework for assessing LHVs demonstrating it is a valuable tool and providing evidence that the vast majority of companies participating in our study, regardless of their size, were interested in the adoption of LHVs. However, it should be noted that a key limitation of the research is that by focusing on a single country case, the nature and scale of the findings may not reflect practice in other countries and sectors. There is also a need to examine the long-term sustainability of the improvements made.

Environmental Sustainability in Third-Party Logistics Service Providers: A Systematic Literature Review from 2000–2016

“…13 Implementation of energy efficiency actions to improve road freight transport [91][92][93][94][95][96][97].…”

Decarbonizing intraregional freight systems with a focus on modal shift

“…Increasing the maximum permissible truck size and weight to more than 70 tons can decrease the carbon intensity [110], but could make road freight cheaper and induce a shift away from rail and water [3,12]. The effect on the relative share of road and rail freight of allowing LHVs varies by country, depending on the associated cost reductions and the fraction of rail freight that is containerized [110,180]. Predictions of the modal shift potential of LHV policies are difficult, since modal cross-elasticity values are uncertain and many current studies were conducted by groups with an interest in promoting one or the other mode [109,110].…”

“…A study in Sweden found that allowing longer vehicles capable of carrying two containers for intermodal drayage can reduce total intermodal transportation costs by 5%-10% [181]. There is a need for more research on role of LHVs for low-carbon intermodal freight transportation [180].…”

Possible Impact of Long and Heavy Vehicles in the United Kingdom—A Commodity Level Approach

“…"A Review of Megatrucks" [3] highlighted the key findings from eight of these studies and stated that "there is widespread agreement that LHVs would reduce operating costs of road freight and greenhouse gas emissions per tonne-km of goods transported". Most research also agrees that vehicle mileage, transport costs, and emissions of road freight transport will be reduced on company level and also on national aggregate level if LHVs are introduced, or that these would increase if the LHVs currently in operation in countries such as Finland, Sweden, Canada, and Australia would be replaced with standard heavy goods vehicles [3,[10][11][12][13].…”