Best practices in road transport: An exploratory study

Journal of Industrial Engineering and Management, Apr 2018

Purpose: Road transport aspects are becoming increasingly important due to their high impact on economic, environmental and social sustainability. Considering the triple bottom line approach, best practices play a fundamental role within organisations. The purpose of this paper is to analyse several sustainable initiatives in road transport adopted by companies.Design/methodology/approach: The findings were developed and evaluated based on empirical data captured through a survey of 98 professionals involved in logistics and transport activities. Additionally, key literature on transport initiatives was reviewed to supplement the framework for the implementation of best practices in road transport.Findings: The exploratory study shows the importance of each best practice and determines the level of implementation of each initiative, comparing the results among different dealers (retailers, wholesalers, carriers and manufacturers), type of transport fleet and companies’ revenues.Research limitations/implications: The sample of 98 companies was based on simple search filters and the group is not wholly representative of all sectors. Respondents were mainly managers from Spain involved in logistics and transport activities. Surveyed companies included manufacturing, retailers, wholesalers and third-party logistics providers.Practical implications: The most common best practices in road transport are identified, including initiatives related to: efficiency, reusability, safety, optimization, emissions, waste and recycling. Initiatives that influence road transport are ranked by their degree of implementation in the companies analysed. Social implications: Implementation of some of these best practices may help lessen negative impacts of road transport on society and the environment.Originality/value: The study results indicate which practices are most frequently used and their level of implementation depending on companies’ roles in the supply chain, revenues and types of transport fleet. By implementing the proposed best practices, companies will adopt sustainable behaviors to improve their transport performance.

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Best practices in road transport: An exploratory study

Journal of Industrial Engineering and Management JIEM 2013-0953 Best Practices in Road Transport: An Exploratory Study Mar Fernández Vázquez-Noguerol 0 Iván González-Boubeta 0 Pablo Dominguez-Caamaño José Carlos Prado-Prado 0 0 Escuela de Ingeniería Industrial, Universidad de Vigo , Spain Purpose: Road transport aspects are becoming increasingly important due to their high impact on economic, environmental and social sustainability. Considering the triple bottom line approach, best practices play a fundamental role within organisations. The purpose of this paper is to analyse several sustainable initiatives in road transport adopted by companies. Design/methodology/approach: The findings were developed and evaluated based on empirical data captured through a survey of 98 professionals involved in logistics and transport activities. Additionally, key literature on transport initiatives was reviewed to supplement the framework for the implementation of best practices in road transport. Findings: The exploratory study shows the importance of each best practice and determines the level of implementation of each initiative, comparing the results among different dealers (retailers, wholesalers, carriers and manufacturers), type of transport fleet and companies' revenues. Research limitations/implications: The sample of 98 companies was based on simple search filters and the group is not wholly representative of all sectors. Respondents were mainly managers from Spain involved in logistics and transport activities. Surveyed companies included manufacturing, retailers, wholesalers and third-party logistics providers. Practical implications: The most common best practices in road transport are identified, including initiatives related to: efficiency, reusability, safety, optimization, emissions, waste and recycling. Initiatives that influence road transport are ranked by their degree of implementation in the companies analysed. Social implications: Implementation of some of these best practices may help lessen negative impacts of road transport on society and the environment. Originality/value: The study results indicate which practices are most frequently used and their level of implementation depending on companies' roles in the supply chain, revenues and types of transport fleet. By implementing the proposed best practices, companies will adopt sustainable behaviors to improve their transport performance. sustainability; road transport; best practices; supply chain; logistics 1. Introduction The emergence of the global economy and intensified competition among companies have led organisations to recognize the importance of improving supply chain management to maintain a dominant position in the market. In this context, the growing cost of materials, especially oil related, is of great importance, as it represents a significant source of expenditure for companies. In addition, these expenses increased due to the fact that the number of goods consumed in remote areas is increasing. Therefore, companies have been forced to implement a management approach based on waste elimination along the whole supply chain (Canali, Amani, Aramyan, Gheoldus, Moates, Östergren et al., 2016; Wee & Wu, 2009) . This assortment of management techniques is often related to the concept of “Lean Management”, widely discussed in literature. Parallel to these techniques, society also demands changes from companies in social and environmental terms. For this reason, the concept of sustainability is commonly reviewed in literature and its importance is beyond doubt. Elkington’s definition of sustainability (Eklington, 1998) provides a triple bottom line approach, including an economic, an environmental and a social dimension of this concept. According to this author, the three concepts must be considered to be able to meet the requirements and concerns of contemporary society. In this regard, some studies show how social and environmental initiatives may cause a significant positive impact on the economic level (Carter & Rogers, 2008; Oberhofer & Dieplinger, 2014) . For this reason, both concepts “Lean Management” and “sustainability” can and should be fully complementary (Fercoq, Lamouri & Carbone, 2016; García-Arca, González-Portela-Garrido & Prado-Prado, 2017a; García-Arca, González-Portela-Garrido & Prado-Prado, 2017b; Ho, 2010) . In spite of the importance of the integral vision of sustainability, theory and practice do not seem to conceive it in the same way. On the one hand, literature has mainly focused its attention on environmental sustainability practices (Domínguez-Caamaño, Olmedo, Rodríguez-García & Prado-Prado, 2017; Porter & Kramer, 2006) . Thus, economic and social sustainability are concepts rarely discussed in recent literature, especially from a practical point of view. On the other hand, organisations have been able to incorporate the triple bottom line approach into corporate social responsibility practices (...truncated)


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Mar Fernández Vázquez-Noguerol, Iván González-Boubeta, Pablo Domínguez-Caamaño, J. Carlos Prado-Prado. Best practices in road transport: An exploratory study, Journal of Industrial Engineering and Management, 2018, pp. 250-261, Volume 11, Issue 2, DOI: 10.3926/jiem.2525