8 Synthesis and Lessons from Cases
The main lessons across the cases concern a number of topics; we discuss these
below:
• Importance of understanding logistics decisions
• Results suggest trade-off between acceptance and impact
• Identified gaps in research
8.1 Importance of Understanding Logistics Decision-Making
The cases presented vary widely in terms of the logistics decisions considered. The
exact influence of every decision on the entire impact chain – between truck costs
and truck volumes – is still largely uncharted territory. Systematic reviews of price
elasticities of road transport flows do exist (de Jong et al. 2010; Beuthe et al. 2014),
but only give a partial account of decisions, as focusing on mode choice-based price
sensitivity. As we see from the national cases, however, it is important to include
aspects such as inventories and logistics efficiency. Also, the choice of vehicle type
is relevant. This series of logistics decisions can act as a buffer in the impact chain,
dampening the effect of price increases. Only recently, new elasticities on distribution channel-redesign have been investigated (Davydenko 2015). For many other
logistics reorganization responses, the impact at a macro level is unclear. A separate
issue concerns the degree to which carriers van transfer the price increase to their
clients (Holguín-Veras et al. 2015). More work is needed that describes the behaviour of a population of consecutive logistics decision-makers.
One consequence of the long chains of decision throughout the supply chain is
that price increases will be absorbed to a large extent by the time they reach the
consumer. The global case shows clearly that the intersectoral networks allow many
options to replace polluting products and services by those that pollute less – to an
extent that the final effects will hardly be felt. This effect also appeared in another
comparable study (Lee et al. 2013).
8.2 Trade-Off Between Acceptance and Impact
All studies indicate that current market prices for external costs are too low for
internalization to work through in significant reduced carbon emissions. The corridor
case study shows that carbon prices need to be an order of magnitude above the
prices of this decade (at current, European Emission Allowance prices are varying
roughly between 5 and 30 Euro per tonne). Above levels of 150 Euro/tCO 2 , transport
activity proved relatively unresponsive again, suggesting that the 20% reduction is
the feasible potential for a hinterland network with sufficient options available over
2 The Influence of Logistics Decisions on Transport Decarbonization: Lessons from. . .
31
The main lessons across the cases concern a number of topics; we discuss these
below:
• Importance of understanding logistics decisions
• Results suggest trade-off between acceptance and impact
• Identified gaps in research
8.1 Importance of Understanding Logistics Decision-Making
The cases presented vary widely in terms of the logistics decisions considered. The
exact influence of every decision on the entire impact chain – between truck costs
and truck volumes – is still largely uncharted territory. Systematic reviews of price
elasticities of road transport flows do exist (de Jong et al. 2010; Beuthe et al. 2014),
but only give a partial account of decisions, as focusing on mode choice-based price
sensitivity. As we see from the national cases, however, it is important to include
aspects such as inventories and logistics efficiency. Also, the choice of vehicle type
is relevant. This series of logistics decisions can act as a buffer in the impact chain,
dampening the effect of price increases. Only recently, new elasticities on distribution channel-redesign have been investigated (Davydenko 2015). For many other
logistics reorganization responses, the impact at a macro level is unclear. A separate
issue concerns the degree to which carriers van transfer the price increase to their
clients (Holguín-Veras et al. 2015). More work is needed that describes the behaviour of a population of consecutive logistics decision-makers.
One consequence of the long chains of decision throughout the supply chain is
that price increases will be absorbed to a large extent by the time they reach the
consumer. The global case shows clearly that the intersectoral networks allow many
options to replace polluting products and services by those that pollute less – to an
extent that the final effects will hardly be felt. This effect also appeared in another
comparable study (Lee et al. 2013).
8.2 Trade-Off Between Acceptance and Impact
All studies indicate that current market prices for external costs are too low for
internalization to work through in significant reduced carbon emissions. The corridor
case study shows that carbon prices need to be an order of magnitude above the
prices of this decade (at current, European Emission Allowance prices are varying
roughly between 5 and 30 Euro per tonne). Above levels of 150 Euro/tCO 2 , transport
activity proved relatively unresponsive again, suggesting that the 20% reduction is
the feasible potential for a hinterland network with sufficient options available over
2 The Influence of Logistics Decisions on Transport Decarbonization: Lessons from. . .
31