Freight transport faces a dual challenge: it must satisfy the demands of globalized trade and meet environmental requirements. In this context, innovation is a crucial topic to enable the transition from the current transportation and logistics system to a sustainable system. This book provides an overview of the latest technological innovations in Europe and worldwide, based on ICT and new vehicle concepts, for all modes and all scales (urban, regional, national or international). The authors consider innovation supply, the process of innovation and innovative business models. Some perspectives and solutions are proposed on the deployment of innovation, specifically concerning the transformation of the organization of the system and the relationships between industry, governmental players, operators and users.

Examining non-technological innovations for environmentally and socially-friendly transport, this book provides the reader with a better understanding of this often overlooked topic. It features four illustrative case studies, and presents a concise review of the core transport modes (road, rail and marine transport). Transport companies are compelled to innovate due to economic and environmental pressures, and the aim of these innovations is to improve fuel efficiency and ultimately to transform energy use in the transport sector. Whilst many of these innovations are technological, they can conversely be non-technological in nature. This book is intended for students and researchers interested in economics, environmental economics and economics of innovation. It also offers a useful resource to industry professionals interested in ecology and transport.

This contributed volume presents state-of-the-art advances in logistics theory in various fields as well as case studies. The book reports on a number of recently conducted studies in the Dinalog and the EffizienzCluster LogistikRuhr, thus bridging the gap between different perspectives of theoretical and applied research. A selection of theoretical topics, practical examples, case studies and project reports is presented in this volume. The editors carefully selected contributions from a wide variety of projects, which were carried out in both the Dinalog cluster and the Effizienzcluster LogistikRuhr. The contributions are grouped in five main sections, each representing key domains in the evolution of logistics and supply chain management: sustainability, urban logistics, value chain management, IT-based innovation, knowledge management. This book is intended for both researchers and practitioners in the field of logistics and supply chain management, to serve as an important source of information for further research as well as to stimulate further innovation.

Abstract: This empirical paper sheds light on a significant element of the debate of whether infrastructure services have a strong impact on economic development by exploring the impact of innovative road freight services on downstream business users. The paper uses a new and purpose-specific survey of 165 logistics service providers and 493 user enterprises in food processing, food distribution, and the automotive industry in the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland. The main findings are that there are substantial downstream benefits from innovations in road freight services, both dampening cost increases and raising sales revenues of business users. The additional finding that increased intensity of competition in road freight services is significantly associated with the provision of innovative services suggests that easing any remaining barriers to competition in upstream business sectors should be a priority.

Approximately 80 per cent of European and American citizens live in an urban environment. Due to their large populations and extensive commercial establishments, urban areas require large quantities of goods and services for commercial and domestic use. This results in increasing levels of demand for freight transport services. Freight transport in towns and cities is a major contributor to environmental impacts, particularly to local air pollution and noise. Urban Logistics addresses public policy makers, freight transport companies and receivers of supplies, providing them with the information and guidance to affect change in the logistics of the city. Urban Logistics is written by an outstanding team of international editors combining their expertise and using their research from leading business schools in Sweden and the US. There are also valuable contributions from academics and industry experts from companies and universities from all over the world. The book includes clear examples of initiatives that work and business case developments, as well as toolkits for policymakers and managers who are devising new initiatives. There is an in-depth examination of different aspects of urban logistics, such as retail logistics for cities, urban food supply chains, services and the special logistics requirements involved, construction, waste management and e-commerce and home delivery. There is also a focus on networks and partnerships and an analysis of innovation as a new constant.

Trucking Country is a social history of long-haul trucking that explores the contentious politics of free-market capitalism in post-World War II America. Shane Hamilton paints an eye-opening portrait of the rural highways of the American heartland, and in doing so explains why working-class populist voters are drawn to conservative politicians who seemingly don't represent their financial interests. Hamilton challenges the popular notion of "red state" conservatism as a devil's bargain between culturally conservative rural workers and economically conservative demagogues in the Republican Party. The roots of rural conservatism, Hamilton demonstrates, took hold long before the culture wars and free-market fanaticism of the 1990s. As Hamilton shows, truckers helped build an economic order that brought low-priced consumer goods to a greater number of Americans. They piloted the big rigs that linked America's factory farms and agribusiness food processors to suburban supermarkets across the country. Trucking Country is the gripping account of truckers whose support of post-New Deal free enterprise was so virulent that it sparked violent highway blockades in the 1970s. It's the story of "bandit" drivers who inspired country songwriters and Hollywood filmmakers to celebrate the "last American cowboy," and of ordinary blue-collar workers who helped make possible the deregulatory policies of Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan and set the stage for Wal-Mart to become America's most powerful corporation in today's low-price, low-wage economy. Some images inside the book are unavailable due to digital copyright restrictions.

This book supports companies in the transport sector, political decision-makers, transport engineers, planners and scientists doing fundamental research who are confronted by growing challenges in transport. These challenges arise from a number of powerful socio-technical trends, including: digitalisation, globalisation, urbanisation, and the requirements of individual users and the increased need to reduce environmental impact of transport. Providing the innovations required to cope with these challenges is not a simple matter. Towards Innovative Transport Systems structures and compiles theoretical foundations from evolutionary economics, the sociology of technology and innovation research in a way that provides a broad understanding of innovation processes without demanding prior knowledge. Using the Concept of Transport System Evolution (CTSE), it explains in depth the economics of innovation in the transport sector, thus contextualising processes, drivers and obstacles at work in current practice; among such processes are the changeover to electric mobility, the realization of autonomous cars, the revival of railway by innovations and dealing with disruptive innovations in transport. The CTSE is an approach to making concrete the multi-level perspective for the transport sector introduced by Frank Geels. On the basis of the CTSE, the author proposes principles for a novel innovation policy in transport that can serve the reader as a guide when making strategic decisions.

Serious problems and risks can be observed in European freight transportation development. However, the transport and logistics sector shows a lack of tradition in utilising systematic innovation management to overcome these problems. Hence, this volume puts forward a specific and comprehensive Systemic Migration-Oriented Innovation Management Method. Within the scope of this research, seven case studies of European freight transport innovations have been conducted using this method. They offer a broad, comprehensive and up-to-date view concerning different carriers, degrees of automation, and corridors across Europe. These case studies demonstrate how implementations of innovations may be performed successfully.

This edited volume aims to describe the transformation of supply chain management (SCM) and logistics services by merging sustainable logistics, SCM, sustainable consumption and lifestyle research. This assessment of the transformation potential serves the development of sustainable business models and optimized decision-making systems for achieving sustainable economic value creation within a green economy. In 5 sections, the volume takes a unique transdisciplinary approach to assess sustainable business practices within SCM and the logistics sector, and to understand the interactions between logistics services and consumer lifestyles while creating transparency within the decision making process. This book will be of particular interest to academics, policymakers, planners, and politicians. Section 1 introduces readers to the importance of blended research and innovation between sustainable SCM and consumer lifestyles for transformation towards a green economy. Section 2 addresses the question of how trends and developments in consumption behavior and lifestyles influence the development of sustainable logistics. Section 3 discusses the transformation potential towards sustainable logistics using the food sector as an example. Section 4 focuses on strategic decision making in SCM, and how long-term improvements of sustainability performance can be achieved. Section 5 concludes with policy recommendations as well as research and innovation perspectives for future sustainable development with SCM and logistics.

Urban Freight Transportation Systems offers new insights into the complexities of today's urban freight transport system. It provides a much needed multidisciplinary perspective from researchers in not only transportation, but also engineering, business management, planning and the law. The book examines numerous critical issues, such as strategies for delivery, logistics and freight transport spatial patterns, urban policy assessment, innovative transportation technologies, urban hubs, and the role factories play in the urban freight transport system. The book offers a novel conceptual approach for addressing the problems of production, logistics and traffic in an urban context. As most of the world's population now live in cities, thus significantly increasing commercial traffic, there are numerous challenges for efficiently and sustainably delivering goods into cities. This book provides solutions and tactics to those challenges. Includes interdisciplinary contributors from around the globe Provides never-before-published original research to help users stay current and develop a deeper understanding of the field Presents the methods and results of research that is useful for both academics and practitioners