Operational freight transport efficiency 
                    – a critical perspective 
         
         
                            Niklas Arvidsson 
                         niklas.arvidsson@handels.gu.se 
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
                       Licentiate in Business Administration 
                            November 2011 
                                  
         
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          Acknowledgements	
           
          I would like to extend my deepest gratitude to my supervisors Johan Woxenius and Catrin 
          Lammgård for mentoring, constructive feedback and allowing me to answer the RQs in a 
          manner I felt comfortable with. I am heartily grateful to my colleagues and friends Ala, 
          Fredrik, Vendela, Helen, Ove, Neil, Allan, Benedikte, Östen, Magnus, Zoi, Mike, Anders, 
          Jonas, Taylan, Ali, Edith, Karin, Marcus, Inge, Anna, Rickard, Martin, Christina, Lars, Carl, 
          Catrin and Johan for fruitful feedback and open discussions. This paper would not have been 
          possible without the support of Vinnova, Northern Lead, the Logistics and Transport Society 
          LTS, Volvo Logistics, DB Schenker, Stora Enso, Västra Götaland Region, and City of 
          Göteborg Traffic & Transport Authority. Finally, I offer my regards to all of those who 
          supported me in any respect during the completion of the project, especially my family and 
          girlfriend. Thanks all for making this process such a great experience, my apologies for those 
          not mentioned here. All remaining mistakes are solely mine.  
           
          Göteborg, On a beautiful November day 2011 
           
            
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        Abstract	
         
        Freight transport efficiency, as one proposed abatement strategy for transport related 
        emissions, is a concept that has received much research attention the last decade, often from 
        the transport buyers’ perspective. In contrast, the aim of this research is to explore the subset 
        concept of operational freight transport efficiency and how it affects transport related 
        emissions. The focus is on the transport operators and their interfaces with other actors such 
        as transport providers/forwarders, transport buyers, and society. The concept is argued to be 
        “fuzzy”, in the sense that it means different things depending on who you ask, and a “wicked 
        problem”, in the sense that the problem has no clear solutions with significant and present 
        tradeoffs. The methodology or vessel used in this licentiate thesis to launch a “critical spirit” 
        is “phronetic social science”. After phronetically testing these efficiency measures some 
        recommendations are presented in paper 1. A suggestion on operational decarbonisation is 
        provided in paper 2 and the attitudes and trade-offs among the actors are explored in paper 3. 
        This thesis identifies a gap in the sense that a common semantic definition of the concept of 
        operational freight transport efficiency measures do not exist. The thesis proposes that the gap 
        be filled with the following derived definition of operational freight transport efficiency: “A 
        set of utilisation measures of time, space, vehicle, fuel and driver in the movement of goods”. 
        From the operators point of view as well as from an aggregated level, another gap is the trade-
        offs between environmental and economic considerations. Most operational freight transport 
        efficiency improvement measures are likely to reduce emissions, however; it is probable that 
        mere cost-reduction measures will not lead to reduced emissions in the long term. The 
        traverse across these topics represented by the present thesis is offered as a theoretical 
        contribution to the discussion about defining what is meant by sustainable logistics. In other 
        words, what the word sustainable means in a logistics context. 
         
         
         
         
        Keywords: operational freight transport efficiency, operator, sustainability, logistics, 
        phronetic  
         
         
         
         
         
         
        Author: Niklas Arvidsson 
        Language: English 
        Pages: 124 
        Licentiate Thesis 2011 
         
        Department of Business Administration 
        School of Business, Economics and Law 
        University of Gothenburg 
        P.O Box 610, SE 405 30 Göteborg, Sweden 
          
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                      Content	
                 Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................... ii 
                 Abstract ..................................................................................................................................... iii 
                 1     Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 1 
                    1.1     Framing the problem ................................................................................................... 2 
                    1.2     Purpose ........................................................................................................................ 4 
                    1.3     Research questions ...................................................................................................... 4 
                    1.4     Delimitations ............................................................................................................... 4 
                    1.5     Bridging theory and methodology with research questions and papers ...................... 5 
                    1.6     Outline ......................................................................................................................... 6 
                 2     Theory ................................................................................................................................. 8 
                    2.1     Transportation as a flow .............................................................................................. 8 
                    2.2     Transportation as a chain ............................................................................................. 9 
                    2.3     Operational ................................................................................................................ 10 
                    2.4     Derived or induced demand ....................................................................................... 11 
                    2.5     Business administration perspective on efficiency .................................................... 13 
                    2.6     Operations management and logistics perspective on efficiency .............................. 15 
                    2.7     Examining drivers of output and demand in a transportation context ....................... 17 
                    2.8     Implications from theory ........................................................................................... 18 
                 3     Methodology ..................................................................................................................... 21 
                    3.1     Introducing phronesis ................................................................................................ 23 
                    3.2     Case studies ............................................................................................................... 24 
                    3.3     Data collection and research process ......................................................................... 26 
                    3.4     Critical theory ............................................................................................................ 28 
                    3.5     Critical theory in transportation ................................................................................. 30 
                    3.6     Research quality ........................................................................................................ 31 
                 4     Results ............................................................................................................................... 35 
                    4.1     Defining operational freight transport efficiency ...................................................... 35 
                    4.2     Opportunities and barriers ......................................................................................... 36 
                    4.3     Possible implications ................................................................................................. 40 
                 5     Concluding discussion ...................................................................................................... 41 
                    5.1     Conclusions ............................................................................................................... 41 
                    5.2     Future research .......................................................................................................... 44 
                 References ................................................................................................................................ 48 
                 Appendix A .............................................................................................................................. 58 
                 Appendix B .............................................................................................................................. 59 
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