Energy efficiency of road freight hauliers - A Nordic comparison

In order to promote policy targets for decarbonising road freight, it is important to gain knowledge on the current energy efficiency practices of hauliers in various countries. This research aimed to provide such knowledge to enable international comparison of the energy efficiency practices of road freight hauliers.

This was achieved by replicating the Finnish haulier survey in Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Energy efficiency index was developed to provide a simple metric for international comparison. The EEL covers various aspects of energy efficiency to provide a comprehensive outlook into the issue. The monitoring practices are fairly similar in all four countries, with typical monitoring done manually when filling the tank and data kept on a computer.

Tonne-kilometre data is rarely monitored, but some other performance measures may be used. Current level of implementation of various energy efficiency actions is rather similar between the four countries. The simple and inexpensive actions, like choosing the lorry according to the cargo and idling avoidance, are most widely implemented.

The energy efficiency index developed in this research proved to be a very useful tool for comparing the hauliers in the four countries. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.