Study of the impact of technological innovations on the sustainable freight transport

Abstract

When considering the environmental impact of freight transport, the road mode assumes special relevance due to differences in environmental performance, mainly in terms of resource consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, in addition to other pollutants and noise. To make freight transport more environmentally sustainable, the European Commission’s plan is the Sustainable and Intelligent Mobility Strategy, which aims to sharply reduce transport emissions by 2050. In this sense, technology and innovation should be part of the companies’ objectives, to promote sustainable and continued development. This study was developed with the main purpose of understanding whether road freight transport companies in Portugal use new technologies to adopt a more sustainable environmental behaviour. This research also allowed a better comprehension of the types of investments being made, the main reasons that lead companies to invest in technology, and to understand the main difficulties associated with the adoption of sustainable measures. The data to support this study were collected through an online questionnaire directed to medium and large companies. The answers obtained correspond to 12% of the population. The large and medium-sized Portuguese companies that answered the survey are aware of and are investing in technological innovations with a view to sustainable goods transport. They understand the importance of including sustainable practices in the definition of their strategies, specially in route management and cargo planning and consolidation. Investing in technology is a unanimous strategy used to reduce GHG emissions and the reasons that lead companies to invest are the improvement in environmental performance, cost control and the consequent achievement of competitive advantages. It was highlighted that hydrogen will play a key role in the energy transition because it has storage capacity and flexibility to be used also in various sectors of the economy, being seen as the best solution for heavy duty vehicles.