At both the micro and macro scale, there are many market forces—such as fuel prices, vehicle technology costs, capital restrictions—that influence the degree to which improved fuel efficiency is valued in the onroad freight sector. In Europe, as in other regions of the world, there is evidence of slow or limited uptake of certain fuel saving technologies in new and existing vehicles.
Though fuel typically represents a large (often the largest) operating cost for fleets, even technologies with relatively short payback times can see limited adoption due to prohibitive upfront costs, risk aversion to new technology, or a disincentive to invest in more fuel-efficient equipment. Examples of market characteristics that discourage the increased uptake of fuel-saving technologies include split incentives (often referred to as principal-agent problems), lack of standardized information (information asymmetries), and high barriers to market entry for new technology providers.
Objectives and Scope of Work
The primary motivation of this project is to identify barriers to greater fuel efficiency that currently exist in the European onroad freight sector. The results of this study will help policy makers in Europe and other regions around the world identify the market-based and/or regulatory strategies that can be most effective in combating these barriers. The scope of this work will be:
- Europe-wide
- Focused on goods transportation, including long-haul as well as regional and urban delivery
- Inclusive of the various actors within the freight system: transport companies, manufacturers (OEMs and suppliers), third party logistics (3PL) firms, and shippers
Links to the surveys for:
