Skip to main content

Excessive packaging causes unnecessary road traffic

Bernhard Simon, chief executive of Dachser, a Germany-headquartered European logistic provider, says he believes that one in five truck journeys would not be necessary if superfluous packaging was avoided. This could reduce annual carbon dioxide emissions by up to eight million tons he believes. In 2005 CO2 emissions from road cargo transport in Germany amounted to 36.7 million tons and the Federal Environment Agency has forecast emissions to rise to 44.4 million tons by 2020.
May 17, 2012 Read time: 1 min
Bernhard Simon, chief executive of 5597 Dachser, a Germany-headquartered European logistic provider, says he believes that one in five truck journeys would not be necessary if superfluous packaging was avoided. This could reduce annual carbon dioxide emissions by up to eight million tons he believes. In 2005 CO2 emissions from road cargo transport in Germany amounted to 36.7 million tons and the 5598 Federal Environment Agency has forecast emissions to rise to 44.4 million tons by 2020.

Julia Wolf, logistics professor at the European Business School in Wiesbaden, argues that transport costs are too low. She says that transport costs account for 15 per cent of the price of a product on average, and 20 per cent of the transport costs depends on the road carrier's utilisation rate. The more links a distribution chain consist of, the greater is the likelihood of excessive packaging.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Freight poses growing problem for city authorities
    March 3, 2017
    Wes Guckert considers possible solutions and countermeasures to the problems of increased freight deliveries in growing cities. In January 2016, the US Department of Transportation (USDoT) conducted a session on the SmartCity Challenge and Urban Freight and Logistics. This session was a follow-up to the USDoT report titled, Beyond Traffic 2045.
  • Highways Agency publishes 2013 ROI report
    January 16, 2014
    Between 2002 and 2012 over US$5.7 billion was invested on substantial capital investment projects to improve the strategic road network in the UK. The Highways Agency has now published its 2013 Post Opening Project Evaluation (POPE) Meta report is now available on the Agency website, which it says represents the most comprehensive evaluation programme of expenditure within UK transport. Detailed appraisals of individual schemes are also carried out before they are put forward for construction. The broa
  • Major funding for UK’s low carbon automotive technology
    January 19, 2016
    Five new innovative projects to develop new low carbon and energy efficient technology in the automotive sector have been awarded US$107 million of joint UK government and industry funding. The measure, which is set to boost jobs and growth in the sector, was announced today by Business Secretary, Sajid Javid, on a visit to the Morgan Motor Company. The funding has been awarded by the Advanced Propulsion Centre, a 10-year, US$1.4 billion joint partnership between Government and the automotive industry. T
  • TransCore to provide AET forOrange County toll roads
    April 17, 2013
    Toll roads in Orange County California are due to go cashless and all-electronic (AET) in the spring of 2014 according to an announcement from the Transportation Corridors Agencies (TCA) which has just has just approved a contracts with TransCore. The contract is for US$36.42 million and provides for provision of a new toll system that is regular AET mix of RFID transponder tolling and image based licence plate reads in an open road setting. TransCore will also maintain the system for ten years. A statement