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

  • Benefits of car share quantified
    May 21, 2012
    San Francisco Bay Area had fewer greenhouse gas emissions and less congestion in 2010 due to City CarShare's (CCS) service. According to results third-party studies and 2010 CCS data, City CarShare members saved US$82 million (over the cost of car ownership) and contributed to a greener environment by reducing 60 million pounds of CO2 emissions last year. Additionally, City CarShare, a Bay Area nonprofit, stated it continued to achieve financial sustainability in 2010, ensuring the 10-year old organisation
  • Lagos to get mass transit system
    February 5, 2013
    Lagos, Nigeria, is about to get a mass transit system with a difference, which the manufacturer says will play its part in reducing congestion and air pollution in the city. For the first time in the country’s history of Nigeria, a cable car company, Ropeways Transport, is set to launch a cable car mass urban transit system in the nation’s commercial capital. Under the terms of a thirty-year franchise agreement between Ropeways Transport, the Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA) and the Lag
  • Mobile communications could revolutionise traffic management
    February 1, 2012
    Rudolf Mietzner looks at how machine-to-machine technologies and applications will affect the automotive sector in the coming years
  • EU having ‘intense’ discussions over ‘low-carbon mobility’ goals
    June 3, 2016
    According to Maroš Šefčovič, the Commission vice-president for the Energy Union, the European Commission is having “very intense discussions” with member states over the individual emissions reduction percentage that they will be assigned to reduce emissions in sectors not covered by the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), says Euractiv. Šefčovič devoted substantial attention to the situation in the non-ETS sector and to the issue of ‘low-carbon mobility’, or reducing emissions from transport. The non-ETS se