Transport Efficiency: Analysing the Transport Service Triad

Licentiate thesis, 2019

This thesis deals with transport services and transport efficiency. There are growing environmental concerns for many industries and the freight transport industry in particular faces challenges in reducing its CO2 emissions. It has been argued that technical advancements on their own are insufficient in dealing with environmental impact from road freight transport and that one way forward could be to look at how firms organise and exchange transport services. The exchange of transport services are highly dependent on the exchange of goods since every exchange of goods generates a demand for transport services. The Transport Service Triad (TST) is introduced as a unit of analysis to explore the connections among firms involved in the exchange of transport services and the exchange of goods. Hence, the aim of this thesis is to study how the organising of transport services impacts on transport efficiency by taking a triadic approach.

The theoretical framework is based on the Industrial Network Approach. This approach, with its three interrelated concepts; activities, resources, and actors, are used to capture transport efficiency on various levels in the network. A single case study approach is used to study a focal TST that illustrates the business relationships among three actors, the seller of transport services (a haulier), the seller of goods (a technical wholesaler), and the buyer of goods (a construction firm). The study shows how a TST approach provides a broader scope for analysis of transport efficiency than a firm or dyadic perspective since it captures all relevant parties in the exchange of transport services. Moreover, the study shows how improving transport efficiency from one actor’s perspective might not align with other actors’ views on improved transport efficiency or might conflict with other aspects of efficiency. To manage these issues interaction among firms is necessary to secure that the needed adjustments and adaptations of activities and resources are accomplished.