Management of the procurement of transport services to reduce CO2 emissions

Licentiate thesis, 2023

It is important for shippers to purposefully manage the procurement of transport services internally (inward) and in relation to their transport providers and customers (outward) to reduce CO2 emissions. Further, contextual factors’ influence on the procurement of transport services needs to be understood to reduce CO2 emissions. Previous research suggests that shippers face challenges in realising their climate commitment in the procurement of transport services when it comes to both inward and outward settings. This thesis sets out to explore how such climate commitment can be realised.

This licentiate thesis is a compilation of three papers based on a survey study and a case study in Sweden. The findings indicate that the realisation of the climate commitment in the procurement of transport services implies that the transport procurement is managed to ensure alignment on climate performance with transport providers and customers. Outward managerial practices include the specification of climate-related criteria for transport providers and consolidating deliveries to customers. It was also found that the realisation of the climate commitment implies that the transport performance metrics are adapted to the climate commitment. The findings of this thesis highlights the importance of inward managerial practices which are centred around selecting and maintaining transport performance metrics in a way that the climate performance is balanced against other transport performance goals such as transport time and time precision. Further, it was noted that shippers adapt the degree to which they specify transport-related criteria (e.g., transport time and time precision) to the context in which they operate; that can have moderating effects on the realisation of the climate commitment.