Sustainable measures for the large goods fleet of DHL Express the Netherlands

Abstract

Driving forces for transport companies to implement sustainable fleet measures are the rising demand for green transportation and consciousness for the importance of a sustainable responsible business. Furthermore, transport companies face difficulties with upcoming stringent legislation on environmental zone access. Challenges rise when sustainable measures need to be implemented, since most measures are still in their infancy or no elaborate experience is available and since environmental benefits have to be balanced with investments. The aim of this research is to assist DHL the Netherlands with the sustainability strategy decision-making process. The research focused primarily on opportunities for reducing C02-emissions, by presenting measures which can be applied on the large goods fleet of the Express division of DHL the Netherlands. The main research question was formulated as follows: 'To what extent can the transport of large goods of DHL the Netherlands be optimized from the perspective of C02-reduction and under which conditions will a reduction in CO2-emission in practice actually occur?'