Freight traffic impacts and logistics inefficiencies in India: Policy interventions and solution concepts for sustainable city logistics.

Pani, Agnivesh, Sahu, Prasanta and Santos, Georgina ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8446-8297 2022. Freight traffic impacts and logistics inefficiencies in India: Policy interventions and solution concepts for sustainable city logistics. Transportation in Developing Economies 8 , 31. 10.1007/s40890-022-00161-8

Preview

PDF - Published Version Available under License Creative Commons Attribution. Download (2MB) | Preview

Abstract

Freight traffic fulfils not only the business needs of a region to move goods between producers, manufacturers, and end consumers, but also creates a host of unintended environmental, social, and economic impacts. Despite its importance, freight traffic impacts and associated logistic inefficiencies are largely overlooked in the urban transport discussions in developing economies like India. This paper addresses this research gap by outlining the research progress related to freight transport in India and discusses the key problems related to freight system performance. The published literature in the last three decades (1990–2020), policy briefs and institutional reports are explored to summarize key findings and uncover thematic linkages. We categorize the inefficiencies in the freight system into four aspects: (i) long-haul trucking, (ii) last-mile logistics, (iii) freight distribution (inventory level), and (iv) policies and regulations. Apart from identifying the limitations in policy discourse, this paper also explores the possible solution concepts to improve efficiency in freight transport and mitigate the unintended negative externalities in urban areas. The overall conclusion is that increasing and improving infrastructure and equipment, technology and operations, and policy and regulations will go some way towards making freight more efficient in India and reducing congestion and emissions of air pollutants and GHG. The present paper can be expected to promote further freight research and effective policy instrument design in India.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Geography and Planning (GEOPL)
Publisher:	Springer
Funders:	Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS)
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	23 June 2022
Date of Acceptance:	25 May 2022
Last Modified:	03 May 2023 03:38
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/150736

Actions (repository staff only)

Edit Item