Policy measures to realise green corridors — A stakeholder perspective

RTBM-00144; No of Pages 8 Research in Transportation Business & Management xxx (2014) xxx–xxx

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Research in Transportation Business & Management

Policy measures to realise green corridors — A stakeholder perspective Magnus Blinge ⁎ Logistics & Transportation, Chalmers University of Technology, 412 96 Gothenburg, Sweden

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history: Received 29 November 2013 Received in revised form 24 May 2014 Accepted 9 June 2014 Available online xxxx Keywords: Sustainable Freight transport Policies Green Corridor

a b s t r a c t The findings from the implementation of economic incentives in Europe, such as CO2 tax and road user charges are encouraging, but it is unlikely to be enough to reduce CO2 emissions from the freight transport sector by the required amount. Creating the so-called Green Corridors is one of the many measures being applied by the EU to make the freight transport sector more sustainable. The aim of this article is to adopt a stakeholder perspective on concepts and measures that will be necessary to establish a successful Green Corridor. A literature review and interviews with experts were used to generate input for a workshop at which stakeholders from academia, government bodies and the transport industry jointly devised new concepts and policy measures for the creation of Green Corridors. A combination of positive incentives, agreements, taxes and regulations is needed to make transport companies willing to participate. A promising pathway employs measures that ensure punctuality and accessibility, but also remove bureaucratic and infrastructural bottlenecks. In return, the transport operators must use significantly improved environmental technology in the corridors. Cooperation between actors is needed in order to raise load factors in the system, by increasing transparency and offering free capacity to other operators in the corridor. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction Governmental intervention in the freight transport sector is not a new phenomenon. McKinnon et al (2010) describes the historical development of policy measures and regulations in the freight transport industry and concludes that, over the last thirty years, most of the quantitative regulations that were established to control the supply of freight transport capacity have been removed. They have been replaced by qualitative controls, designed to maintain operating standards and professionalism in the freight industry. Now, when interest in environmental issues has increased, governments have to introduce new policy measures to steer the freight transport sector towards sustainability. “It is ironic that while liberalization measures have been facilitating the growth of freight movement, governments have been intensifying their efforts to reduce the impact of freight movement on the environment.” [McKinnon et al., 2010, p. 342] As of January 2014, the European Union (EU) has a new transport infrastructure policy, the Trans-European Networks (TENs), that aims to close gaps between the transport networks of individual EU Member States, remove bottlenecks that still hamper the smooth functioning of the internal market and overcome technical barriers. It promotes and ⁎ Tel.: +46 31 772 13 22. E-mail address: [email protected].

strengthens seamless transport chains for passenger and freight. As a step towards making the Trans-European Network — Transport (TEN-T) corridors sustainable, the Green Corridor concept established. For the core network corridors this will involve among other things, identification of methods for the optimisation of corridor development, with a particular focus on CO2 emission reduction (EU Commission, 2014). Establishing Green Corridors is one of the efforts that have been jointly developed by some of the EU member states in order to reduce the impact of freight transport on the environment. A Green Corridor is characterised by a concentration of freight traffic between major hubs and by relatively long distances. Green Corridors should, in all ways, be environmentally friendly, safe and efficient. Green technologies and smart utilisation of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), where available, may also improve service quality and efficiency on those corridors (Bookbinder (2013)). The EWTC II Green Corridors Manual — Draft definition (Tetraplan, 2011a, p. 2) defines Green Corridors as follows: “Green Corridors deliver transport solutions that are more economically, ecologically & socially viable than other (non-green) corridors. The transports within the corridors are efficient, and when possible the optimum transport mode is used.” The importance of using policy measures and other regulatory measures and incentives to promote the realisation of a Green Corridor has been emphasised by two EU funded projects. In the EWTC project stakeholders suggested that the creation of a green corridor will require that

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rtbm.2014.06.007 2210-5395/© 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Please cite this article as: Blinge, M., Policy measures to realise green corridors — A stakeholder perspective, Research in Transportation Business & Management (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rtbm.2014.06.007

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those responsible to, for example, offer lower freight rates for thoseusing green corridors (Tetraplan, 2011b). The “Supergreen” project provided a set of recommendations to public authorities concerning green corridor governance and operational issues (Supergreen, 2013). Governmental policy measures are essential to realise Green Corridors, and they need to be designed to attract the business actors in the transport sector to use them. Hunke and Prause (2013) state that the first experiences of green corridors at a European level are showing that the success and performance of corridors heavily depend on the commitment and cooperation of the various stakeholders involved. Governance models and cultural aspects have been shown to be important success factors in the development of green corridors. It is important therefore that stakeholders are consulted in the development of the public policy initiatives in this field. In the research undertaken for this paper, three categories of stakeholder, government bodies, the transport industry and academic specialists, were consulted with the purpose of identifying the most important policy measures and incentives required to support the development of Green Corridors (EWTC, 2012).

2. Research scope and methods There is not yet enough experience and empirical evidence in the published scientific literature to define the necessary measures for realising a Green Corridor. The literature shows that existing policy measures are primarily based on taxation and regulations and that minor modifications to these policies are unlikely to make freight forwarders change their current transportation patterns and use a Green Corridor (Cardebring & Lundin, 2007; Forss, 2011; Hultén, Gustafsson, & Sundberg, 2006; Liechti & Renshaw, 2007). This is why new public policy ideas and concepts must be developed. These concepts must consider all aspects of sustainability. For instance, environmental, social and economic elements and all actors must be involved in the process to ensure that the measures will be accepted and implemented. Multiple sources of evidence were used in this study to achieve the necessary breadth by subject area and stakeholder group. To define new ideas and new concepts that can form the basis for new policy measures, a qualitative research approach has been developed in cooperation with business and government representatives. Businesses provide input of what is needed and realistic, while authorities are responsible for considering social aspects and what is legally and politically realistic. Mixed stakeholder involvement and experience are, therefore, necessary for building a solid knowledge base and ensuring that outputs of the exercise are accepted by both industry and government. Fig. 1 summarises the iterative nature of the research

Fig. 1. The research process for this article.

design that combines a literature review with an assessment of the perceptions of freight transport actors. Combining existing research findings with new qualitative data, based on stakeholder expertise and experience, is highlighted by Schwanen, Banister, and Anable (2011) as being important for an understanding of complex problems. They argue that successful development of new technologies requires that they become integrated in relevant industries and markets, matching regulations, rules and standards and complying with existing social norms and beliefs. Geels (2012) confirms the view that understanding large-scale transitions to new transport systems requires analytical frameworks that encompass multiple approaches and address interactions between them. He also highlights the importance of analysing the interactions between industry, policymakers, consumers, and civil society. Banister (2008) concludes that, to gain stakeholder commitment to a sustainable mobility paradigm, their open and active involvement is far more effective than the more conventional passive means of persuasion. 2.1. Research method The research was designed in four steps. Firstly, the initial literature search was made using Google Scholar and Summon as search tools. Summon gives access to more than 145 million resources including, for instance, TRID, SAE Digital Library and Technology Research Database. The keywords for the literature search were: sustainable, environment, freight transport, logistics, Green Corridor, policy, economy, incentives and regulation. Secondly, and parallel to the literature study, interviews with five experts in the area of transport policy research were conducted. The primary aim of these interviews was to ensure that the present knowledge base and the contemporary research, as well as relevant references, ongoing projects and initiatives in the area, were covered. The interviews also provided important input to the workshop with the stakeholders. The interviews were carried out in a semi-structured manner enquiring about the experts' experience of this field, in terms of projects, literature, individuals and organisations. In the first round of interviews experts representing research networks in Sweden and UK and the OECD were consulted. The experts were asked which other organisations might be involved with the relevant issues. They were also asked what public policy issues need to be resolved when designing a sustainability programme for freight transport. After having received very similar answers from this initial set of interviews, it was decided that the primary aim of the interview series had been fulfilled and that there was no need to perform a second round of interviews. The interviews were analysed by extracting key elements of answers such as: the critical experiences and research activities and key lessons learned from the passenger transport sector which might be relevant for freight transport. Although the answers from the interviewed experts were coherent and pointed towards, basically, the same projects and experiences, the answers have been separately compiled and are shown anonymously in the section “findings from the interviews”. There was a general consensus that research and experience in this field were lacking. Little work had been done methods of incentivising a reduction in CO2 emissions from freight transport, except in terms of road user Charges, and energy and CO2 taxes on fuel and emission trading systems. The third step in the research process was to analyse and compile the results from the literature review and the interviews and present them as input to a workshop with a stakeholder group of 20 participants from five countries in the Baltic region, representing the transport industry, public authorities and academia. The workshop employed a backcasting methodology (Holmberg & Robèrt, 2000), although, not all elements were included, due to time constraints. As forecasting is the process of predicting the future based on current trend analysis, backcasting starts by defining a desirable future and then works backwards to identify policies and programmes that will connect the future

Please cite this article as: Blinge, M., Policy measures to realise green corridors — A stakeholder perspective, Research in Transportation Business & Management (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rtbm.2014.06.007

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to the present. The workshop participants were asked to imagine that we all meet 25 years from now to celebrate the great success that the Green Corridor concept has turned out to be. The reason for this approach is to release the participants from what they perceive as the present economic and political constraints and encourage them to think more positively about what needs to be done. The workshop focused on two key questions: • What success factors have made it possible to realise a future Green Corridor? • What activities have led to these success factors? A number of success factors, concepts and ideas that relate to defining policy measures for Green Corridors were identified and agreed upon by the workshop participants. The fourth step in the research process took place after the workshop and comprised an analysis of the workshop discussions. Analogous factors were removed and the remaining factors made more distinct and finally categorised. Workshop participants were invited to comment and suggest changes or clarifications of the categorised list of success factors. The fifth step of the research process was an iterative one where the list was agreed upon and the workshop participants were asked to grade the factors in order of importance for successful implementation of a Green Corridor on a scale from 1 to 6 (where 1 meant “not important at all” and 6 “of highest importance”). Seven replies were returned, representing ten of the participants as three of the replies were given by two participants working together. The final step in the research procedure was to make an overall analysis of the findings from the workshop integrating them with the findings from the literature review and earlier interviews. These results of this analysis are discussed in the next section. 3. Findings 3.1. Findings from the literature review In Europe, transport greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions grew for period 1995 to 2007, by about 17% (EU Commission, 2010), whereas, Europe's total emissions were reduced (−3%). This largely reflected a high rate of growth in transport activity, with freight tonne kilometres increasing by 38% (slightly higher than the economic growth of 36%) and passenger-km by 25%. The technical improvements in freight transport were lower than the transport demand increase (Helmreich & Keller, 2011). There are only a limited number of economic incentives implemented today to steer the freight transport sector towards sustainability. Several trials have been made, especially in the urban distribution sector, within which more than 100 projects have been carried out, with the purpose of trying to increase the load rate and reduce traffic levels. With the exception of cities with sensitive historical city centres or cities with extreme congestion situations, none of them have been successful. The projects have not been implemented after pilot tests were completed (Lindholm, 2008). One of the most important reasons for discontinuing these projects is the lack of a strong business model Positive incentives offered by local authorities were also insufficient to get companies to change their products or services in the longer-term. Green Corridors focus on long distance haulage, but policy measures aiming at steering and regulating city distribution and urban traffic are still relevant and experience from this field is an important input to the discussion on policy measures for Green Corridors. Freight transport in Green Corridors includes transport to and through cities, to ports and to terminals. For many transport chains, transport through urban areas is the most sensitive part, as congestion and other disturbances are more likely to occur there per kilometre travelled. For longdistance freight transport, distance-related vehicle charges have been implemented in five EU member states, and in Switzerland. The possible impact of the European truck tolling schemes on logistics systems is

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discussed in McKinnon (2006). The investigation shows that the logistical effects will depend on the nature of the tolling scheme and level of charges. The implemented charges have shown some effects on the logistic strategies and distribution patterns in the freight transport sector. Reductions of vehicle kilometres in the range of 5–10% are reported (Liechti & Renshaw, 2007), and simulations show that a modal shift from road to rail can yield reductions of up to 13% in truck kilometres in Sweden (Cardebring & Lundin, 2007). But, the potential is very much dependent on the price of road transport. The effects on CO2 emissions are dependent on how the electricity is produced. In Switzerland, where trains, generally, use hydropower, the reduction of 5–10% vehicle kilometres corresponds to a reduction of 6–8% in CO2 and NOx. In Sweden, a combination of road user charges and CO2 taxes with fossil fuel free electricity production of about 95%, can mean potential savings of up to 10–15% in CO2 emissions (Lundin, 2007). The freight transport sector is not very sensitive to increased fuel prices. This is why incentives such as CO2 tax have not proven to be an effective means of reducing transport activities. Most transport companies have contracts that allow them to increase the price of their services if the fuel price increases. McKinnon (1998) demonstrates that the price of fuel must be about 7–8 times higher than it was at the time, before a significant change in centralisation strategies could be foreseen. This indicates that the freight transport system is very robust and that we cannot expect a drastic change in transport demand, due to a single measure such as CO2 tax or distance-related vehicle charges. In contrast, CO2-based taxes are highly efficient in the passenger transport sector. Simulation modelling of the Swedish transport system revealed that the total CO2 emission from transport will decrease by 11% with the introduction of a set of policy measures in the so called Energy Efficient Transportation (EET) plan, in which an increased fuel price (about 50% higher), higher CO2-based vehicle tax on passenger cars (increased to 2.8 €/g CO2 on vehicles over 120 g/km) and road user charges for heavy vehicles (0.8 €/vkm) are the dominant measures. While emissions from the passenger transport sector will decrease by 34% in this scenario, the emissions from the freight transport sector will increase by 40%, due to the increased demand for freight movement. Without the plan, the total CO2 emissions would increase by 11% in period 2006–2020. A road user charge alone would, according to this simulation, reduce the demand on road freight transport from 23% to 20% (in vehicle kilometres). Thus, without the road user charges, the increase in CO2 emissions would be even higher (National Road Administration, 2009). The same study shows that investments in infrastructure, as a means to reduce CO2 emissions, have limited effects. For the whole transport sector, it will cut CO2 emissions by about 0.15% and for the freight sector by about 2%, while the CO2 reduction for the whole EET plan is 11%. The present trend in Europe is to replace time-based road user charges (vignettes) with distance-based road user charges. This means that several countries within the present Euro vignette system will, probably, leave the cooperative (Forss, 2011). Zurba (2011, p. 4) states that: “On the authority level of the EU countries, it is necessary to prepare the required legal, economic and direct regulatory mechanisms for the implementation of the EU transport policy legislation. It is very important to know how these mechanisms for the implementation of the sustainability principle and orientation of the green transport corridor are or will be implemented.” As the author points out, there will be both winners and losers, with respect to the implementation of different regulation mechanisms and policy incentives. It is important to try to foresee what these interventions will be and to predict what effect they might have on the market and different actors. If this work is performed properly, it may be possible to ease the negative effect for actors who will see their market position threatened and give them time to change and adapt to the new market

Please cite this article as: Blinge, M., Policy measures to realise green corridors — A stakeholder perspective, Research in Transportation Business & Management (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rtbm.2014.06.007

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situation. It is crucial to get acceptance for these environmentallyinduced incentives and to avoid counter-productive lobbying activities which could prolong the necessary shift towards sustainability. 3.1.1. Policy measures for the freight transport sector Stelling (2013) performed a comprehensive literature search on policy measures to reduce CO2 emissions from the freight transport sector and also concludes that there is a lack of scientific articles that analyse the impact of policy instruments and economic instruments for freight transport in contrast to the passenger transport sector where substantial research has been done. Stelling also concludes that economic instruments are important in the short run, until new carbon-neutral techniques are developed, but that the potential is uncertain, since transport cost, typically, is a small part of total cost incurred across the value chain. There are several examples in the literature of how to structure and categorise policy measures for the transport sector (Bretzke & Barkawi, 2013; CIVITAS, 2010; Dorherty & Hoyle, 2009; EEA, 2010; Helmreich, 2010; IEA, 2009; McKinnon et al., 2010; OECD/ITF, 2010; Stelling, 2013). Based on the results of the literature review, the policies and incentives relevant for the freight transport sector, and Green Corridors in particular, have been summarised and categorised in four groups in Table 1. The categorisation is made in order to clarify and standardise the naming of the policy measures in the literature and also to remove any duplicated or irrelevant measures. This was provided as background material for the workshop, designed so that the participants were well prepared and informed of the state-of-the-art. The literature review shows that there are many available policy measures that can support the implementation of a Green Corridor. These have been categorised according to the nature of the incentives. It is also clear that the existing policy measures that have been implemented in different regions in Europe have not yielded the expected level of emission reduction from freight transport, both in general, and of CO2 emissions in particular. 3.2. Findings from the interviews The results of the semi-structured interviews are shown below. Notes were taken during the interviews and edited in order to generate

a structured text. There were no contradictory opinions among the experts and it was generally agreed that there is a lack of scientific findings and research on the policy measures required to make freight transport more sustainable. The following paragraphs summarise the views of the different experts followed by a final summary of the key findings from the interviews. The logistic system is very robust, in the sense that very little will affect the logistic strategy with respect to transported volumes, centralisation of warehouses and production, outsourcing, distribution patterns, etc. Even if the price of fuel, CO2 tax or road user charges were aligned with the estimated external costs of freight transport little would change. There are other, far more costly, aspects of logistics, for instance, warehousing, capital costs, and other factors such as punctuality, reliability and speed which influence how the logistic systems are designed and how the patterns of distribution are shaped. Poorly formulated taxation or policy is often misleading and will risk a suboptimisation of the whole system which could fail to benefit either the environment or the economy. CO2 is rather easy to measure and there is, currently, a major focus on greenhouse gases. However, there are a number of other activities with environmental impacts that should be charged, but are not currently, for instance noise, congestion, accidents and local emissions. If these were to be internalised, that is priced according to the societal costs that they cause, it would probably lead to an increased use of larger, but fewer vehicles and also break the present trend towards more, and smaller trucks and vans within urban distribution. It would be more appropriate, if a broader range external costs other than CO2, were to be internalised. Local emissions should be regulated and priced locally, since they are very much dependent on the number of people affected. Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) are also important for regulation and policy making. Accurate data is needed to gain acceptance and understanding of the effects of different measures. The information must be easily accessible, free and open. A freight exchange, for instance, could be an efficient tool. Free capacity in the existing transport system must be made available to the market if efficiency is to increase. There are very few examples of incentives and policy measures being implemented in this field or adequately researched. There is mostly experience from urban freight and on passenger transport, but

Table 1 Categorisation of policy measures and incentives affecting a Green Corridor. Economic incentives Increases the cost on transport. The purpose is, mainly, to promote a higher load rate and a more energy efficient transport or to promote the use of better environmental technologies. Legal incentives Regulations that hinder unwanted intensive transport activities in sensitive areas and where many people are exposed to noise and other disturbances. Dispensations from some of these regulations and directives give better accessibility for transport operators.

Supporting incentives Investments in infrastructure, especially in congested bottlenecks and ports/terminals are important for the lead times and punctuality for the transport industry. The infrastructure investments should be adjusted to meet the needs of the freight transport sector. Voluntary incentives Agreements to ease the implementation of better environmental technology, or open for others to use or trade free capacity in order to increase the system load rate. These can be implemented by the transport business itself or with the help or support by the authorities.

➢ Fuel/CO2 tax ➢ Vehicle tax ➢ Road user charges ➢ Congestion charges ➢ Emission trading ➢ Regulations on entering environmental zones/environmental protected areas ➢ Emission directives on engines, Euro classes ➢ Regulations on vehicle size, weight, length, etc. ➢ Time restrictions ➢ Regulation on allowed amount of traffic ➢ Standardisation and harmonisation ➢ Other directives ➢ Infrastructure investments ➢ ICT/ITS investments ➢ Investments in trans-shipment points (hubs) ➢ Priority lanes for HGVs and other equally efficient transport solutions ➢ Less bureaucracy and faster handling times at customs offices and borders ➢ Prioritised land use planning ➢ Heavy ecodriving ➢ Alternative fuels ➢ Implementation of environmentally adapted technology ➢ Information Broker System ➢ Freight rolling stock exchange ➢ Freight bourse ➢ Advice and share good examples ➢ Accreditations/certification

Please cite this article as: Blinge, M., Policy measures to realise green corridors — A stakeholder perspective, Research in Transportation Business & Management (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rtbm.2014.06.007

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Table 2 Stakeholder weighting of the success factors. Which are the success factors?

Summarised weighting for creating a Green Corridor (1–6)

A 1 2 3 4 5 6

There is a Self-sustaining corridor where there is a good business case for all interested parties, i.e. transport buyers, transport producers, municipalities and regions. Economically attractive for trp buyers to use a GC 4.9 Economically attractive for trp companies to use a GC 4.7 Free access to infrastructure and terminals 4.0 Cooperation in the trp sector between modes 4.4 Multi-stakeholder freight initiatives 3.6 Freight stock exchange, Power comes with the cargo 3.7

B 7 8 9 10 11 12

There is a well functioning and efficient infrastructure system in the corridor including terminals and hubs, harmonised standards and regulations along the whole corridor Revenues from the internalisation of external costs goes to infrastructure investments 4.4 Same priorities to the GC: in all member states has achieved a high standard of infrastructure capacity 5.3 Improved efficiency in the interface of intermodal transfer 4.8 Safety and security 4.2 Improved land-use/infrastructure planning 3.9 Achieved regional economic development thanks to GCs 4.4

C 13 14 15

There is a well functioning, open and harmonised ITS/ICT system along the corridor. Revenues from the internalisation of external costs goes to ITS/ICT investments ICT/ITS infrastructure is sufficient to handle the need for the GC Open Access to relevant information, Information Broker System

D 16 17 18 19 20

There is a common understanding for sustainable freight transport sector, and a common methodology for measuring KPIs. Cont. Improvement on env. factors of corridor performance 4.7 Higher load factors for all trp modes (better than average) 4.5 Fair and harmonised pricing of transport including external costs 4.5 Standardisation of calculation methods, KPI's and Eco-labels 4.1 A common way to measure punctuality, use and access to transport planes 3.6

not many examples, except for road user charges and CO2 tax for longdistance freight transport in Sweden. There are examples of subsidies for alternative fuel and the location of business and logisticcentres in particular cities or regions, but the results are often counterproductive for the whole transport system, in the long run. In conclusion, the findings from the interviews showed that there is a need for more research and pilot studies to evaluate the effects that different policy measures could have on the freight transport system. The interviews stressed a need for both carrots and sticks (positive and negative incentives) in the establishment of Green Corridors. Some experts suggested that a voluntary scheme would be preferable, possibly involving the use of a green label, which would give holders certain advantages over their competitors? Perhaps different membership levels in this green labelling scheme could depend upon environmental performance?

3.8 4.6 4.3

costs, fuel prices or different taxes aimed at increasing the cost for transportation services. For this reason, it is necessary that a system which is intended to attract transport actors to use a Green Corridor, contain features that give the actors positive effects mainly infrastructure and terminals in the corridor that have high capacity and are well maintained, a well-integrated and open ICT system, and finally a nonbureaucratic and smooth document-handling system at custom stations and borders. In return, transport actors will, probably, be more willing to invest in environmentally-sound technology and be prepared to cooperate and use freight exchanges to increase vehicle load factors. The final step, after the grading of the success factors, was to make an overall analysis of the findings and the stakeholder discussions. From these discussions the following set of recommendations emerged to support the development of a Green Corridor. 3.3.1. Incentives and measures requested by the authorities

3.3. Findings from the workshop 3.3.1.1. Infrastructure and terminals. The following findings represent the general opinion of the participating stakeholders in the workshop. The average grading of the success factors (1 to 20), by the stakeholder groups, is shown in Table 2. The findings of the workshop can be summarised as follows: • A corridor will be self-sustaining where there is a good business case for all interested parties, i.e. transport buyers, transport producers, municipalities and regions. • The corridor must have well-functioning and efficient infrastructure, including terminals and hubs, harmonised standards and regulations along the whole corridor. • A well-functioning, open and harmonised ITS/ICT system along the corridor is required. • There is a common understanding of a sustainable freight transport sector, and a common methodology for measuring key performance indicators (KPIs). For the transport industry and its customers, robust and reliable accessibility and time-related factors, such as delivery precision, lead time and high security, are of greater importance than transportation

• Give the same priorities to the whole Green Corridor. All member states must provide a high standard of infrastructure capacity • Improved efficiency intermodal transfers • The possible revenues from the internalisation of external costs shall be reinvested in infrastructure investments • High safety and security • Improved land-use/infrastructure planning. The stakeholder group stresses the necessity for cooperation between the public authorities along the whole corridor to reach a commonly accepted and high standard of infrastructure. A chain is not stronger than its weakest link and so a Green Corridor must maintain high capacity and good maintenance on all links, terminals, and ports and along the corridor. Infrastructure investments should be adjusted to meet the needs from the freight transport sector and partly funded by road user charges. This opinion was also stated in an earlier workshop (Hultén et al., 2006) where the stakeholders pointed out the need for clarity on the objectives of road user charging. Good examples

Please cite this article as: Blinge, M., Policy measures to realise green corridors — A stakeholder perspective, Research in Transportation Business & Management (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rtbm.2014.06.007

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that were suggested are to invest in grade-separated intersections instead of roundabouts, increased bearing capacity for heavy trains and trucks and the insertion of more bypass tracks in the railway network. Furthermore, the possibility to establish attractive intermodal solutions will be important for the success of the corridor and it is important to make necessary efforts to strengthen the critical modal inter-changes. Finally, a joint action among the involved authorities on how to best facilitate the time-consuming paper work at borders, to remove inefficient bureaucracy, and to develop a joint transport planning procedure within the region, would all be important. The stakeholder group also wanted a measurement of the positive regional economic development due to the Green Corridor and to see this reportedto demonstrate the value of Green Corridors. 3.3.1.2. ICT/ITS infrastructure. • ICT/ITS infrastructure that is sufficient to handle the needs for the Green Corridor • Open Access to relevant information through, for example an Information Broker System • Revenues from the internalisation of external costs shall go to ICT/ITS investments. The stakeholder group agreed that a well-functioning, robust and open digital infrastructure is a prerequisite for a Green Corridor. This is as important as creating a robust and flexible physical infrastructure. A first step is to ensure open and reliable access to traffic information and route planning systems. Public authorities can open their Application Programming Interface (API); a source code-based specification, intended to be used as an interface by software components in order to communicate with each other and to make it possible for all actors to connect their own applications and IT systems.There are several bilateral and trilateral applications today that work perfectly, but when a new actor wants to connect, there is often a problem. This barrier could be removed if a commonly accepted and an open ICT system infrastructure were developed. The stakeholder group also stressed the importance of reliability and security in the information chain. There is a lot of information related to company business that must be kept confidential. In connection to this open system an effort to establish an “Internet of Things” would be desirable. The Internet of Things refers to uniquely identifiable objects (things) and their virtual representations in an Internet-like structure. 3.3.1.3. Other positive incentives. The authorities can also incentivise the use of the Corridor by granting exemptions or offering priority. Examples are: • Dispensations from vehicle size and weight restrictions. • Dispensations on night delivery and use of terminals and railways at night-time. • Prioritised access in ports, terminals, customs, and bus lanes in cities. • Tougher regulations and restrictions for transport outside the corridors. The stakeholder group identified a number of other measures that the authorities could use to increase accessibility and punctuality for the actors in a Green Corridor. It would involve different kinds of exemptions, primarily, to accept higher vehicle lengths and allow night-time traffic to avoid congestion problems. The stakeholder group was not against higher environmentally-related fees and taxes, but stressed the importance that these must be transferred back to the transport industry by investing in infrastructure and ITS solutions. The measures could also be used as a way to promote the Green Corridors by charging high polluting transport solutions and return the same amount in reductions to operators that have a comparably low environmental impact. The Green Corridor can also be used as a test bed for new technology and new business ideas. It can host pilot projects and implementation

tests, such as tests on electrification and hybridisation of the freight transport sector, alternative fuels for all transport modes, vehicle sizes and platooning, ITS systems, vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-toinfrastructure communication systems, internet of things, and freight exchanges.

3.3.2. Incentives and measures for joint activities and cooperation between the transport industry and the public authorities 3.3.2.1. A self-sustaining corridor. • Economically attractive for transport buyers and carriers to use a Green Corridor • Cooperation in the transport sector between different modes • Free access to infrastructure and terminals • Forming a freight exchange • Multi-stakeholder freight initiatives. There was a general consensus in the stakeholder group that the success of a Green Corridor depended on all participants having a sound business case. The actors in the transport industry must gain economic benefit and the authorities must see that the investments and incentives result in significantly lower external costs for the society. Many of the measures need a trustworthy cooperation between the actors of the transport industry and between private industry and public authorities. There should be harmonised tariffs and favourable incentives towards the actors in the Green Corridor, such as differentiated port and other terminal fees. Long-term harmonised, fair and stable rules and regulations are also requested. Other examples are training programmes and joint promotion of best practice measures.

3.3.3. Incentives and measures requested from the transport industry 3.3.3.1. A common methodology for measuring KPIs. • Continuous improvement of environmental criteria of corridor performance (KPIs) • Higher load factors for all transport modes • Fair and harmonised pricing of transport including its external costs • Standardisation of calculation methods, KPIs and Eco-labels • A common way to measure Corridor punctuality, use and access. In order to make a Green Corridor genuinely “green” and to motivate the authorities to invest in the necessary infrastructure and ICT systems, industry must commit to upgrading environmental standards and load factors. A baseline on technology levels on vehicles and vessels operating in the corridor should be agreed by the involved actors. This means defining a set of rules on emission standards for trucks, ships and trains that will require, for instance, modern exhaust after-treatment devices and alternative fuels. The vehicles and vessels used in the corridor should be well utilised. A freight rolling stock exchange for available capacity in the system is a method to increase the system load rate. A harmonised measurement and reporting system must be implemented to achieve this. The stakeholder group recommend that a system be developed that is technology neutral. An agreed baseline level of accepted emissions per ton of freight transported in the corridor shall be defined that is, significantly, lower than the average freight transport in Europe. The transport sector can then choose how to meet these demands, by investing in new vehicles or vessels or with actions likely to increase load factors, ecodriving or other actions such as modal shift. As previously noted, this requires an agreed, accepted and reliable method for reporting and calculating the chosen KPIs for emissions and vehicle loading.

Please cite this article as: Blinge, M., Policy measures to realise green corridors — A stakeholder perspective, Research in Transportation Business & Management (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rtbm.2014.06.007

M. Blinge / Research in Transportation Business & Management xxx (2014) xxx–xxx

4. Discussion Although the introduction of economic incentives in the transport sector is encouraging and an important step, it is not likely that economic measures, such as higher fuel price or distance-related vehicle charges, will be enough to achieve a substantial change towards sustainability for the freight transport sector or to make a Green Corridor attractive enough for transport buyers. On the other hand, most actors in the freight transport sector and in academia agree that it is necessary to develop and to use efficient public policies and incentives to the freight transport sector more sustainably. In the necessary transition towards a sustainable transport system, new business opportunities will emerge and a Green Corridor will be an important platform to develop and test new solutions and business models. But, this requires a set of well-designed policies. Santos et al 2010 claim that commandand-control policies (i.e. government regulations which force consumers and producers to change their behaviour) are the most widely used instruments, but that these often fail to achieve an efficient market outcome. Santos, Behrendt, and Teytelboym (2010) state that they have found sufficient evidence in the literature to demonstrate that many policy instruments can be used in combination with taxes and permits to ensure the creation of a sustainable transport system. Although the article primarily focuses on passenger transport, the arguments also apply to the freight transport sector. European emission standards define the acceptable limits for exhaust emission from new vehicles sold in EU member states. The directive that put pressure on the vehicle industry to reduce emissions from the vehicles has been one of the most efficient actions to reduce the environmental impact from the transport sector. It has demonstrated the automotive industry's impressive capability to meet the new demands with innovative and cost-efficient solutions. It is a conviction of the stakeholders that economic incentives and regulations, should be designed so that they reflect, as much as possible, the external costs that the transport service causes. They must be neutral and not in favour of any particular mode of transport. Although this is extremely difficult to achieve, it is important to work with this issue in order to gain acceptance for necessary changes. A rather common misunderstanding is that the term, neutral, means “business as usual” and that the present taxation is the most fair and balanced. It is more realistic to believe that the current system is far from neutral if all external costs were taken into consideration, for instance, congestion, barrier effects, noise, emissions to air, water and soil, etc. Bretzke and Barkawi (2013) claim that “Laissez-Faire” is not an option and that doing nothing will be more costly in the future than reducing the environmental impact now. More research is needed in this area and the transport sector can support this process by participating in a positive way in the political debate and recognising and accepting the necessary changes, even if it means changes to market conditions. To make this happen, the stakeholders also stressed that it is necessary to reach international agreements. One country or region can be a forerunner, but in the long run cannot have different rules and taxation from its neighbours. The European transport business can advocate international regulations for the transport market that would make it more sustainable, possibly by developing a system for internalisation of external costs. It is important for the stakeholders that the environmentallyinduced fees and revenues will not become a fiscal system, whereby, the money ends up covering other government expenditure. All fees paid should be transferred back to the transport actors, for example, as investments in infrastructure. An even more efficient and acceptable system for the users is where transport companies pay according to the amount of pollution and other external costs that they cause, and get repaid for the environmental services that they have performed. In such closed systems, the environmentally-bad performers will have to pay to competitors that perform well and that should trigger a willingness to invest in environmentally-better technology and increased company

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efficiency. One example of this, is the Swedish “Environmental Charge for Emissions of Nitrogen Oxides from Energy Production Act” that came into effect in 1992. The total environmental charge paid into the system based on the amount of NOx emitted is repaid according to the share of total useful energy produced. The emissions of NOx have been reduced by 50% and have occurred, virtually, without interruption, since the charge was introduced in 1992 (Svärdsjö & Gustafsson, 2003). There is a similar case from the transport industry in Norway, where a tax on NOx has led to an increased use of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and compressed natural gas (CNG) in ships. Some of the conversions of the ship engines to these fuels were financed by revenues from the tax.

5. Implications The main contribution from this research is a set of recommendations for efficient policy measures to support the implementation of Green Corridors. The recommendations are quite general and need to be specified and further developed to be fully applicable in the freight transport system. By focusing on the practitioner perspective this research has both contributed to scholarly knowledge, suggesting many ideas for further research, and explored the implications for business management. The findings will be of great importance for all the stakeholders in Europe that are involved in realising a Green Corridor.

5.1. Directions for future research This article gives new insights on the possible use of policy measures for the freight transport sector. Without the knowledge, acceptance, cooperation and involvement from all stakeholders to the sustainable mobility paradigm, the necessary change is less likely to succeed (Banister, 2008; Geels, 2012; Schwanen et al., 2011). This research has identified concepts and ideas for new policy measures that the freight transport stakeholders believe will have a significant effect on developing the freight transport system towards sustainability. The relevance and effectiveness of these concepts must be verified in further research projects. The policy measures need to be more clearly specified and further developed in order to be fully applicable. The different policy measures will affect each other and also affect different stakeholders in the transport business, and these effects should be evaluated. The cost efficiency for the respective measures should be studied, both from a socioeconomic macroperspective, as well as from a transport company perspective. They also need to be legally tested and validated. In order to implement successful policy measures for freight transport sustainability, we must know who will gain and who will lose from this. What is needed, is to create an innovative freight transport business, open for new ideas and concepts, which will make the necessary shift towards sustainability as smoothly as possible without endangering the competitiveness of the European economy. To achieve this cooperation, it is necessary for close cooperation between all actors in the freight transport sector, academia, industry and authorities. The main outputs from this paper are a set of concepts for policy measures, jointly developed by the actors of the freight transport sector, which can be used as a basis for further research in this field.

Acknowledgements The author wants to thank the East West Transport Corridor (EWTC) project, Region Blekinge, Sweden and its partners who, together with Interreg IIIB Baltic Sea 2000–2006 programme, financed the project. A special thanks to Helena Kyster-Hansen, Tetraplan, who contributed significantly in analysing and structuring the workshop findings, and to Arni Halldorsson, Chalmers University of Technology, for helpful comments on this paper.

Please cite this article as: Blinge, M., Policy measures to realise green corridors — A stakeholder perspective, Research in Transportation Business & Management (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rtbm.2014.06.007

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Please cite this article as: Blinge, M., Policy measures to realise green corridors — A stakeholder perspective, Research in Transportation Business & Management (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rtbm.2014.06.007