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Road Freight Transport and Energy Use: The USA, China, the EU, Japan and Germany

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Air Power and Freight

Part of the book series: SpringerBriefs in Energy ((BRIEFSENERGY))

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Abstract

This chapter seeks two goals: to 1) review the historical changes in road freight transport in key economies and 2) establish how freight activity shapes energy use across time and space. Energy saving strategies are needed to save expenditures on fuels by freight forwarders, logistics service providers and others, however, a fraction of the energy efficiency gains will be lost. The rebound effect (RE) refers to the increase in energy use following gains in energy efficiency practices and technologies, this effect is associated to a decline in the cost of moving one tonne by one km.

This is the first cross country study that examines historical developments of the sector for the U.S., China, Mexico, Japan, the European union (EU). This is also the first that examines the RE of truck performance (tonne-km moved) for Japan, Denmark and the U.K.

We find that RE estimates of energy use of moving cargo (Megajoules/t-km) differ strongly from country to country. We observe a upward trend in truck freight fuel intensity for (energy use per tonne-km moved), and on-road truck fuel economy for the smaller nations (japan, Denmark). A downward trend in fuel economy is found for the large economies (China, the U.S.). We also observe falling diesel prices. Despite this truck km travelled continues an upward trend in many cases. This chapter contributes to understanding the primary definition of the RE.

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Acknowledgments

Research assistance for updating Graphs and Tables is gratefully acknowledged by J. Navarro Guevara. Research assistance by Nihan Akyelken (University of Oxford, Transport Studies Unit, School of Geography and Environment ) is also acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Autonomous University of Mexico, (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México) Institute of Economic Research, Mexico, Mexico

    David Bonilla

  2. Transport Studies Unit, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

    David Bonilla

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Bonilla, D. (2020). Road Freight Transport and Energy Use: The USA, China, the EU, Japan and Germany. In: Air Power and Freight . SpringerBriefs in Energy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-27783-3_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-27783-3_2

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-27782-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-27783-3

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