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The balancing of sustainability dimensions is the prime agenda of supply chain organisations. The supply chain sustainability greatly influenced by its freight transport activities. Most of the previous work discussed the economic and environmental sustainability of freight transport industry; although the social sustainability (SS) dimension paid less attention to researchers and practitioners of emerging economies. The purpose of this study is to investigate the importance of SS indicators in the freight transport industry. The SS assessment framework is validated with the Indian freight transport industry.

The proposed framework considers four SS dimension and 25 indicators. The SS indicators’ importance varies with the individual company's prospect. Therefore the proposed framework is used in multi-company perspective as well as in industry perspective to present more realistic results. The importance weight of SS dimension and indicators are computed with a novel multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) method, i.e. fuzzy best–worst method (FBWM).

The prioritisation of SS indicators in each company perspective is compared with an industry perspective. The contribution to community health and education program is most valuable indicator followed by the prevention of child and forced labour. The model robustness is tested through sensitivity analysis and reported that less variation in indicators’ ranking.

To authors best of knowledge, this is the first study to highlight the importance of SS indicators in the freight transport industry. This study contributes to the sustainability assessment literature by providing a nuanced perception of the SS indicators and put forward managerial implications for improving the SS of the freight transport industry. The proposed framework could be treated as a benchmark for other developing nation's freight transport industry.

The objectives of this paper are to estimate the annual Malmquist TFP(total factor productivity) index of Korea and China’s road freight transport with DEA(data envelope analysis) and to decompose the index into technical efficiency change and technology change. In the process of the estimation, we used labor, capital, and fuel as input factors and ton-km of road freight transport as output factor. The panel data of Korea and China’s road freight transport industry from 1985 to 2004 are used. The results of the analysis show several points. First, there was no significant improvement in China’s TFP growth before 1997, but there was continuous growth in TFP since 1997 because of constantly increasing domestic freight transport demand. Second, there was downward trend in Korea’s TFP, especially there was a large reduction of productivity in 1998 because of the huge reduction of road freight transport demand during the period of the economic crisis. Third, the technology improvements play a significant role in the TFP growth and the technical efficiency had negative effects on the TFP growth of Korea. However, the technology improvements as well as the technical efficiency had positive effects on the TFP growth of China’s road freight transport industry.

The last decade has been a period of considerable change for physical distribution in the UK. Major restructuring has been overdue, often because companies have in the past failed to appreciate the importance of distribution in the marketing process, but now there is a new awareness of the crucial role that distribution can play in the success of companies. As a consequence, innovation in distribution is taking place at an accelerating rate.

This study aims to explore the role of knowledge management practices in supporting current and emerging passengers’ and customer needs, aiming to create value. Specifically, the research examines the importance of customer-centred knowledge management in the delivery of innovative services and practices in the public transport sector, promoting the role of interactions between mobility stakeholders and travellers.

A theoretical framework is developed and supported by the background literature on customer-centric knowledge management approaches, business model innovation, as well as on inter-organisational and network co-operations.

Results show that the development of sustainable innovation and technologies in the transport sector requires knowledge management practices, which enable the access to knowledge about users’ needs, the mapping and evaluation of innovative knowledge, the promotion of knowledge-based innovation through collective approaches, as well as the acquisition and integration of new knowledge.

The conceptual framework developed in the paper remains limited to a theoretical understanding. Further research should empirically examine knowledge issues related to the intangible character and intellectual capital intensiveness of innovation in the transport sector.

Researchers, public transport companies and public transport authorities are expected to benefit from this research, by developing mechanisms for customer-centred knowledge management, which is found to lead to innovative services and practices in the public transport sector. Another practical implication regards the adoption of knowledge management practices, leading to technological innovations in public transport, and advancing the level of sustainability in transport systems.

The originality of this study lies in the development of a customer-focussed knowledge management framework, which provides a novel perspective of value creation in an attempt to engage researchers and practitioners from the transport industry in the conceptualisation and development of innovative solutions.

The purpose of this paper is to predict the likely economic effects of a free trade area (FTA) on both China and the United Kingdom (hereafter the UK).

Following literature review and trade relationship briefing, this paper uses the Global Trade Analysis Project simulation to predict the economic effects of such a FTA on both China and the UK.

The simulation results indicate that a China-UK free trade area (hereafter CUFTA) will bring more benefits than harm to both China and the UK, and achieving zero tariff or reducing technological barriers to trade (TBT) is mutually beneficial for both China and the UK, with the growth in GDP, economic welfare as well as import and export. Combining zero tariff and the reduction of TBT in exceptional departments is the most favorable way to improve the macroeconomic effects without bringing damaging effects on the comparative disadvantage industries such as transport equipment, chemicals industries for China and textiles and apparel industry for the UK.

After the UK voted to leave the European Union, CUFTA is put on the agenda by both the governments, yet there are fewer studies on CUFTA, with this paper being one of the early trials. Besides, based on the simulation results, some policy suggestions will be put forward for future negotiations and industrial policies’ adjustment.

There are large differences in both speed and costs between the traffic modes road and air. Rail has not yet successfully offered services “faster than road but cheaper than air”, although there are technical, logistical and economical opportunities for competing with air for intra‐continental shipments and co‐operate for intercontinental ones. The article categorises segments of the European express freight market and analyses them in a rail perspective. Services between Sweden and Continental Europe and domestically in Sweden are focused. System modelling tools are also adapted to the application of express intermodal transport and prospective roles for rail in express transport are defined. The analysis shows that a transport chain with many actors and long distances does not necessarily entail longer transport times than a short‐distance with the same circumstances under a single management. The analysis also shows that many express transport systems are built in a modular way, implying that subsystems can be exchanged.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the future development of the transport sector in Europe.

Drawing on published sources of information and some expert views, the paper considers trends, drivers of change, possible scenarios and policy issues.

Transport demand for passengers and goods has grown consistently in the past and is expected to continue to do so in the future. Existing policies are unlikely to modify this trend or alleviate existing problems.

The paper is based on existing sources.

Decisions in a wide range of policy fields have implications for transport, which are seldom considered.

Questions the sustainability of continuing growth in transport demand and the adequacy of current policy.

Deregulation of domestic markets and the liberalization of international markets have dramatically changed air transportation. One of the important results of this change is the environmental effects of air transportation. This study aims to examine the implications of air transportation on environmental sustainability in the context of airline business strategies in liberalized and globalized air transport industry.

The paper discusses the relationship between liberalization, airline strategies and environmental sustainability of air transportation using the related literature. Then, to show some environmental impacts on the axis of the relationship discussed, emission rates for the aircraft landing and take-off phase were calculated on a global basis based on the aircraft traffic.

The discussion in the paper shows that the liberalization policies and the strategies of airlines supported by these policies, in essence, contradict the environmental sustainability of air transport. Considering the flight share projections of EUROCONTROL for different aircraft types on a global basis and the World Bank’s global flight traffic forecast for the years 2016 and 2025, it has been demonstrated that the number of aircraft departures will increase by 30%, whilst the number of aircraft emissions will increase by 41.5%.

Airlines are one of the main actors that will play a role in reducing the environmental impacts of air transportation. Therefore, this study is important in giving an idea to both policymakers and airline managers on how airline companies’ strategies should be shaped to realize both corporate sustainability and environmentally sustainable air transportation.

There are many studies in the literature regarding the environmental effects of air transport. However, there are not many studies linking environmental impacts with airline strategies that directly affect air transport demand. This study is different in that it gives environmental sustainability by associating it with its root causes.

This paper examines what facilitates the swift reconfiguration of freight movements across transport modes in the wake of a major disaster.

A qualitative research approach focussing on the New Zealand (NZ) domestic freight transport operations in the wake of the 2016 Kaikōura earthquake is used with data collected through 19 interviews with 27 informants. The interviews are thematically analysed by using the framework method.

The paper provides rich and detailed descriptions of the ability of a freight transport system to recover from a disaster through rapid modal shifts. This paper identifies nine factors enabling modular transport operations and highlights the critical role of physical, digital, operational and inter-organisational interconnectivity in the aftermath of a disaster.

Although the management of freight disruptions has become a prevalent topic not only in industry and policy-making circles, but also in the academic literature, qualitative research focussing on the ability of commercial freight systems to adapt and recover from a disaster through rapid modal shifts is limited. This qualitative study sheds light on the mechanisms underlying the continuity of freight operations in the wake of a disaster and provides a comprehensive understanding of modular transport operations and the ability of freight systems to keep goods moving.

If EDI is to succeed to a similar degree as paper‐based systems then international harmonisation and standardisation must be achieved across all functional groups (banking, transport, insurance, customs) and industry sectors on message standard and structures. UN/EDIFACT is now the dominant body producing generic EDI messages for use in international trade. All functional areas have Message Development Groups but the main areas of success to date lie in deep sea transport, forwarding and customs functions. Message development needs to proceed rapidly in all functions before integrated EDI systems can be offered. In recognition of this, UN procedures are now in place to harmonise such message formats across all trade regions (ITIGG/IHG), industry sectors (MIST/IHG) and transport modes (MIST/ITIGG). The negotiability of the electronic Bill of Lading is also an issue which will be tested across industry sectors by Bolero Operations Ltd launch programme early in 1999.