CO2 emissions of French shippers: the roles of delivery frequency and weight, mode choice, and distance

In this article, the authors describe the effects of delivery frequency, mode choice, distance, and shipment weight on the CO₂ emissions of French shippers, taking advantage of a 2004 survey of French shippers (ECHO) which describes the characteristics of 3000 shippers, 10,000 shipments, and 20,000 transport chain legs. Once the energy consumption and CO₂ emissions of every shipment have been computed, they are divided by the corresponding number of ton-kilometers in order to find their carbon intensity (in grams of CO₂ per ton-kilometer). The authors then analyze the latter with respect to a number of selected shipment characteristics: shipment frequency and mode choice (planning choices), and Euclidean distance and yearly tonnage shipped to the same customer (transport demand). They also develop two log-linear regression models in which carbon intensity is assumed to be caused by these characteristics. They find that shippers' transport planning choices have at least as much impact on carbon intensity as the characteristics of transport demand.