Environmentally Sustainable Transport and E-Commerce Logistics

ABSTRACT. The current study extends past research by elucidating sustainability as part of the improvement of firms' business schemes, the economic effect on environmental management decision, and logistics as a main challenge for e-commerce players. This research makes conceptual and methodological contributions to the environmental conduct of transport and logistics companies, sustainable performance in logistics, and socio-economic obstacles to sustainable transport.JEL codes: L81; Q56Keywords: sustainable transport; e-commerce logistics; environmental managementReceived 10 May 2014 * Received in revised form 14 October 2014Accepted 24 November 2014 * Available online 10 March 20151. IntroductionInternational business to consumer (B2C) e-commerce transactions have boosted lately, compelled by an increasing online community and modifications in customer conduct. The growth of physical retail capacity (StefanescuMihaila, 2015) may maintain swiftly together with a powerful growth in espending. Impressive expansion potential of e-retail will bring about substantial transformations (Popescu, 2014a) in retail logistics and physical delivery arrangements. Regarding the nature of the logistics base in numerous developing countries (Drumea, 2011), the transport base is better organized around and between the main cities, whereas outside of them the quality of the current depot constructions is rather poor (the physical merchandizing market is somewhat immature too). In developed countries, e-commerce is the newest significant determinant of change (Ionescu, 2014a) in selling logistics and physical delivery arrangements. In multi-channel merchandizing consumer interacts with retail merchant via separately handled routes, whereas in omnichannel merchandizing the routes are handled in a wholly unified manner to supply a coherent shopper experience. (JLL, 2013)2. The Environmental Behavior of Transport and Logistics CompaniesE-commerce has altered the purchasing customs and generated groundbreaking challenges for logistics suppliers, e.g. more significant quantities but smaller orders to be collected, parceled, arranged, and distributed, and more relevant volumes of returns, exchanges, and destroyed products. The conventional shop will be one of the numerous commercial routes accessible to retail firms, on an equivalent basis with stores, online shopping websites, and social and mobile websites. For less relevant retail merchants, e-commerce provides a straightforward manner to approach the international marketplace (Drumea, 2012a), and even concurrently via numerous routes. Environmental influence and traffic crowdedness, associated with the rising importance of e-commerce and home distribution, determines the necessity of having logistics strategies adjusted to the particular demands of urban zones. (DHL, 2014) The products delivered by China's logistics companies are being transported on a quickly enlarging distribution network. High fees can stimulate delivery firms to encumber their trucks and infringe security measures. The substantial financing of delivery infrastructure has left nearly every area of the country attainable by motorway and nearly all of it by rail. The less-advanced central and western areas are eventually proceeding to be connected by trustworthy delivery channels to the east border. Distribution firms undergo decreased cost-effectiveness and an incapacity to advance their significant functioning expenditures to the customer. Road delivery is extremely competitive, having been entirely open to all kinds of firm. As more businesses migrate toward the interior of the country seeking less expensive labor and land, a requirement is effective delivery connections to east and southern coastal regions. With rises to China's delivery infrastructure set up, officials are seeking to fortify the operational setting. Numerous global delivery and logistics firms concentrate on identifying and assisting shoppers choosing to pay a surcharge for quality and dependability of their services. …