Debbie Hopkins “ A qualitative investigation of urban freight delivery in Aotearoa New Zealand ” Energy Cultures Conference 2016

1. A qualitative investigation
of urban freight delivery in
Aotearoa New Zealand
Debbie Hopkins¹ ² & Alaric McCarthy²
¹ Transport Studies Unit, University of Oxford, UK
² Centre for Sustainability, University of Otago, NZ

4. FREIGHT BY MODEFreight by Mode 2012: Tonnes
Rail
Coastal shipping
Road
Freight by Mode 2012: Tonne KMs
Rail
Coastal shipping
Road

5. TRANSPORT CO₂ EMISSIONS
Domestic Transport Emissions by Mode (kt CO₂-e). Source: MBIE, 2014
“Freight emissions have been growing faster
than passenger emissions for some time and the
trend is expected to continue” (OECD, 2007)

6. RESPONDING TO FREIGHT EMISSIONS
Source: NZRS, 2016
But how realistic are
these options for the
freight industry?

7. METHOD & APPROACH
Urban freight delivery in Aotearoa New Zealand

8. INTERVIEWS

9. ENERGY CULTURES FRAMEWORK

10. QUALITATIVE INTERVIEWS
Urban freight delivery in Aotearoa New Zealand

11. SHOPPING PRACTICES & HOME DELIVERY
“If you go into the shop the courier will deliver the
product [to the shop] and he may deliver 60 items in
one box, so that’s 60 transfers of that product for that
person walking into a shop to buy. Only one courier
may have had 60 movements. When those 60
people buy online, that’s 60 movements. So the
courier companies quite like online shopping”
Nicolas, Regional Manager, Wellington

12. SHOPPING PRACTICES & HOME DELIVERY
“I don’t like those people… the online people,
because they make your life hell. You go on
one here, one there. So you make over 100
deliveries. With business freight that may
only take you an hour or so… but with
residential it takes three hours to do in the
afternoon”
Sebastian, Owner-Operator Driver, Dunedin

13. SPEED & EXPECTATIONS
“I think people’s expectations have
probably changed as well. People want
things now. We are a very ‘now’ society: ‘I
ordered it two days ago and it said it would
be here in two days and it is not here’”
Dominic, Salaried Driver, Dunedin

14. SPEED & RAIL
“Years ago rail freight was the exact way to
go... It’s a greener way of moving freight,
it’s a more efficient way of moving
freight, it’s just not a very timely way of
moving freight and with the demands of
our customers saying that ‘yes, we’ll have it
overnight to you’”
Paul, Branch Manager, Wellington

15. THE FUTURE OF RAIL
“I’m not quite sure what’s going to happen in
the future to be honest, but I suppose road
vehicles will become a thing of the past. In
years going down the track a lot of it will be
railed hence the reason why we’ve bought
buildings here with rail lines out the back,
we can jump into rail when we want”
John, Branch Manager, Tauranga

16. EFFICIENCIES: COOPERATION
“I think we probably need to be working a
lot closer together… for example: the trucks
that come south are generally pretty full, the
trucks that go north half of them will be empty.
So, is there some way that we as transport
operators can share some of those services
going back?”
Tom, Regional Manager, Dunedin

17. INVESTING IN NEW TECHNOLOGIES
“If you’re going to put more food on your
table or earn more money or you’re going to
drive to save the environment, I know which
one is going to win out every time… if
somebody could come up with a good vehicle
hybrid situation and the performance would be
where they are, I think that’s the way to go”
Iain, Branch Manager, Auckland

18. CONCLUDING THOUGHTS
Urban freight delivery in Aotearoa New Zealand

19. CULTURES OF URBAN FREIGHT
Financial constraint
Changing demands
Relatively adaptable
Rising entry costs
Problems with employee
retention
Increased pressure
Conflict with road users
Demands conflicting with
business models

20. ARE LOW-CARBON OPTIONS
VIABLE FOR FREIGHT?
• Freight will be central to a low-
carbon transition
• The freight industry needs to be
engaged in a meaningful way to
explore low carbon technological
and behavioural options
• Evidence of industry adaptability
may aid uptake
• However, wide-ranging current
stressors might prevent uptake if
not financially neutral.

21. Hopkins, D. & McCarthy, A. (2016). Change
trends in urban freight delivery: A
qualitative inquiry, Geoforum, 74, p.158-170
Main funder: Co-funders:
Debbie.Hopkins@ouce.ox.ac.uk