Reducing the road transport industry’s carbon footprint: the role of technology
Author: Vikas Chandrawat
Climate change is real, and so is the need to use technology to reduce the road transport industry’s carbon footprint. In fact, as per an MIT estimate, if significant steps are not taken in this direction, then the logistics sector would become the most polluting industry in the world. The need of the hour is to have efficient mobility of not just the people, but also of goods and materials, to enable sustainable social and economic development globally. Road transport accounts for 62% of all the logistics emissions even when almost 75% of the global cargo movement is through ships. The reason is that trucks emit up to 100 times more CO2 than ships. However, the positive side of this equation is that there is adequate access to smart technologies such as AI, machine learning and data analytics to address the challenge. Alongside switching to greener fuels, integration of cutting-edge technologies in road transport can bring down emissions even when the demand is increasing. For shippers, this optimised vehicle matching means that they would need to hire fewer vehicles to ferry their loads. With reduced empty vehicle operations through intelligent demand-supply matchmaking on the return route directly reduces emissions and makes logistics more sustainable.