Problem Statement and Objectives

Logistics for LIFE aims at bringing together leading logistic companies, technology providers and research organizations working on innovative ICT solutions to ensure long-term sustainability of the logistic industry by increasing its operational efficiency. This general goal derives from a shared vision of the logistic sector development, based on the following considerations:

Logistics is crucial to environmental sustainability
Transport is considered responsible for 23% of global CO2 emissions1. Shares by mode, 22% from freight trucks, 10% from water-borne and 44% from light duty vehicles (including light trucks), show that freight contributes significantly to the overall figure. Even more important is the pressure exerted on non-renewable energy sources, trucks absorbing 35% of total road-fuel production with an expected increase to over 40% by 20302. Difficult to quantify but still relevant is the environmental impact caused by road infrastructure extension and upgrade, imposed by cargo traffic demands and resulting congestion problems.

Road freight traffic is not decreasing on the short-term
Despite policy support3 and industry investments in favour of modal shift and inter-modal freight transport, recent estimates testify to the unabated growth of road transport. In EU currently 44% of the goods are moved by trucks (compared with 41% for short sea shipping, 10% for rail and 4% for inland waterways) with a forecast of 47% by 20104. Demand factors, such as a reduction in heavy bulk transport, decentralized distribution and just-in-time services are actually sustaining the high growth rates of road freight traffic.

Logistic operations have room for significant efficiency gains
Empty haulage rates (percentage of truck-km run empty) are reported by EU countries as ranging between 40% and 60%5, that is as every truck would be running empty 50% of its working time. This indicator alone testifies that there is a wide efficiency gap that should be filled up. In addition, logistics practitioners can easily point out several other inefficiencies: from useless trips due to poor planning or missing information links to unwanted stops for lack of synchronization between transport modes or lengthy administration processes. The sector’s strong dependence on fossil fuel has one positive consequence: gains on operational efficiency will mostly translate into energy efficiency improvements, i.e., savings on non-renewable energy consumption and emissions of CO2.

Logistics is a low-margin, highly competitive sector
Freight transport and logistics firms operate in a mature industry where every investment or change initiative has to be severely measured against tight margins, hard competition and risks posed by external factors. A foremost risk is represented by energy prices volatility, with road fuel prices rising by over 70% between 1999-2005, and by 40% in a single year between January ‘07 and January ’08, and then dropping significantly over the last few months. Significant risks are posed by public policy affecting the business landscape (e.g., liberalization) or constraining operations (e.g., traffic limitations for environment protection).

Freight transport has heavy societal implications
Logistic services are essential to the life of citizens and to the operation of any business, and the sector employs around 2,6 million people in Europe. These undeniable pros are counterbalanced by heavy societal implications like, e.g., the community paying for infrastructures and citizens suffering for pressures on fuel prices, congestion in cities and road safety problems.

Objectives

Logistics for LIFE has the general goal of driving European ICT for transport research in the direction of making logistic operations more efficient, and thus more environmentally friendly, financially and socially sustainable on the long term. The Logistics for LIFE Coalition members will cooperatively work to achieve the following objectives:

1. To create a multi-disciplinary network of logistic companies, technology providers and researchers actively pursuing efficiency-related initiatives within EU, national or industrial programs. The Logistics for LIFE Coalition will be structured and organized to grow its membership, by attracting key stakeholders from outside the Consortium, and to continue operating after the end of the project.
2. To establish a reference framework where logistic efficiency requirements from different stakeholders are related to sustainability strategic objectives, on the one side, and, on the other side, to existing and looked-for ICT solutions.
3. To develop a strategic roadmap including concrete actions and strategies that will guide and facilitate the effective implementation of ICT solutions identified in the reference framework for energy efficiency in logistics. Both the framework and the related roadmap will be periodically updated with stakeholders input, collected through the Logistics for LIFE Coalition activities, and aligned with Commission programs development as well as with input from other forums and EU projects.
4. To promote the Logistics for LIFE vision and findings, as well as relevant results from the Coalition members related projects, through a coordinated plan of dissemination activities targeted primarily to the transport logistic industry community. To this purpose, the Coalition plans to participate in the major conferences and expositions on transport logistics and to coordinate the organization of joint workshops between member projects, to maximize dissemination output.
5. To establish a common working platform for the community of users and researchers working on logistic long-term efficiency including: public and private web sites, on-line forums, document repositories and other web-based collaboration tools. The platform shall be used for several purposes: on-line discussion on stakeholder issues, collaborative work on the framework and roadmap documents, networking and dissemination material publication, and it shall be open to both Coalition members and external participants, who will be able join through a controlled membership request and registration process.