Off-hour Deliveries as a Sustainable Alternative : A case study of a Swedish recycling company

Sammanfattning: Global climate change is already having a noticeable impact on the environment that threatens the future of all species including humans. Unfortunately, it is currently accelerating and global temperatures will continue to rise in the coming decades mainly due to greenhouse gases produced by human activities in daily life. One of the biggest contributors is emissions from the transport sector which accounts for 32% of Swedish total CO2 emissions. Within the transport sector, freight transportation is more disruptive to traffic flow than personal vehicles because they take up more space on the road and their speed cannot be controlled as nimble as personal vehicles which causes congestion, waste of fuel and greater emissions. Based on the forecast that freight transportation will grow at a faster rate in the next few years, there is a need to manage them more intelligently while keeping up the demand for daily transport. The concept of OHD with the purpose of traffic distribution has recently been proposed and discussed in some academic and pilot projects. By shifting freight transportation from peak hours to off-peak hours, traffic can be alleviated, thus reducing emission from fuel consumption and reducing the timethey and that parts of traffic operate during the day spent on the road.This thesis presents a more comprehensive assessment of the impact of sustainability on theconcept from multiple perspectives and applies the results to the external logistics of Swedish recycling companies. An empirical study was conducted through fourteen semi-structured interviews with researchers, experts within relevant fields and companies with OHD experience. The combination of the empirical and theoretical study concludes that the opportunities and challenges coexist when the industrial companies implement OHD. The most noticeable opportunity provided by the transition is to get rid of congestion which leads to efficiency improvements, fuel savings and reductions in emissions. However, the concept also has a damaging impact as it exposes residents in the surrounding to noise pollution at the time when they need quiet rest. In addition, another challenge in implementing OHD is getting customers’ cooperation which involves the issue of access.