Ecological Transport Information Tool for Worldwide ... - Schenker

IFEU Heidelberg, Öko-Institut, IVE, RMCON Page 27
The major rule is that the shipper (freight owner) takes responsibility for the vessel utilization
factor that is averaged over the entire journey, from the starting point to the destination as
well as the return trip or the entire loop respectively. This allocation rule has been common
practice for land-based transports in LCA calculations and is applied also to waterborne and
airborne freight. Thus, even if a shipper may fill a tanker to its capacity, he also needs to
take responsibility for the empty return trip which would not have taken place without the
loaded trip in the first place. Therefore, a shipper in this case will have to apply a 50 % average
load over the entire return journey.
Similarly, other directional and trade-specific deviations, such as higher emissions from head
winds (aviation), sea currents (ocean shipping).and from river currents (inland shipping) are
omitted. The effects, which are both positive and negative depending on the direction of
transport, cancel one another out and the shipper needs to take responsibility for the average
emissions.
It is the purpose of EcoTransIT World to provide the possibility of modal comparisons. This
also requires that all transport modes are equally treated. Thus, average freight utilization
and average emissions without directional deviations are considered. Therefore, in EcoTransIT
World the option with inland vessels to calculate up-river and down-river was deleted as
well.
In EcoTransIT World energy and emissions are calculated for the transport of a certain
amount of a homogeneous freight (one special freight type) for a transport relation with one
or several legs. For each leg one type of transport vessel or vehicle is selected. These specifications
determine all parameters needed for the calculation:
• Freight type: Load factor and empty trip factor (can also be user defined in the expert
mode)
• Vehicle/vessel type: Payload capacity (mass related), final energy consumption
and emission factors.
• Transport relation: road type, gradient, country/region specific emission factors.
For the calculation algorithm it is not relevant whether the freight occupies a part of a vehicle/vessel
or one or several vessels. Energy consumption and emissions are always calculated
based on the capacity utilisation of selected freight type and the corresponding specific
energy consumption of the vessel.
These assumptions avoid the need of allocation rules for transports with different freight
types in the same vehicle, vessel or train. Therefore no special allocation rules are needed
for road and rail transport
For passenger ferries and passenger aircrafts with simultaneous passenger and freight
transport (belly freight) allocation rules for the differentiation of passenger and freight
transport are necessary. These rules are explained in the related chapters.
EcoTransIT World: Methodology and Data – July 15 th , 2010