Sustainable Transport and the Environment Guide - Unite the Union

During the 1990s, there was a significant switch from own account to hire and reward
transport operations as more companies outsourced their distribution. This had the
effect, ceteris paribus, of increasing fuel purchases by the ‘hire and reward’ sector.
This represented a transfer of the demand for fuel between different road freight
sectors rather than a net increase in the total demand for fuel and in CO 2 emissions. It
was subsequently recognised that there had been ‘a misallocation between industry
groups’ and the estimated CO 2 growth rate was revised downward (Department for
Transport, 2006).
Total Greenhouse Gases by Freight by Road 1990 - 2006
thousand tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent
21000
20000
19000
18000
17000
16000
15000
1990 1995 2000 2005
Year
Figure 6.2: Total Greenhouse Gases by Freight by Road 1990 -2006 – thousand
tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent
In 2006 freight transported by road accounted for 20 per cent of the total GGE of the
transport sector, while in 1990 it accounted for 25.4 per cent of the total GGE of the
transport sector. So the contribution to of freight transported by road to the transport
sector total GGE has decreased by 20 per cent.
Between 1990 and 2006 the average length of haul for all rigid vehicles was static at
43 kilometres. During the same period the average length of an articulated vehicle
hauls decreased by 4.7 per cent to 123 kilometres. For all HGV there was an average
increase of 7 kilometres per haul, an increase of 8.9 per cent.
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