The paper challenges the conventional view that the movement of goods through supply chains must continue to accelerate. The compression of freight transit times has been one of the most enduring logistics trends but may not be compatible with governmental climate change policies to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 60–80% by 2050. Opportunities for cutting CO2 emissions by ‘despeeding’ are…
In terms of logistics, manufacturers located in peripheral areas are generally considered to be at a disadvantage. Surveys of Scottish manufacturers suggest that any logistical disadvantage is likely to stem more from inadequacies in the quality of transport services than from higher movement costs. The paper attempts to explain why manufacturers in peripheral areas do not incur a significant t…
The purpose of this paper is to provide a critical review of the first ten years of the UK Government’s “transport key performance indicator (KPI)” programme which benchmarks the efficiency of road freight operations.
Many traditional retailers use the internet as a complementary business channel while “pure player” retailers only sell products via the internet. The question of who is better at offering electronic physical distribution service quality (e-PDSQ) is open to debate. But, despite e-PDSQ’s importance there are few empirical studies and most have focused on general service quality of internet…
The purpose of this paper is to focus on the carbon intensity of “last mile” deliveries (i.e. deliveries of goods from local depots to the home) and personal shopping trips.
The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the logistical transformation of British retailing over the last three decades and to discuss likely challenges that face logistics managers in the future.
This paper aims to report on an investigation of logistics service provider (LSP) capabilities and how these capabilities contribute to LSP competitiveness in the context of China.
As the volume of retail sales distributed to the home rises, the proportion of deliveries made when there is no one at home (i.e. “unattended”) is also likely to increase. Traditionally unattended delivery involved leaving orders on the doorstep or with a neighbour. In recent years new systems of secured delivery have been developed, many of them employing reception boxes. This paper clas…
The aim is to examine the recent trend in empty running by trucks in the UK and assesses the potential for a further reduction in empty running in the food supply chain using a new technique.
This is a polemical paper challenging both the principle and practice of journal ranking. In recent years academics and their institutions have become obsessive about the star-ratings of the journals in which they publish. In the UK this is partly attributed to quinquennial reviews of university research performance though preoccupation with journal ratings has become an international phenomeno…
The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the logistical transformation of British retailing over the last three decades and to discuss likely challenges that face logistics managers in the future.
Interest in product-level carbon auditing and labelling has been growing in both business and government circles. The purpose of this paper is to examine the practical problems and costs associated with highly disaggregated analyses of greenhouse gas emissions from supply chains. It then weighs these problems and costs against the potential benefits of the carbon labelling of products.