Collaborative Outsourcing for Sustainable Transport Management

The chapter aims to investigate vertical collaboration focused on making transport of chemical products more sustainable and safer by shifting from road to multimodal. This collaboration on transport planning, energy and emission management is supported by technological tools (Intermodal Links Planner and CO₂ calculator) developed within ChemMultimodal Project. The research problem is analyzed based on literature review and empirical research on collaborative outsourcing in chemical industry. The main findings show that close collaboration between chemical companies and LSPs has a strategic importance for the sustainable transport development. On the one hand, the role of LSPs, as architects of transport processes as well as integrators of transport modes and connections, is crucial for rising eco-efficiency. On the other hand, chemical companies view their LSPs as critical partners in business development and supply chain management and are willing to share their plans to achieve competitive advantage. Both parties are expected to invest in the collaborative relationships that is strongly supported by technological tools for sustainable transport management. The preliminary results show that based on close collaboration companies are able to reduce CO₂ emission in transport activities almost by 60%.