5. Sustainable Transportation and Freight Management

Introduction and Context

Transportation is the physical link between suppliers, producers, distribution centres, retailers, and customers. It also represents one of the most visible and strategically important sources of environmental impact in a supply chain. Freight movement consumes fuel, occupies infrastructure, generates emissions, creates noise, contributes to congestion, and exposes organisations to regulatory and energy-price risks. Consequently, sustainable logistics cannot be achieved merely by improving warehouse operations or purchasing environmentally preferable materials. The design and management of freight transportation must also reduce resource consumption while preserving service quality and economic viability.

Sustainable transportation is the planning, execution, and control of passenger or freight movement in ways that balance economic performance, environmental protection, social well-being, and operational resilience. In freight management, sustainability involves more than selecting a low-emission vehicle. It requires integrated decisions about demand, modal choice, shipment frequency, network structure, load utilisation, routing, carrier relationships, fuel, technology, and customer expectations.

A fundamental managerial challenge is that transportation decisions involve trade-offs. A direct truck movement may be fast and flexible but have a higher environmental impact than rail or water transport. Consolidating shipments can reduce emissions per unit but may lengthen delivery time. Electric vehicles can eliminate tailpipe emissions but require charging infrastructure and may be less suitable for long-haul or heavy-duty operations. Sustainable freight management therefore requires a systems perspective rather than isolated environmental initiatives.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this chapter, students should be able to:

1. Explain the relationship between transportation, freight management, and sustainable supply-chain performance.

2. Evaluate transport modes using cost, service, environmental, infrastructure, and risk criteria.

3. Design suitable intermodal, consolidation, routing, and network strategies.

4. Assess the relevance of fuel-efficiency measures, alternative fuels, electric vehicles, and hydrogen technologies.

5. Apply carrier-selection and last-mile principles to lower-impact freight systems.

6. Use operational, environmental, and social metrics to support transportation decisions.

7. Identify implementation risks, governance requirements, and emerging developments in sustainable freight.

The Transportation Decision as a Sustainability Problem

Transportation performance is traditionally assessed through cost, transit time, reliability, capacity, and flexibility. Sustainable freight management expands this evaluation to include greenhouse-gas emissions, local air pollutants, noise, land use, safety, labour conditions, and community effects. A decision that minimises freight cost may increase emissions; a decision that reduces carbon may create unacceptable service failures. The appropriate objective is therefore not simply minimum cost or minimum emissions, but the best feasible balance under specified strategic constraints.

The environmental effect of freight depends on several interacting variables: distance, shipment weight and volume, vehicle type, fuel or electricity source, load factor, empty running, road conditions, driving behaviour, waiting time, and terminal operations. Two shipments using the same truck may have very different impacts if one vehicle is fully loaded on both legs while the other returns empty.

Useful measures include:

• Total transport emissions: emissions generated by a shipment, route, vehicle, or network.
• Emissions intensity: emissions per tonne-kilometre, pallet-kilometre, parcel, or order.
• Load factor: the proportion of available vehicle capacity actually used.
• Empty running: distance travelled without revenue-generating freight.
• Energy intensity: energy consumed per unit of freight movement.
• On-time performance: the proportion of deliveries meeting the agreed time window.

A basic freight-emissions calculation may be expressed as:

Transport emissions = distance × fuel consumption × emission factor

For operational analysis, this can be refined by considering payload, vehicle type, road gradient, congestion, temperature, and whether the vehicle is powered by diesel, electricity, hydrogen, biofuel, or another energy source. The result should be treated as an estimate whose quality depends on the accuracy of the underlying data and the chosen accounting boundary.

Modal Choice: Matching Freight Characteristics with Transport Capability

Modal choice is the selection of road, rail, water, air, pipeline, or a combination of modes. Each mode has a distinctive sustainability profile and operating logic.

Road freight provides high flexibility, dense network coverage, door-to-door service, and relatively low fixed infrastructure requirements for the shipper. Its disadvantages include congestion, exposure to fuel prices, accidents, road wear, and emissions. It is often appropriate for short and medium distances, time-sensitive deliveries, irregular consignments, and first- and last-mile transport.

Rail is generally well suited to heavy, bulky, and predictable flows over medium or long distances. It can reduce road congestion and emissions per tonne-kilometre, although its environmental performance depends on locomotive technology, electricity generation, train utilisation, terminal handling, and the need for road drayage at each end. Limited network access and fixed schedules can reduce flexibility.

Water transport is highly effective for large volumes and long distances, particularly for commodities, containers, and non-urgent cargo. It often has low energy use per unit moved but may involve long transit times, port congestion, weather risks, and additional inland transport. Air freight offers speed and global reach but normally has a much higher environmental impact per unit of freight. It should therefore be reserved for high-value, urgent, lightweight, or exceptionally time-sensitive shipments.

The correct mode cannot be selected solely by ranking modes from “greenest” to “least green.” Decision-makers should assess shipment characteristics, including weight, volume, value, perishability, urgency, security requirements, origin-destination access, reliability, and handling sensitivity. A mode that is efficient for a full trainload may be unsuitable for a small shipment requiring a narrow delivery window.

A structured modal-choice process usually includes:

1. Defining customer-service requirements and delivery constraints.

2. Describing shipment volume, density, value, frequency, and variability.

3. Comparing feasible modes on cost, time, reliability, emissions, safety, and risk.

4. Evaluating terminal, handling, and first- and last-mile requirements.

5. Testing the decision under fuel-price, demand, disruption, and regulatory scenarios.

6. Monitoring actual performance after implementation.

Intermodal and Multimodal Freight Systems

Intermodal transport uses two or more transport modes for a shipment, usually with the freight remaining in the same loading unit, such as a container or swap body. Multimodal transport also involves multiple modes, but the term may refer more broadly to an integrated movement managed under one contract or coordinated service. In practice, the distinction is less important than the quality of integration.

Intermodal design seeks to combine the flexibility of road with the efficiency of rail or water. A typical container may be collected by truck, moved by rail over the main corridor, transported by ship between ports, and delivered by truck to the customer. The sustainability benefit depends on the total chain, not merely the main leg. Poor terminal efficiency, long drayage distances, idling, or repeated handling can reduce or eliminate the expected advantage.

Successful intermodal systems require compatible equipment, coordinated schedules, reliable information exchange, standard documentation, suitable terminals, and clear responsibility for delays or damage. Digital visibility is particularly important because a shipper must know where the shipment is, which mode is carrying it, and whether a missed connection threatens the delivery commitment.

Consolidation, Network Design, and Routing

Load consolidation combines multiple consignments into a larger movement. It may occur through full-truckload planning, less-than-truckload networks, milk runs, cross-docking, pooling among shippers, or consolidation centres. Its principal sustainability mechanism is improved vehicle utilisation and fewer partially loaded trips.

Consolidation must be balanced against inventory and service costs. Holding shipments until a vehicle is sufficiently full may reduce emissions but increase cycle time and safety stock. The decision is most attractive when demand is predictable, customers are geographically clustered, and delivery windows are sufficiently broad. Dynamic consolidation systems use order-management and transport-management data to identify compatible shipments while protecting service commitments.

Network design determines the location and role of plants, warehouses, cross-docks, terminals, and fulfilment centres. A decentralised network may shorten delivery distances but increase facility inventory and operating costs. A centralised network may reduce facility duplication but create longer transport legs. Sustainable network design therefore evaluates total landed cost, transport emissions, inventory, facility energy, resilience, and social effects rather than focusing only on mileage.

Routing and scheduling decisions include vehicle sequencing, delivery windows, driver hours, road restrictions, traffic conditions, vehicle capacity, and customer priorities. Route optimisation can reduce distance and travel time, but a mathematically shorter route is not always operationally better. Congestion, steep gradients, unreliable roads, tolls, loading restrictions, and failed deliveries may make a slightly longer route more sustainable in practice.

Common routing approaches include:

• Static routing, based on planned routes that change infrequently.
• Dynamic routing, which responds to traffic, new orders, cancellations, and disruptions.
• Vehicle-routing models, which assign customers to vehicles while respecting capacity and time-window constraints.
• Collaborative routing, in which several firms share vehicles, depots, or delivery resources.

Improving Vehicle and Driver Efficiency

Before adopting new propulsion technologies, organisations should reduce avoidable energy use in existing fleets. Preventive maintenance, correct tyre pressure, aerodynamic improvements, weight control, anti-idling policies, driver training, speed management, and efficient loading can produce significant benefits. Telematics can identify harsh braking, excessive acceleration, long idling periods, route deviations, and poor utilisation.

Eco-driving programmes are most effective when supported by feedback, coaching, realistic delivery schedules, and incentive systems that do not encourage unsafe behaviour. A driver who is rewarded only for faster delivery may accelerate, brake harshly, or bypass rest requirements. Sustainable performance management must therefore combine efficiency with safety, legal compliance, and service quality.

Fleet managers should also distinguish between operational and embodied impacts. Replacing a vehicle reduces operational emissions but involves manufacturing, battery production, disposal, and infrastructure impacts. A life-cycle perspective compares impacts from vehicle manufacture, energy production, use, maintenance, and end-of-life treatment.

Alternative Fuels and New Propulsion Technologies

Alternative-fuel decisions should be based on duty cycle, range, payload, refuelling or charging access, energy prices, vehicle availability, maintenance capability, and life-cycle emissions.

Battery-electric vehicles are increasingly suitable for urban delivery, parcel distribution, service fleets, and predictable regional routes. They offer quiet operation, high drivetrain efficiency, and no tailpipe emissions. Constraints include purchase price, charging time, battery weight, charging capacity, range under extreme conditions, and the carbon intensity of electricity. Fleet electrification requires route analysis, depot-power assessment, charger scheduling, and contingency planning.

Hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles may be relevant to high-utilisation and longer-range operations where rapid refuelling and payload preservation are important. Their sustainability depends strongly on how hydrogen is produced. Hydrogen generated with low-carbon electricity has a different environmental profile from hydrogen produced from fossil fuels without effective carbon control. Infrastructure availability, safety procedures, storage, and fuel cost remain significant considerations.

Biofuels can sometimes reduce dependence on conventional fossil diesel, especially where existing engines and fuelling systems can be used. However, their environmental value varies according to feedstock, land-use change, production method, transport distance, and competition with food or biodiversity. Renewable natural gas and other fuels may be useful in particular regional contexts, but they should not be treated as automatically sustainable.

The appropriate decision is often a portfolio rather than a single technology. An organisation may electrify urban vans, use renewable diesel or suitable biofuel for selected heavy vehicles, employ rail for trunk movements, and retain conventional vehicles temporarily for routes that lack viable alternatives.

Carrier Selection and Sustainable Procurement

Shippers influence transportation sustainability through carrier-selection criteria, contract design, data requirements, and collaboration. Traditional tendering often emphasises price and capacity. A sustainable tender should also assess fleet age, fuel mix, maintenance systems, emissions reporting, driver welfare, safety record, subcontracting practices, environmental certifications, and transition plans.

A weighted scorecard can combine cost, service, environmental, and social factors. For example, an organisation may assign weights to total cost, reliability, emissions intensity, safety, labour standards, technology capability, and resilience. Weighting should reflect the organisation’s material risks and stakeholder commitments rather than arbitrary preferences.

Contracts can encourage improvement through fuel-efficiency targets, emissions-reporting obligations, shared savings, minimum data standards, bonus-malus mechanisms, and periodic performance reviews. However, targets must be measurable and within the carrier’s reasonable control. A contract that transfers all risk to a small carrier without providing resources may encourage under-reporting, unsafe practices, or financial failure.

Last-Mile Freight and Urban Logistics

The last mile is often the most operationally complex stage of delivery. Vehicles make many stops, travel through congested areas, face parking constraints, and frequently encounter failed or repeated delivery attempts. Although the distance is short, emissions and cost per parcel can be high.

Relevant solutions include parcel lockers, pickup points, delivery-time choice, urban consolidation centres, cargo bikes, electric vans, micro-fulfilment facilities, coordinated delivery windows, and route optimisation. Cargo bikes can be effective in dense urban districts for small parcels, while electric vans may be better for larger routes or dispersed customers. Locker networks can reduce failed deliveries and consolidate many individual trips, but they require convenient locations and customer acceptance.

Last-mile sustainability is partly a demand-management issue. Customers who select narrow delivery windows or same-day service may increase vehicle kilometres and reduce consolidation opportunities. Transparent service menus can allow customers to choose lower-impact delivery options, provided that these options remain reliable and reasonably accessible.

Digital Systems, Analytics, and Artificial Intelligence

Transport-management systems integrate orders, carrier capacity, vehicle data, rates, routes, delivery appointments, and performance metrics. Telematics supplies real-time information about location, fuel use, driving behaviour, temperature, and vehicle condition. These data support predictive maintenance, exception management, dynamic routing, and emissions accounting.

Artificial intelligence and machine learning can forecast demand, predict travel time, identify consolidation opportunities, estimate failure risk, and optimise complex vehicle-routing problems. Their value depends on data quality, model transparency, integration with operational processes, and human oversight. An algorithm trained on historical routes may reproduce inefficient patterns or disadvantage particular customers. Automated decisions should therefore be tested for reliability, explainability, privacy, and unintended consequences.

Digital freight platforms can improve asset sharing and match loads with available capacity, potentially reducing empty running. Yet platform-based work also raises questions concerning data ownership, cybersecurity, algorithmic control, payment fairness, and the employment conditions of drivers. Digital efficiency should not be evaluated separately from governance and social sustainability.

An Applied Case: Northstar Foods’ Regional Distribution Redesign

Background

Northstar Foods, an illustrative mid-sized packaged-food manufacturer, supplies retailers across three regions. It operates a central distribution centre and contracts most outbound transport to third-party carriers. The company has experienced rising diesel costs, retailer pressure for emissions data, and increasing congestion around its metropolitan customers.

Situation and Problem

The company’s outbound network uses partially loaded trucks on frequent fixed schedules. Vehicles deliver to urban stores in the morning and often return to the distribution centre empty. Management is considering electric vehicles, but the fleet team is uncertain whether electrification alone will solve the problem. The company must reduce transport emissions by 25 per cent over four years without lowering on-time delivery performance.

Analysis

An initial data review identifies four sources of avoidable impact: low average load factors on some routes, empty return journeys, duplicated deliveries to nearby stores, and prolonged idling at congested receiving locations. The analysis also shows that the longest regional trunk movement has predictable volumes and could be shifted partly to rail, while urban routes have short distances and predictable depot return times, making them potential candidates for electric vehicles.

The company establishes a baseline using vehicle kilometres, fuel consumption, payload, delivery count, on-time performance, and estimated emissions. It then tests network alternatives rather than comparing vehicle technologies in isolation.

Strategy and Solution

Northstar adopts a four-part plan. First, it introduces a consolidation schedule for stores located within common delivery zones and widens selected delivery windows after negotiating with retailers. Second, it uses a rail-truck intermodal service for the predictable regional trunk, retaining road transport for collection and final delivery. Third, it deploys a small number of electric rigid trucks on dense urban routes after installing depot chargers and reviewing electrical capacity. Fourth, it revises carrier contracts to require monthly fuel, distance, load, and emissions data and to reward verified reductions.

A transport-management system is configured to combine orders, calculate vehicle capacity, recommend routes, and identify empty-return opportunities. Drivers receive training in eco-driving and safe charging procedures. The company also introduces a dashboard covering emissions intensity, load factor, empty kilometres, on-time delivery, failed deliveries, safety events, and cost per case.

Outcome

The programme produces lower vehicle kilometres and improved load utilisation. The intermodal route reduces dependence on long-haul trucking, while electric vehicles perform effectively on the selected urban duty cycle. The company does not electrify every vehicle because several rural routes lack suitable charging opportunities and require longer range. Instead, it adopts a staged technology portfolio and reviews performance quarterly.

Learning Points

The case demonstrates that sustainable freight is a network-design challenge. Vehicle replacement is useful, but consolidation, modal shift, delivery-window management, carrier collaboration, and accurate measurement may produce larger or more immediate benefits. It also illustrates the importance of aligning service commitments with sustainability objectives and using operational data to select the routes best suited to a particular technology.

Challenges, Risks, and Professional Judgement

Sustainable transportation programmes commonly fail when targets are announced without a reliable baseline. Emissions may be calculated using inconsistent boundaries, estimated distances, or incomplete subcontractor data. Organisations should state whether they measure tank-to-wheel emissions, well-to-wheel emissions, or a broader life-cycle footprint, and they should document assumptions.

Other risks include greenwashing, rebound effects, infrastructure underuse, technology lock-in, unreliable charging access, battery degradation, and excessive dependence on a single carrier or fuel supplier. A more efficient delivery system may lower the cost of each shipment and unintentionally stimulate additional demand, offsetting some environmental gains. Scenario analysis and post-implementation monitoring are therefore essential.

There are also social and ethical considerations. Freight activity affects neighbourhood air quality, noise, traffic safety, and access to public space. Driver schedules must comply with working-time and rest requirements. Delivery platforms should not conceal unfair labour practices behind claims of flexibility. Data collected from vehicles and drivers should be used proportionately, securely, and transparently.

Regulatory requirements may address vehicle emissions, fuel quality, access to low-emission zones, road safety, dangerous goods, driver hours, carbon reporting, and waste from batteries or other equipment. Managers must treat compliance as a minimum condition, not as the complete definition of sustainability.

Emerging Directions and Best Practices

Important developments include zero-emission urban zones, renewable electricity procurement, automated and connected vehicles, digital freight corridors, collaborative logistics platforms, alternative delivery networks, and more detailed product-level carbon accounting. Autonomous vehicles and platooning may improve utilisation and safety in some settings, but their total benefits remain dependent on regulation, infrastructure, energy use, labour effects, and whether they generate additional travel.

Best practice in sustainable freight management includes:

• Begin with demand, network, and utilisation analysis before purchasing technology.
• Use total-cost and life-cycle perspectives rather than purchase price alone.
• Combine modal shift, consolidation, efficient routing, and cleaner propulsion.
• Select vehicles according to actual duty cycles and payload requirements.
• Include sustainability criteria and auditable data requirements in carrier contracts.
• Measure emissions intensity together with cost, reliability, safety, and social indicators.
• Pilot solutions on suitable routes before scaling them across the network.
• Engage carriers, drivers, customers, regulators, and affected communities.
• Review performance regularly and disclose assumptions honestly.

Chapter Summary

Sustainable transportation and freight management require integrated decisions about modes, networks, loads, routes, vehicles, fuels, carriers, technology, and customer service. Modal choice should match freight characteristics with the strengths and constraints of road, rail, water, and air. Intermodal systems can combine flexibility and efficiency, but their success depends on reliable terminals, coordination, and first- and last-mile performance. Consolidation, routing, network redesign, eco-driving, maintenance, and reduced empty running often provide important benefits before major technology investments are made.

Electric vehicles are particularly relevant to predictable urban and regional routes, while hydrogen, biofuels, rail, and water may serve other duty cycles. No propulsion technology is universally sustainable; life-cycle impacts, infrastructure, energy sources, payload, range, and operational reliability must be assessed. Carrier procurement, digital analytics, last-mile innovation, and stakeholder governance complete the management system. The central principle is to optimise the entire freight system rather than pursuing isolated improvements.

Key Terms

Sustainable transportation: Movement of people or goods that balances economic, environmental, social, and resilience objectives.

Freight management: Planning, organising, executing, and controlling the movement of goods.

Modal choice: Selection of the most appropriate transport mode or combination of modes.

Intermodal transport: Movement using multiple modes, generally with freight remaining in the same loading unit.

Multimodal transport: Integrated movement using two or more transport modes under coordinated arrangements.

Load factor: The proportion of available vehicle capacity used by freight.

Empty running: Vehicle travel without revenue-generating freight.

Consolidation: Combining separate consignments into a larger, more efficient movement.

Emissions intensity: Emissions generated per unit such as tonne-kilometre, pallet, parcel, or order.

Vehicle-routing problem: The allocation and sequencing of deliveries among vehicles subject to operational constraints.

Eco-driving: Driving practices that reduce fuel or energy use while maintaining safety.

Alternative fuel: A transport fuel other than conventional petroleum-based fuel.

Battery-electric vehicle: A vehicle powered by electricity stored in rechargeable batteries.

Fuel-cell vehicle: A vehicle producing electricity through an electrochemical fuel-cell process, commonly using hydrogen.

Last-mile logistics: The final movement of goods from a distribution point to the customer.

Urban consolidation centre: A facility that combines shipments before coordinated delivery into an urban area.

Telematics: Technology combining telecommunications and vehicle or operational data.

Life-cycle assessment: Evaluation of environmental impacts across production, use, and end-of-life stages.

Transport-management system: Digital software used to plan, execute, monitor, and analyse transportation.

Greenwashing: Presenting an organisation or activity as more environmentally responsible than evidence supports.

Review Questions

Short Answer Questions

1. Why should sustainable transportation be evaluated as a systems problem rather than solely as a vehicle-technology problem?

2. Define load factor and explain its relevance to freight emissions.

3. Distinguish between intermodal and multimodal transport.

4. Identify two operational measures that can improve the efficiency of conventional freight vehicles.

5. Why may electric vehicles be particularly suitable for urban delivery routes?

Long Answer Questions

1. Compare road, rail, water, and air freight using cost, flexibility, speed, capacity, and sustainability criteria.

2. Explain how consolidation, routing, and network design can reduce transport impacts while preserving service quality.

3. Discuss the managerial issues involved in selecting alternative fuels and propulsion technologies.

4. Examine the role of carrier procurement and contract design in achieving sustainable freight performance.

5. Explain how digital systems, telematics, and artificial intelligence can support sustainable transportation, including their risks.

Analytical / Application Questions

1. A distributor has predictable full loads between two regional cities but uses trucks because of historical practice. Develop a decision framework for evaluating a truck-rail intermodal alternative.

2. A parcel carrier is considering electric vans, cargo bikes, and parcel lockers for a dense urban district. Recommend an evaluation method and identify the information required.

3. A carrier reports lower fuel use but its emissions per delivered order have increased. Analyse possible reasons and propose corrective actions.

22. Multiple Choice Questions with Answers

Question 1

Which decision most directly improves freight sustainability by reducing partially loaded trips?

A. Increasing delivery frequency without changing demand

B. Consolidating compatible shipments

C. Using air freight for routine replenishment

D. Reducing the number of delivery performance indicators

Correct Answer: B. Consolidating compatible shipments

Question 2

A rail-based solution is most likely to be appropriate when freight is

A. Urgent, lightweight, and highly perishable

B. Irregular, very small, and requiring immediate door-to-door delivery

C. Heavy, predictable, and transported over a medium or long distance

D. High-value and required within a few hours

Correct Answer: C. Heavy, predictable, and transported over a medium or long distance

Question 3

Which factor can reduce the expected environmental benefit of an intermodal shipment?

A. Efficient terminal coordination

B. High train utilisation

C. Long and poorly managed drayage movements

D. Use of standard containers

Correct Answer: C. Long and poorly managed drayage movements

Question 4

The basic transport-emissions relationship in the chapter is best represented by

A. Distance multiplied by fuel consumption and emission factor

B. Vehicle price divided by payload

C. Delivery time multiplied by customer count

D. Load factor divided by fuel price

Correct Answer: A. Distance multiplied by fuel consumption and emission factor

Question 5

Which route is the strongest candidate for early battery-electric fleet deployment?

A. An unpredictable international route with no charging access

B. A short, predictable urban route returning regularly to a depot

C. A remote route requiring maximum payload and very long range

D. An emergency airfreight route

Correct Answer: B. A short, predictable urban route returning regularly to a depot

Question 6

Why should carrier selection include safety and labour criteria in addition to price and emissions?

A. Because low freight prices are always legally prohibited

B. Because sustainability includes social and governance performance

C. Because emissions data are irrelevant to carrier selection

D. Because carriers do not influence operational performance

Correct Answer: B. Because sustainability includes social and governance performance

Question 7

A company reduces the distance of individual delivery routes but increases failed deliveries. What is the most appropriate interpretation?

A. The programme is automatically successful because distance fell

B. Failed deliveries may offset some environmental and cost benefits

C. Service reliability has no relationship to sustainability

D. The company should eliminate all delivery windows

Correct Answer: B. Failed deliveries may offset some environmental and cost benefits

Question 8

Which measure is most useful for comparing freight movements of different sizes?

A. Total number of vehicles owned

B. Total annual transport cost alone

C. Emissions intensity per tonne-kilometre or shipment unit

D. Number of transport contracts

Correct Answer: C. Emissions intensity per tonne-kilometre or shipment unit

Question 9

What is a major limitation of using artificial intelligence for route optimisation?

A. It can never process operational data

B. It may reproduce poor historical decisions or depend on biased data

C. It prevents all forms of vehicle tracking

D. It eliminates the need for human oversight

Correct Answer: B. It may reproduce poor historical decisions or depend on biased data

Question 10

Northstar Foods selected electric vehicles only for predictable urban routes while using intermodal transport for a regional trunk. This illustrates which principle?

A. One propulsion technology is suitable for every duty cycle

B. Sustainability requires eliminating all road transport

C. Technology and mode choices should be matched to operational characteristics

D. Vehicle purchase price is the only relevant criterion

Correct Answer: C. Technology and mode choices should be matched to operational characteristics