Sustainable and responsible freight transport through public-private collaboration: Finnish road freight responsibility model

Purpose
In aviation, maritime and rail transport safety management systems are well adapted and
they are fixed part of daily practices and the minimum requirements for systems are set in
European regulations. However, this does not apply a road freight sector. In 2013, Finnish
Transport Safety Agency (Trafi) started to develop a road freight responsibility model,
which was intended to enhance safety, quality and environmental management in the
Finnish road freight transport sector. The aim of this paper is to introduce the Finnish
model and to summarize the main findings from the responsibility model.
Approach
This paper includes data and knowledge from two separate but related projects which
studied responsibility and sustainability in the Finnish road freight sector. The paper
combines information from several methods, but the main research method was a case
study with transport companies. Complementary methods used in this paper are workshop
and online survey.
Findings
Transport companies have different practises and attitudes related to the responsible
business and the size of the company or the main service sector of the company do not
always explain the differences. According to the results, this kind of new voluntary basis
approach has a demand in the road freight sector and it will provide help for transport
companies to develop their business.
Value
The paper represents a new approach of the national transport agency to develop the road
freight sector. With the responsibility model Trafi aims to promote sustainable and
responsible business of all sizes of transport companies with a voluntary basis approach.