Freight Transport and the Modern Economy (Routledge Studies in the Modern World Economy)

Freight Transport and the Modern Economy adapts a well-known textbook by Michel Savy, revising, extending and updating it for British, European and international readers. It deals not only with the technical aspects of transport, logistics and supply chain management, but also the interactions between transport professionals and the public authorities in the modern social, political, economic and environmental context.

The transport of freight is presented as a system, mixing empirics and theory, showing how transport itself functions and also its strong influence on the modern economy, with a growing volume of production, turnover and employment. The nature of freight transport, an industrial process widely marketed as a service, is analysed in depth, explaining the main characteristics of the transport operation, its market and the regulatory context. The main actors, the professional actors (carriers, shippers and other agents) and the public authorities are introduced, and their behaviour and interactions are clarified. This comprehensive approach allows the reader to go further and consider in particular the approaches and practices of transport by carriers, customers, logistics managers, political decision makers and citizens, to tackle long range issues such as the ‘decoupling’ of production and transport recommended by some institutions and experts, and to explore the need for more infrastructure, or the capacity of the freight transport industry to reduce its contribution to pollution and climate change.

This book treats freight transport as a whole system in its technical, economic, social, political and environmental context, in contrast to existing transport literature focused on individual aspects, such as transportation planning (usually for cars or passengers), logistics (essentially management issues), or individual transport modes. This book is comprehensive in its treatment of freight transport and in its use of multiple disciplinary perspectives.

Michel Savy is Professor of Transport and Logistics at the University of Paris Est Créteil and the École Nationale des Ponts ParisTech. He is Director of the Observatory of Transport Policies and Strategies in Europe (Paris) and Co-Director of the Sino-French Centre for Urban and Regional Planning Studies (Nanjing and Paris). He has published over 150 books, articles and papers, and is a member of the editorial board of Transport Reviews.

June Burnham is a researcher and consultant at June Burnham & Associates, and was formerly Senior Lecturer in European Government at Middlesex University and a research officer at the London School of Economics. She has published books and articles on transport policy, transport in London and public management.