Greening road freight transport: evidence from an empirical project in Austria

Environmental management has become an important business topic throughout the last decade. Road transport, in this respect, is still regarded as one of the main sources of environmental pollution. In this paper we investigate the role of intention, firm size and sector affiliation for the implementation of environmental management in the Austrian road freight transport sector. Our findings are based on data from 259 companies operating in either transport for hire or reward sector or in other fields regularly performing own account transport. They show that large companies not belonging to the sector of transport for hire or reward but to other industries with a strong intention to act sustainably are most likely to implement and perform environmental management.

► We examined the environmental behaviour of the Austrian transport sector using an online survey.
► Factors of influence and trade-off situations (social, ecological, economic) were analyzed.
► Firm size and sector affiliation matter significantly; influence of intention is limited.