POSITION PAPERS

in preparation of the

Conference Behaviour in Sustainable Mobility and Logistics

'Captain for one day'

27 & 28 September 2016 - Rotterdam, The Netherlands


Table of Contents

Introduction (S. Halbesma, A. van Binsbergen)

1. Behaviours of the different actors in the transport system
(F. Liesa, S. Krautsack, L. Tavasszy)

The transport system consists of different type of actors (individuals, groups, institutions) with different types of interests acting in different timescales.These different types of actors exhibit and trigger different kinds of transport and mobility behaviour that is also influenced by complex interactions among them and the transport system as a whole.

2. Social groups (J. Berveling, M. Kansen, R. Jüriado,)

People have a powerful ‘need to belong’ and tend to copy the behaviour and choices of their peers. We are all part of social networks, and those networks can have a major impact on the ultimate success of policies and innovative technologies.

3. Major contextual trends that influence mobility and logistics behaviour
(R. Jüriado, D. O’Reilly)

Major intertwined contextual trends that influence mobility and logistics behaviour through demand and supply as well as broader lifestyles include demographic trends, the urban-rural divide, environmental considerations and changing attitudes to mobility and consumption, (disruptive) technology enabled societal trends, and security concerns.

4. Innovation and behaviour in mobility and transport (W. Wasner, G. Grimm, G. Lyons)

Considering innovation and behaviour together is indispensable in mobility and transport research, technology and innovation policy, irrespective of whether a “demand-pull” or “technology-push” approach is being pursued.

5. Policy Implementation and behavioural insights (J. Berveling, M. Kansen, S. Halbesma)

As new insights in behaviour of individuals, groups and institutes emerge, now it is time to take advantage of all the acquired knowledge and start developing policies better tailored to behaviour, as opportunities now exist for not only rendering current policies more effective, but also for developing policy alternatives that are more effective.

Introduction

Policy makers in various European regions, countries as well as in the European Commission recognise the need to have better insight in mobility and logistics behaviour as to design and implement effective policies for sustainable transport.
There is a need to have better insights in the behaviour of actors in (and related to) mobility and transport because current policies sometimes fail to achieve intended goals, and policy makers feel unprepared to respond on new, emerging developments – often originating from outside the traditional transport sector. Also, users responses to policies, new services and new technologies are sometimes different than anticipated.

The position papers as presented in this document give some ‘food for thought’ on various aspects of ‘behaviour in mobility and transport’. The papers give a first impression on types of knowledge needed for effective policy making, as well as some knowledge gaps that need to be addressed.

The first paper highlights the notion that there are different relevant actors, groups of actors and institutions that have different interests and show different types of interrelated behaviour (introduction by Fernando Liesa and Sarah Krautsack). Individuals and decision makers often do not act on their own: because people have a powerful ‘need to belong’, social groups emerge, and these groups have a significant impact on behaviour as people tend to copy the behaviour and choices of their peers (introduction by Jaco Berveling, Maarten Kansen, Rein Jüriado). Behaviour is also influenced by intertwined contextual trends, such as demographic trends, the urban-rural divide, (disruptive) technology enabled societal trends, and changing attitudes to environmental impacts, mobility, consumption, safety and security (introduction by Rein Jüriado, Deirdre O’Reilly).
These insights are most relevant when aiming to bring about changes in the transport and mobility system: considering innovation and behaviour together is indispensable (introduction by Walter Wasner, Gabriele Grimm, Glenn Lyons) and insights are needed for helping to design and implement effective policies (introduction by Jaco Berveling, Maarten Kansen, Sieds Halbesma).

The position papers form the input for the discussions with scientists, policy makers and stakeholders during the “Conference Behaviour in Sustainable Mobility and Logistics”. From the combined input of all inputs, the Steering Committee will draft a “Strategic Directions Paper on Behaviour in Sustainable Mobility & Logistics”. That paper presents a sketch for a knowledge agenda on behaviour and mobility and transport, including a series of research questions recommended to take up in future research programmes. The Strategic Directions Paper is intended to be a source for inspiration for the agenda setting for research and development initiatives on regional, national and international level. This includes the final Horizon 2020 ‘Transport Challenge’ work programs and programs beyond, as well as regional and national mobility and logistics knowledge agendas aimed at strengthening the knowledge base that helps to craft effective policies with horizons of ten to twenty years.

Sieds Halbesma (Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment)
Chairman of the Steering Committee

Arjan van Binsbergen (Delft University of Technology)
Secretary to the Steering Committee; editor

1. Behaviours of the different actors in the transport system

By: Fernando Liesa, Alliance for Logistics Innovation through Collaboration in Europe (ETP ALICE), Belgium
Sarah Krautsack, Federal Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology, Austria
Lóri Tavasszy, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands

Key terms: decision-making and acceptance, conflicts of interest, transport system, policy interventions, innovation implementation into market, driving forces (e.g. stakeholders’ behaviour), sociological and psychological barriers for innovation, demand and supply, institutional behaviour

Summary: The transport system consists of different types of actors (individuals, groups, institutions) with different types of interests on different time scales; these different types of actors exhibit and trigger different kinds of transport and mobility behaviour that is also influenced by complex interactions among them and the transport system as a whole.

Introduction

The transport system consists of different types of actors with a variety of mobility and transport needs and different types of interests in shaping the future transport system. This idea is aligned with the National Innovation Systems (NIS) theory from the 90’s (OECD, 1997), that explicitly refers to the complexity of interactions and the non-linearity of change processes. The numerous actors of the ‘mobility and logistics systems’ range from public, private and public-private organisations on the market, to travellers and consumers including university and non-university research institutes. Public organisations involved in transport policy and related policy areas like RTI-policy are ministries, regional transport authorities, municipalities, etc. Private organisations include industries and supply industries involved in automotive, aeronautics, rail, shipbuilding as well as mobility service providers, organisations along the transport supply chains and networks like retailers, shippers, logistics service providers and planners. Other relevant organisations include infrastructure operators (like for ports, airports, terminals, rail, road, and other networks), road transport, railway transport, public transport operators and telecommunication operators that are either public, private or private-public organisations. NGOs also often play an important role representing needs of certain stakeholder and interest groups. A sufficient share of relevant actors have to balance their interactions and create common ground in order to bring about successful interventions, actions, policies, innovations and changes in the transport system. Experiences from transition management underline the importance of co-production of a common language and future orientation by a network of diverse relevant actors when dealing with complex societal problems and their governance (Loorbach and Rotmans, 2010).
The way actors act and interact can be described as their behaviour and many times influence transport system evolution. In order to get a better grip on the complexity of behaviour, it helps to recognize that there are groups or types of actors that show specific behavioural patterns (see part 2 for a further elaboration on ‘groups’). Actors need to be synchronised for vertical or horizontal cooperation making mobility and transport more sustainable: a group-wise approach supports fast deployment of such initiatives and innovations (see also the discussion paper on ‘Innovation’ (part 4)). Policies can be more efficient when targeted on groups as opposed to targeting all as one or all individually; see also the discussion paper on Policy Implementation; see also part 5).

Transport today is characterized by a highly interdependent ‘system of systems’, operating in a very broad scope: from the global level and in interconnected transportation chains to the urban and neighbourhood level. Mobility and transport form the backbone of our societies. It has a service function to all other sectors in today’s economies and societies. The choices (behaviour) of individuals, groups of individuals and organisations form mobility and consumption patterns (the demand pattern). The same individuals, groups and organisations shape the supply side as well, as through intricate interactions, supply responds to demand. Transport today can be compared to a mobile. If you set one part (sub-system) in motion, all other parts (sub-systems) of the mobile start moving and need to adapt to a new position: a specific intervention or strategy introduced by one stakeholder might affect the whole transport system. For example, decisions made by shipping lines to reduce speed in transoceanic transport achieved energy savings and emission reductions in that part of the chain. But the rest of actors, including shippers and logistics service providers, needed to adjust their operations to this new practice that involved a number of operational and behavioural changes in organizations beyond the shipping lines that introduced the change. Actors, including policy makers, that want to bring about significant changes in the transport and mobility system therefore should seek endorsement and support from important (other) stakeholders groups, should try to include the groups in designing actions from the very beginnings by a participatory approach and should also strive to align actions of various actors to achieve maximum effects.

Behaviour is based on thoughts and decisions: conscious, unconscious, emotional, superior, spontaneous, reflective, institutional, rational, irrational and often shaped by tradition, education, personal history, experiences, cultural or other framework conditions (including available budgets and instruments), internal and external factors. Behaviour varies in institutions, different types of organisations, administrations, social groups or sectors. Behaviour of an individual might be different if in a private or professional setting or in different social situations. Thus user requirements might differ from situation to situation which makes it very difficult for decision makers to set up corresponding rules, implement appropriate technological solutions or design optimal framework conditions. Overall societies needs might sometimes differ from a single groups requirement.

Moreover, behaviours of seemingly comparable actors may vary depending on their role in a specific setting, the individual background and level of education, circumstances, and the level of the playing field (communal, regional, national, European, global). For example, any individual working in the transport and logistic sector is at the same time user of the transport system for the personal daily life, but also makes decisions in the organization she/he works for that are impacting transport. Behaviour at both sides of the coin may be different as the personal and organizational/institutional background is different.

Potential relevance for future mobility, logistics and freight transport

The behaviour and relationships between the different actors or groups of actors or even among a group of actors alone is very different one from each other. Private actors from (supply) industries (such as consultancy, IT, vehicle manufacturers ...) can often be characterized by high R&D quotes and they are very much used to horizontal collaboration in order to achieve new or improved products to innovate the market. They are strong supporters of R&D and interested in defining R&D topics. Therefore, they often organize themselves in interest groups like clusters and platforms to lobby for R&D investments, standards and (policy) support in bring about desired changes (Krautsack, 2016).

All actors along the logistics supply chain are asset heavy, long-cycled and constraint governed being therefore more cost oriented and less agile in service oriented interventions. Public transport is usually very cost sensitive, also because of the organisation of its specific markets. Especially logistics is more seen as a cost factor than a value factor, competition dominates the industry characterized by small margins for logistics service providers; cost leadership is the main competitive advantage. As a consequence, their behaviour is risk-aversive and not very innovation oriented. So, these type of organisations behave different than the private actors from industry when changes to the mobility and logistics system are discussed.

Infrastructure operators are also sensitive to costs, especially operators of public-financed infrastructure due to stressed public budgets, but they also have to fulfil societal and environmental goals, because transport infrastructure is mostly seen as a public good.

Public actors exist on different levels - from neighbourhoods and municipalities to national governments as well as on the European level. They have to define and implement impact-oriented long-term strategies for transport policy and related policy areas like R&D in transport, economic development, health, etc. by coordinating and balancing relevant private and public stakeholder interests.

Consumers are influenced by considerations and influences at different time scales. Such considerations and influences vary widely and include trends, lifestyles, advertising, markets (supply), labour market conditions, affordability of living space, time constraints, facilitation of day to day life or a wish to hold social status or other expectations. Users of the transport system are also influenced by the transport and mobility services supply, and these in turn are influenced by rules, regulations, and costs. Reverse, their aggregated demand provokes a response from transport suppliers, so demand also shapes supply (repercussive relationship).
Some decisions are deliberated, can be well understood, and can be modelled (for example by applying economic utility theory or risk aversion theories). Other decisions are less well understood, are (seemingly) impulsive and spontaneous and are sometimes regarded as been taken in a not fully rational way. Knowledge about this decision taking processes needs to be further developed.

Private organisations mostly act rational from their individual economic perspective, but not on a system or even cooperation perspective. Their employees are also biased by their education and experience and act rational based on this framework only.