An Australian survey says citizens want to see the road freight industry tackle this one key issue
The National Road Transport Association (NatRoad) says Australians are divided when it comes to whether road freight is environmentally friendly.
New research from NatRoad was conducted by independent consultants StollzNow Research and surveyed an online panel of 1,000 people aged 18 and above.
The results found that 60 per cent of Australians agree that road freight isn’t environmentally friendly while the other 40 per cent say the opposite.
The data says 68 per cent of Australians would make a trade-off to improve the environment such as waiting longer for goods, accepting less variety or paying more.
Metropolitan residents are also more likely to accept trade-offs than regional residents.
“This is important research that shows the road freight industry needs to take the lead and speak out about ways we are or can be sustainable,” NatRoad chairman Scott Davidson says.
“Road freight is not a high concern for the environment in the minds of most people but that doesn’t mean there’s no issue for our industry.”
Davidson says pollution, food wastage, climate change and landfill were all viewed as higher environmental concerns in the study, but road freight is still a crucial cog to lowering emissions.
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“We all know that our industry will embrace lower emissions if governments put the appropriate regulations, price signals and market priming mechanisms in place,” Davidson says.
“What this shows is that as an industry we should not be backwards in coming forwards to participate in sustainability discussions.”
The NatRoad research also found that 58 per cent of Australians are aware of restrictions in place to prevent trucks delivering at night and early morning in cities and towns.
Roughly 59 per cent of them say they will support the removal of these curfews if they improve the delivery of goods.