The Potential of Improving Construction Transport Time Efficiency—A Freight Forwarder Perspective

Abstract

Construction transport, in general, is not carried out efficiently, resulting in unnecessary costs and CO2 emissions. Although it has been found that there is a great potential to improve construction transport, little research has been conducted within this field. The purpose of this study is to contribute to the construction transport time efficiency by identifying non-value-adding activities and their causes from a freight forwarder perspective. A single case study was conducted and two flows, a goods delivery flow and a waste material flow, were mapped and analyzed with the help of value stream mapping (VSM). We ran two workshops to discuss the findings of the VSM. The results from this study show that there is large potential for improving construction transport time efficiency as over 40% of the time was used for non-value-adding activities. Although transport suffers from similar non-value-adding activities undertaken in other industries, this study identifies the transport activities with respect to construction transport. The findings further highlight areas of potential improvements, such as improved information sharing, planning, and coordination among all stakeholders. This knowledge can be used by the freight forwarder and the main contractor to improve construction transport time efficiency. The limitation of this study is that it is based on a single case of a freight forwarder. It does not provide a full picture of construction transport efficiency but rather a starting point for future studies.