Environmental management in the transport sector: findings of a quantitative survey

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the status quo of environmental management in the Austrian road freight transport sector. Different environmental practices are analyzed and the influence of attitudes and firm size is evaluated. Design/methodology/approach – A multi‐step empirical approach was performed. Based on a theoretical approach and a desktop survey on company web sites, several semi‐structured expert interviews were performed. Subsequently, an online‐survey was conducted and then analyzed by statistical methods. Findings – It was found that although companies in the road freight transport sector are aware of the importance of sustainable issues, actual performance needs to be improved. The authors found significant differences, particularly between smaller and larger firms. Research limitations/implications – Due to its nature as a research survey, the findings might be subject to some limitations such as sampling errors, non‐response effects and social desirability bias. Practical implications – Small to medium‐sized enterprises in particular will profit from a supportive framework which motivates to improve their environmental performance. Therefore, knowledge about specific ways of improvements and financial aids have to be provided. Originality/value – The survey is a in‐depth analysis of the status quo of environmental management in the domain of road freight transport, taking into account differences between transport for hire or reward and transport on own account.