Antecedents of the Physical Internet: A Cross-Country Analysis of Transportation Volume Change

As the recent development of the Physical Internet contributes to a more efficient usage of transportation and logistics technologies, the question arises whether these technologies may have a varying impact on countries’ economic performance. Thus, it is crucial to understand the drivers of transportation volume. In this paper we present a country-level analysis of the determinants of growth of transportation volume by employing data collected for 28 European countries for the 10-year period of 2004-2013 from two data sources: (1) Eurostat and (2) World Bank. We especially focus on two modes of transportation technologies: water transport and road transport. By highlighting the close relationship between country-specific factors and the growth of transport volume, we extend the general framework of the Physical Internet by explicitly taking factors into account which in most cases cannot be directly influenced by logistics decision makers. This research therefore integrates a macroeconomic perspective into the overall Physical Internet framework.