Assessing the Integration of Freight Transportation into Public Transport: A Stakeholder Analysis of Barriers and Opportunities

In recent years, e-commerce has experienced exponential growth, increasing the pressure on last-mile delivery systems. An innovation that aims to relieve the system from this pressure is freight-on-transit. Although existing research and pilot studies have shown the potential of these systems, widespread adoption of such systems has yet to materialise. In this paper, we investigate the barriers and opportunities of freight-on-transit systems. We perform a stakeholder analysis to identify the power-interest dynamics within freight-on-transit systems. Then, through eleven semi-structured interviews, we analyse the perspectives of each group of stakeholders. The semi-structured interviews allow us to delve deeper into the perspectives of stakeholders on freight-on-transit systems, and with that, identify more concretely what the existing barriers and opportunities for freight-on-transit are. We highlight the importance of adapting the implementation of freight-on-transit to the specific implementation area, depending on local perspectives and regulations. Finally, we mark several crucial areas for further research, barriers that need to be resolved in the long term for freight-on-transit systems to materialise, and opportunities for implementation in the short term.