Glossary


Contrators


Contrators include:

  • Shippers
  • Freight forwarders

 

Freight forwarders


Freight forwarders include:

  • Transport commissioners
  • Charterers
  • Combined transport oeprators: the company arranges for the transportation as well as pre and post delivery

 

Carriers


Carriers include:

  • Road carriers
  • Rail carriers (railway companies)
  • Shipping carriers (companies and shipowners)
  • River carriers (river owners or boatmen)
  • Air carriers (airlines, passengers and freight)
  • simple transport operators: the company only deals with the central link routing, without including pre and post delivery, these are the railways, maritime, air or river, therefore the TK’Blue index depends directly on company fleets of railway undertakings, sea or air or river.

Accidents: Accidents have immediate impacts with production losses, penalties and clients’ loss of confidence ; injuries sustained in accidents caused by transport have an important cost in terms of medical fees.

Noise: The noise has impacts on health : stress, sleep disruption which could increase the risk of cardiovascular diseases in the long term.

Climate Change: The climate change caused by all the greenhouse gases is a reality today and its consequences will be visible in our environment and our ways of living.

Congestion: Congestion costs result in company internal costs due to the time wasted by the operator and also to the delays in delivery supported by its clients. They also result in external costs corresponding to the costs supported by others road users.

Social Dumping: Social Dumping consists in a company breaking or getting around social laws in force in order to obtain an economic benefit, including in terms of competitiveness.

Negative Externalities: A negative externality, for the TK’Blue methodology, is a nuisance caused by a mode of transport. There are 6 negatives externalities: air pollution, climate change, upstream-downstream, accidents, noise and congestion.

GHG: GreenHouse gases including carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), hydrofluorocarbons (HFC), perfluorinated hydrocarbons (PFC) and sodium hexafluorid (SF6). The measurement unit of those gases is the gram of CO2 equivalent ; they are emitted during the production of energy and fuel combustion.

IOL in distance: The logistic optimization indicator in distance indicates the average distance traveled to carry out 1 transport unit (volume, weight, pallet…).

IOL in tonnage: The logistic optimization indicator in tonnage indicates the supply chain performance for every mode by giving the average tonnage carried out for 1 km traveled.

TK’T index: A TK’T index is calculated for a carrier, a category of fleet and a mode of transport. It shows its degree of willingness to act on the levers available to reduce the negative externalities generated by its activities.

TK’Ext index: The carrier’s TK’Ext index indicates two things: the logistic performance and the technological performance. This index unit is c€/TK (cent€/TK).

The rating scope: The rating scope indicates which flows will be covered by the TK’Blue rating. IT can be a geographic area (country, continent), a type of delivery (upstream, downstream, import, export, etc…) or a customer.

Air Pollution: Air pollution (excluding greenhouse gases) has bad effects on human health (new cases of chronic bronchitis, premature death and loss of years of life). The economic costs of these effects (mobility, hospitalization, reduced days of activity) is important for the community, around 20 and 30 billion of euros per years in France. Pollutants are numerous and each of them has its place in an evaluation grid: fine and solid particles (PM2.5), nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulfur dioxide (SO2), and non-methane volatile organic compounds (NMVOC).

Customer delivery: A customer delivery, also called goods delivery, considers as one operation when the same goods are carried out in various legs. The distance travelled is the sum of distances travelled by the same goods, whereas the weight transported is accounted only once for the same goods.

Carrier delivery: A carrier delivery, groups the goods transported on the same mode of transport, the same day, on the same road, but in different flows in the data file. The total transported weight is the sum of flows weight, whereas the distance travelled is accounted only once.

Up-and-Downstream: Up-and-Downstream processes concern pollutant and greenhouse gases emissions resulting from the production and transport all the way to the tank of the energy consumed.
The pollutants concerned by this externality are the same as those mentioned for the Air Pollution externality. However, the greenhouse gases which have an impact are the same as those for Climate Change. This externality sheds light on all the emissions generated beforehand during the electricity production process for example, as electric vehicles do not emit any GHG when used. This externality is considered as inter-sectoral, as it impacts the whole collectivity, and not only the users of concerned mode of transport.

Interurban road: The mode of transport Interurban road covers all road transport operations between several cities. It applies to long distances routes, mostly on highways.

Urban road: The mode of transport Urban Road convers freight transport activities within city limits (including close neighborhood). It applies to dedicated urban deliveries journeys.

CSR: Corporate Social Responsability

TK: Ton.kilometer