Infrastructure efficiency, logistics quality and environmental impact of land logistics systems in the EU: A DEA-based dynamic mapping

Purpose The main purpose of this study is to carry out an international benchmarking study to compare the performance of land national logistics systems of the 28 EU countries from 2010 to 2017. Land national logistics systems are compared with respect to infrastructure efficiency, logistics quality, and their impact on environment. Design/methodology/approach Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) was employed to generate measurements of the infrastructure efficiency for the road and rail transport modes. The individual efficiency indicators were combined together using the Shannon's entropy procedure in order to obtain a single composite index measuring the logistics system infrastructure efficiency. The World Bank Logistics Performance Index (LPI) was used to measure the quality of the logistics service provided in each country. A DEA-like methodology assuming a “benefit of the doubt” evaluation perspective was applied to generate a unique General Performance Index (GEPI) accounting for the operational efficiency and quality of logistics. Finally, data on greenhouse gases and air polluting emissions were used to develop a spatial concentration index of emission to estimate the impact on road and rail freight transport in each country. Findings This study analyzed infrastructure efficiency, logistics quality and environmental impact of land logistics systems in the EU countries. The results achieved in comparing individual efficiency indicators indicate that without a satisfactory level of infrastructure efficiency, the service component alone is not enough to ensure and sustain the competitiveness of national logistics systems. When jointly considering the general performance and the environmental indexes, it emerged that few countries were able to improve operational and environmental performance simultaneously. The vast majority of countries show difficulties in disentangling the strategy aimed at improving the operational performance from the strategy aimed at reducing the environmental impact. Practical implications Based on the results achieved, this study provides several suggestions for policy-makers in order to integrate environmental sustainability issues in defining policy measures to improve freight transport and logistics performance at national level. Originality/value This study presents multiple points of originality. From the methodological point of view the approach used in this paper allows to overcome the methodological drawback of the relatively large number of inputs and outputs compared to the small number of decision-making units (DMUs). On the other hand, there are few research works that have performed benchmarking studies at the country level using different indicators to compare national logistics systems in terms of infrastructure efficiency, logistics quality and environmental impact. Most of the existing studies are generally focused on the assessment of logistics network efficiency in cities or in single transport modes.