Abstract:

Research suggests that providing information and offering diversified innovative teaching materials on eco-friendly transport can support the integration of the topic into logistics education. Currently around 75% of European transport is carried out by truck. Roads are congested and CO2 emissions, noise and other negative effects of road transport are causing problems. To integrate rail and inland navigation as eco-friendly transport modes into transport planning could make an important contribution to counteract those problems. To combine different transport modes for freight transport requires extensive logistics knowledge on the complex transport chain and the transport modes involved. The Austrian competence center REWWay (Research and Education in Inland Waterway Logistics) was initiated to raise awareness and integrate eco-friendly transport, especially inland waterways, into logistics education to foster a shift from road towards rail and inland waterways.

Based on the results of extensive desktop research on innovative learning strategies as well as on expert interviews with relevant stakeholders REWWay is built on two main pillars. Firstly, high-quality teaching materials are provided on an online information platform to enable teachers and lecturers to independently integrate eco-friendly transport into their lectures. Secondly, workshops on eco-friendly transport are offered, organized and executed.

Online information platform:
REWWay offers a variety of diversified materials on an online information platform (www.rewway.at/en). Besides conventional sets of slides and lecture notes, short films, best practice examples and case studies are available. The platform is characterized by an open access approach, consequently all content developed within REWWay is available free of charge under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Contents can be used, adapted and shared, to enable teachers and lecturers to modify the materials according to their individual requirements.

Workshop concept:
Parallel to the materials available on the platform, workshops were offered and organized. Therefore an innovative workshop concept was developed including gamification elements as well as insights into the practice. After a theoretical introduction into the topic, students have to solve a transport calculation example, organize their own multimodal transport using a LEGO-transhipment simulation game and plan a container loading with Euro-pallets. In course of the second part of the workshop, to stimulate students to rethink their traditional idea of transport planning towards the integration of eco-friendly transport concepts, students elaborate innovative future transport ideas and present them. The best idea with regard to creativity and presentation style is rewarded by a jury. The majority of workshops is organized at the port of Enns and is rounded off by a vessel cruise through the terminal to receive important information how transport is performed in practice.

At the beginning of every workshop students were divided into different groups and receive points for solving the tasks mentioned. By solving tasks in a team and integrating scores, a competitive environment is created to increase students’ motivation to deal with the topic.

Keywords:

Eco-friendly transport, logistics education, online information platform.