Reducing Externalities of Last Mile Delivery through Taxation

23rd International Scientific Conference "Engineering for Rural Development": Proceedings 2024
Māris Jurušs, Baiba Šmite-Roķe, Irina Ņesterenko

In today’s society, with growing interest in environmental sustainability and climate responsibility, the European Union has an ambitious goal - to achieve climate neutrality by 2050. This strategic plan, known as the European Green Deal, expresses a strong desire not only to address current environmental problems, but also to create a sustainable, green future for its citizens. However, only from these paths, the tax policy as one of the most important instruments of government influence can be both an obstacle and a tool in achieving the set goals. In this paper the tax policy of the European Union is analyzed in relation to its “green” ambitions. The aim of the research is to find out to what extent the current green tax system corresponds to the strategy of the European course and what changes are necessary to make the most of its potential for ensuring environmental sustainability. This study focuses specifically on the transport sector, which is one of the biggest sources of pollution in many countries. In the organization of the supply chain, it is important to achieve the least negative impact on the environment right in the last mile, when the goods are delivered to the end consumer in an urban city environment, where large population is concentrated. Therefore, one of the hypotheses of the study is to differentiate the tax policy depending on the use of alternative transport in a specific environment, that is, to apply tax discounts to alternative transport for passengers and trucks only in cities, while in the other stages of the supply chain to stimulate other forms of transport, such as rail transport.

Keywords
last mile, sustainability, mobility, transport, green deal
DOI
10.22616/ERDev.2024.23.TF233
Hyperlink
https://www.iitf.lbtu.lv/conference/proceedings2024/Papers/TF233.pdf

Jurušs, M., Šmite-Roķe, B., Ņesterenko, I. Reducing Externalities of Last Mile Delivery through Taxation. In: 23rd International Scientific Conference "Engineering for Rural Development": Proceedings, Volume 23, Latvia, Jelgava, 22-24 April, 2024. Jelgava: Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies, 2024, pp. 1129-1136. ISSN 1691-5976. Available from: doi:10.22616/ERDev.2024.23.TF233

Publication language
English (en)