Before a product reaches its final destination, a range of sectors and actors are involved: This includes freight forwarders, shippers, terminal and infrastructure operators, transport companies as well as drivers all of whom interact with each other in various ways. However, in all sectors – which also includes accompanying academic research – women are under-represented.
The project EXCHANGES primarily addresses the question at which stages of the logistic value chain people are or could be taken into account and in which areas women are affected as users at all. The potential of a greater involvement of women in these areas is explored along with the approaches available to maximise this potential. With this in mind, professional users on the service provider side, users of freight transport and logistics services on the demand side as well as users along the supply chain are considered. After identifying the gender relevant areas an analysis is carried out to show gender relevance and how effective it is in the areas of freight transport and logistics. In particular it examines which roles and positions women assume in the industry and to what extent gender relevance is taken into account in research and development.
In the next step industry-relevant companies and organisations are considered in which women are already represented in management or in key positions related to research. The analysis focuses on the extent to which skills brought in by women have led or can lead to innovations in business models, research and corporate management. In addition, (structural and organisational) framework conditions are examined which directly affect the involvement of women.
Based on this, strategies and guidelines are developed to strengthen the integration of women and to highlight the issue of gender relevance in freight transport in the future. Emphasis is placed on application-orientated RTI-projects.
