Utilization efficiency—load factor. The load factor is a measurement of vehicle utilization that obviously has attracted the attention of researchers and the industry for many years. The European Environment Agency (2006) concludes
that the average load factor has declined for heavy goods vehicles between the years 1990 and 2004. The results of studies of the load factors in Sweden vary between 30% and 70% (Blinge & Svensson, 2006). In theory, this implies that the environmental impact of road transport could roughly be cut to half if more loads were consolidated. In reality, however, this is a very difficult task. For instance, the load factor is typically measured in weight but many vehicles are
full in terms of their volume capacity before they reach their maximum weight. Another example is route imbalances where a distribution vehicle is successively emptied during the delivery route