Research and practice of stakeholder engagement in freight transport planning

This chapter presents current approaches to stakeholder engagement in freight planning, by reviewing the state-of-the-art of scientific and grey literature, considering published outputs from research and innovation projects, and relevant case studies. The aim of the chapter is to (1) identify gaps in current literature on stakeholder engagement in freight planning, (2) understand the relevance of current approaches for real-world applications, including comparing and contrasting case studies; and (3) propose a research and practice agenda. Drawing upon the results of the literature review, the chapter offers considerations towards challenges related to the replicability and generalisation of methods to engage stakeholders in freight planning processes. Also, considering the increasing contribution of freight transport to carbon emissions and air pollution, the chapter concludes with a series of recommendations for future research and practice to effectively involve stakeholders in freight planning processes oriented towards a collaborative approach aiming at freight transport decarbonisation and sustainability.