Review of the Published Paper
Disucuss about the challenges that are faced by the trucking companies in transport management.
Safety, health and environment is an area of increased focus in recent times, which evidently has an impact on the society. This paper investigates one such aspect with the help of a published paper and illustrates the different ways of strategies that can be implemented in research.
The journal paper selected for the study is titles “Truck-sharing challenges for hinterland trucking companies- A case of the empty container truck trips problem”. This was selected on the basis of safety, health and the environmental research issues. This paper majorly highlights the environmental impact and the issues of social sustainability.
This journal paper aims to highlight the challenges that are faced by the trucking companies in transport management along with the objective to diminish the rate of carbon emissions. The objective of traffic congestion is also addressed in the paper which in turns reflects the environmental sustainability agenda. The study was carried out using a qualitative method which implemented interviews of the road carriers who are part of the container transportation process. The data collected from the study stated that various technical issues were present in the system of container transportation. Some of these technical issues were the fixed operating hours of the seaports, the limitations in driving and the huge number of categories of the containers that belong to various industries. These problems result in the presence of certain empty running structures in the roadways that impose a restriction on the traffic management. However inspite of the problems present, the study suggests that changes can be brought about in the system by implementing coordination among the road carriers and establishment of foundations who will be responsible for overseeing the whole process of transportation of the containers (Islam and Olsen 2014).
For the purpose of evaluation of a selected topic or the area of interest that is chosen by the researcher, it is very important to conduct a literature survey. A literature review reflects four prime objectives which includes survey of the selected are of the study along with synthesis of the information from the survey in the form of a brief summary. Next objective includes a critical analysis that is mainly conducted with the purpose of identification of the gaps in the research that has already been conducted including the limitations that is present in the study and the theories that is presents. Finally there is an organised presentation of the literature using the literature review (Hart 2018).
Initial Literature Review
In order to develop a research proposal, conduction of literature review is important since it helps to narrow down the topic hence there is a provision of limiting the sources that needs to be explored in order to develop the proposal. A research proposal should contain novelty hence it is required for the literature gap to be identified. In certain cases there is a need for the use of current information hence in order to identify these facts the conduction of literature review is important (Yoon et al. 2013).
Here the research proposal focuses on safety, health and environment management, therefore the initial literature review should involve these aspects. Keeping this in mind, the research proposal was developed on the traffic management in relation to the container trucks (Bouwman-Boer, Ng and Crauste-Manciet 2015). For this, survey was conducted regarding the impact of traffic on the safety of the society along with the health and environmental issues. Further, literature that was relevant to the truck containers were surveyed along with the impact of this on the management of traffic.
Quantitative data refers to the data that can be expressed numerically whereas it is the other way in case of quantitative data. Qualitative data is mostly related to interpreting the behaviour of the human in perception to someone who is an informant (Lewis 2015). Quantitative data on the other hand is based on the fact discovery process especially related to a social phenomenon. The methodologies are also different in case of both quantitative and qualitative data. For quantitative is collected by a method of interview generally conducted with the participants involved in the study and in case of quantitative, the method of data collection is conducted by evaluation of things mainly through statistical analysis (Clemence et al. 2014). Qualitative data being related to the interviews of the participants are in the language of the people who are being interviewed. The data is also analysed in a way which suits the theme of the study that is being conducted.
For example if a research is being carried out that is related to ergonomics, the data that needs to be collected by the survey includes the anthropometric values of the anatomical parts of the human body for instance. This data is numerical in data and can be further analysed using statistical methods, hence this can be designated as quantitative data (Scott and Garner 2013). Example of qualitative data in research can be seen in the cases where to enquire about a certain circumstance, interviews are needed to be conducted like in case of the study that is being focussed in this particular paper. Here in order to interpret the problems that is faced while managing the traffic related to the container trucks, the road carriers had been interviews. The data that was collected through the interview was not numerical and it was in the language of the informer which designated it as the qualitative data.
Analysis of the Qualitative and Quantitative Data
Research strategies are of different types such as conduction of experiments, carrying out surveys, exploring case studies, conduction of ethnography, implementing grounded theory, implementation of action research and conduction of archival research. Certain research strategies are based on the inductive approaches which includes the strategies of archival research, action research as well as ethnography. This can be implemented in scenarios where a change needs to be detected within an organization or in some cases can be applied for interpretation of views of the individuals who are involved in the process (Lundgren and McMakin 2018).
The deductive approach relates to the research strategies of experiments and surveys, using which the situation is being understood. Experiments involve evaluation taking into consideration various parameters that are needed to be satisfied in order to conduct the study. Whereas as in surveys the condition is being explored with the help of use of questionnaires (Thomas and McDonagh 2013).
Various research ideas that are related to the safety, health and the environmental management includes topics related to the occupational safety and health in the areas of construction industries, agricultural sectors, certain law regulations or related to the health problems like musculoskeletal disorders, health ontology and other such cases (Shamsuddin et al. 2015).
My initial idea of research was related to the occupational safety and its hazards, which then took a turn towards the environmental impact. I further narrowed it down to the transportation industry as this has an impact on all the components of safety, health and the environment management. The final topic in relation to the transportation sector involved the container trucks which is recent times is the cause of various problems in the terminals and sea ports, thus effecting traffic management.
Conclusion
From the above discussion it can be deduced that the area of safety, health and environment management is quite a researched area which has a huge impact on the society. The paper that is highlighted in this study explores the occupational safety along with the aspect of environmental impact
References
Bouwman-Boer, Y., Ng, S.W. and Crauste-Manciet, S., 2015. Occupational Safety and Health. In Practical Pharmaceutics(pp. 551-584). Springer, Cham.
Clemence, A., Doise, W. and Lorenzi-Cioldi, F., 2014. The quantitative analysis of social representations. Routledge.
Islam, S. and Olsen, T., 2014. Truck-sharing challenges for hinterland trucking companies: a case of the empty container truck trips problem. Business Process Management Journal, 20(2), pp.290-334.
Lewis, S., 2015. Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five approaches. Health promotion practice, 16(4), pp.473-475.
Lundgren, R.E. and McMakin, A.H., 2018. Risk communication: A handbook for communicating environmental, safety, and health risks. John Wiley & Sons.
Scott, G. and Garner, R., 2013. Doing qualitative research: designs, methods, and techniques.
Shamsuddin, K.A., Ani, M.N.C., Ismail, A.K. and Ibrahim, M.R., 2015. Investigation the Safety, Health and Environment (SHE) protection in construction area. International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology, 2(6), pp.624-636.
Thomas, J. and McDonagh, D., 2013. Empathic design: Research strategies. The Australasian medical journal, 6(1), p.1.
Yoon, S.J., Lin, H.K., Chen, G., Yi, S., Choi, J. and Rui, Z., 2013. Effect of occupational health and safety management system on work-related accident rate and differences of occupational health and safety management system awareness between managers in South Korea’s construction industry. Safety and health at work, 4(4), pp.201-209.
Hart, C., 2018. Doing a Literature Review: Releasing the Research Imagination. Sage