How can business models extend the lifespan of trucks and make them circular? What requirements do different stakeholders have, and how are business models, service design, and product design affected? These questions are the focus of the research project Re:Value – a collaboration between industry and academia.
For future circular offerings to be accepted in the transport industry, they must meet the industry's challenges and expectations. Within the framework of Re:Value, researchers at the Service Research Center (CTF) at Karlstad University will develop new knowledge about future customers' and users' needs and requirements in the field.
“The project follows a process for circular business model innovation where customer needs, business opportunities, design, and climate benefits are explored in parallel,“ says Jasper van Kuijk, researcher at CTF. “I look forward to exploring the perspectives of the different stakeholders – taking their needs into account is crucial for the success of a service.
The project focuses on: formulating circular business offerings and consequences for vehicle design, understanding future actors' needs and requirements in freight transport, as well as drivers and consequences of circular offerings, and circular design for extended lifespan of vehicles, material recycling, and flexibility.
Researchers at CTF will explore different stakeholders' needs and relationship to circular trucks through interviews, surveys, and interactive workshops.
“I look forward to exploring customers' reuse experiences,” says Klas Hedvall, researcher at CTF. “Most studies on user experiences focus on the first owner of a product-service system, but to enable circularity and extended product lifespan, subsequent owners must also experience value from the offering.”
Re:Value is funded by Vinnova within FFI Circularity and is a collaboration between Volvo Group, CTF, RISE, IVL – Swedish Environmental Institute, Assar Haulage, DFDS, Göte Claessons Transport AB, Swedish Hauliers Association, Ragn-Sells, and is led by Lindholmen Science Park.
