Helen Battellino

The Adjustment of Supply Chains to New States : A Qualitative Assessment of Decision Relationships with Reference to Congestion Charging

This paper uses a series of in-depth interviews with buyers and sellers of freight services in Sydney, Australia. Interviews with industry leaders (e.g. senior managers of suppliers, retailers, freight companies) is combined with the results of a broad literature search to determine the role agents in the supply chain play regarding their influence in decision making. The research also seeks to identify both the nature and the extent of diversity in freight contract profiles, along with behavioral responses to transport-oriented policy. The research particularly examines the behavioral responses – manifested as management positions – to schemes such as congestion charging. Using the toll road network of Sydney as a contextual reference point, the toll roads are compared with congestion charging to determine their potential effect on the movement of urban goods.

THE TRANSPORT DISADVANTAGED: COMMUNITY TRANSPORT OR MAINSTREAM?.

This paper is based on a study undertaken for the New South Wales Department of Transport in 1991 to examine the cost of providing transport services for the aged and those with disabilities through the Community Transport program. A sample of Community Transport Projects in N.S.W. country and metropolitan areas was studied in detail and data collected on the costs of operating the modes which they used to provide transport for the aged and disabled. A cost model was then developed to determine the factors which influence the cost per vehicle kilometre for each service delivery based on the data collected. Discussions were also held with users of the service to determine the quality of service provided by each of the modes. The results of this study are discussed within the context of the changes which have occurred in the N.S.W. bus industry as a result of the 1990 Passenger Transport Act which now gives operators greater opportunity to plan services to meet the needs of the market in their local area.