Sean M. Puckett

Assessing the Influence of Distance‐based Charges on Freight Transporters

Abstract Congestion charging has become a high‐agenda theme in many urban environments, with a growing recognition of a need to commit more effort to establishing the impact that various charging regimes might have in reducing traffic congestion and, as a corollary, in raising revenue that can be used to re‐invest to improve transport infrastructure in general and public transport services in particular. In addition to the political commitment, a major challenge being faced is behavioural—a need to understand more fully the role that specific charging regimes might play. The paper investigates the potential influence of variable user charges in the freight distribution chain. A choice‐modelling framework is presented that identifies potential responses from the freight transport firm to distance‐based charging within the context of the wider spectrum of costs and benefits delivered in terms of travel time savings and increased trip time reliability.

Power, concession and agreement in freight distribution chains: subject to distance-based user charges

Abstract Freight transport is an important user of the road network, yet little is understood about the potential impacts of some travel demand management strategies on freight transport activity. This arises, in part, due to the interdependent nature of decision-making within supply chains. To contribute to this shortcoming, this paper offers empirical results from a method designed to estimate attribute-specific measures of relative influence within decision-making groups. A choice modelling framework is utilized to consider the relative concession decision makers are willing to make toward the preferences of other group members when attempting to reach group choice equilibrium. The estimated influence measures highlight the relative power each type of decision maker holds with respect to each attribute within the candidate alternatives from which to choose. The alternatives represent supply chain strategies for adjusting to a hypothetical distance-based road-user charging system in Sydney, Australia. The measures can be utilized in subsequent transport distribution models to account for the impact each decision maker may have on the decisions made at the group (i.e., supply chain) level in response to a given policy. The results are also useful in gaining a greater normative understanding of the decision-making dynamics within transporter–shipper dyads.

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.

Theoretical and Conceptual Frameworks for Studying Agent Interaction and Choice Revelation in Transportation Studies.

The field of literature studying community, business, and household agent interactions, particularly in economics, psychology, and marketing, is growing. The primary focus of this literature is how the preferences and choices of one agent influence others, whether specific or general, whether individuals, organizations, or influences. A number of paradigms associated with experimental economics-, game theory-, and case or rule-agent-based model literature center on understanding and explaining how agent preferences influence others. The authors promote interactive agency (stated) choice experiments extending traditional single-agent stated preference experiments to find how behavioral interactions among agents in a revise or confirm cycle (choose-feedback-review-choose) develop preferences. The article discusses agent preference identification methods in an environment that introduces transportation modelers to agent interactions.

Heterogeneity in Preferences of Air Travel Itinerary in a Low-Frequency Market

Research in the choice behavior of air travelers has evolved to include an analytical focus on variation in the sensitivities of travelers to factors influencing itinerary choice. Some choice studies have moved beyond a focus on assumed representative, mean-level sensitivities toward a goal of representing the distribution of preferences across a sample. The mixed multinomial logit model has served as a valuable means of estimating such distributions of air travel preferences, including studies of business travelers, impacts of airport level-of-service attributes, distributions of willingness-to-pay (WTP), and information-processing strategies. Does the insight gained in previous studies, focusing on preferences in mature markets with relatively high per capita rates of air travel activity, apply to markets with low frequencies of airline patronage? This study centers on a survey of travelers in Tehran, Iran, a low-frequency air travel market. The analysis incorporates tests of a full range of distributions of random parameters to determine whether the impacts of restricting distributions allow only normality and confirms the potential to improve model fit with alternative distributions. The estimated distributions of WTP measures confirm the value of accounting for preference heterogeneity in the analysis of choice of air itinerary behavior in a low-frequency market and yield lower mean WTP values relative to analysis that omits the effects of preference heterogeneity.

Behavioural Responses of Freight Transporters and Shippers to Road-User Charging Schemes: An Empirical Assessment

This chapter discusses the effects of road pricing on freight transportation and shippers. More specifically the authors compare the potential effects of increases in fuel prices (the current main source of charging) and distance-based charges in freight transport. The chapter also examines which of these pricing policies is preferred most by transporters, and why this is so.