Attributes driving the selection of trucking services and the quantification of the shipper’s willingness to pay

This paper investigates the selection of trucking services by shippers that require the movement of truck shipments. A set of pragmatic attributes are postulated to describe trucking services. They are used in a stated choice experiment that collects data and preferences from shippers. A mixed logit model is estimated in order to test the attributes and quantifying the shipper willingness to pay for them. The results are used to provide meaningful negotiation guidance for truck-related shippers and carriers, a significant contribution to literature in transportation, logistics, and supply chain management. A numerical example illustrates the use of the model.     

Long-term impact of network access to bike facilities and public transit stations on housing sales prices in Portland,Oregon

Planners and economists generally accept that housing market values increase with proximity to transportation facilities through the provision of improved access to activity locations. While the market benefits of rail station access are well-documented, inconsistent and insufficient methods have led to limited agreement on the true value associated with this locational amenity. Far fewer hedonic price studies have assessed the influence of bike facility access on housing sales prices, and those that have generally analyze cross-sectional data. In this study, we estimated a spatial hedonic model using a bootstrapped pseudo panel to determine the joint impact of network proximity to bike lanes and off-street multi-use paths, as well as light rail and streetcar stations, on housing sales in Portland, Oregon, from 2002 to 2013. Our findings revealed housing sales prices increased as network distance to the nearest light rail transit and streetcar station decreased. Likewise, owner-occupied single-family and multifamily housing sales rose in conjunction with reduced street network access to regional multi-use bike paths; however, improved proximity to on-street bike lanes negatively affected housing values. In sum, we believe these findings may help to inform non-automotive transportation infrastructure financing mechanisms that rely on rising property values.     

The impact of railroad mergers on grain transportation markets: a Kansas case study

While there have been many studies of the impact of railroad deregulation on agricultural transportation markets there have been very few that address the impact of railroad mergers on rail grain prices and the distribution of efficiency gains. The purpose of this paper is to add to the sparse literature regarding the effect of railroad mergers on agricultural transportation markets. Given the ever declining number of Class I railroads, this research is very timely.The specific objectives of the research are as follows: (1) Analyze the impact of the Burlington Northern (BN)–Santa Fe (SF) merger on the ability of the BNSF to increase prices on movements of Kansas wheat to Houston, Texas. (2) Analyze the impact of the Union Pacific (UP)–Southern Pacific (SP) merger on the ability of the UPSP to increase prices on movements of Kansas wheat to Houston, Texas. (3) Analyze changes in Kansas wheat logistics system costs as a result of the BN–SF and UP–SP mergers.Two models are developed to achieve the objectives of the study. A network model of the wheat logistics system is used to identify the least cost transportation routes from the Kansas study area to the market at Houston, Texas. A profit improvement algorithm is developed to measure the amount by which railroads can raise their prices above variable cost.The BNSF and UPSP achieve only minor increases in market power (measured by the ratio of revenue to variable cost) because the merged railroads have only slight advantages in cost relative to other railroads that serve the same areas as the merged railroads. Wheat shippers benefit from merger-induced reductions in transportation and handling costs. Shippers are likely to capture a significant share of these cost reductions since intrarailroad competition is present after the mergers. Transport cost reductions accompany mergers due to more direct routing of wheat shipments and the assumption that the merged railroad operates at the costs of the lower cost partner.     

The value of information sharing for truckload shippers

This study explores the potential value to shippers of sharing load offers with carriers and obtaining carriers’ responses in advance of the scheduled pickup date. Using a private transactional dataset from a large national shipper, we find that truckload spot prices increase considerably as the lead time before pickup decreases. As an extension of this empirical analysis, we develop a method to estimate near-real-time market prices, which does not currently exist in the truckload industry. A key insight is that market prices persist through time, meaning that current prices are good predictors of future prices.     

Container Ocean-transportation System Design with the factors of demand fluctuation and choice inertia of shippers

This paper introduces an optimization model (COSDM) for a Container Ocean-transportation System with the objective of maximizing the revenue of a liner company while taking into account the seasonal fluctuation in transportation demand and the choice inertia of shippers. The COSDM optimizes shipping network design and fleet deployment simultaneously, and it optimizes plans for changing the shipping network and for distributing slots in ships based on the fluctuation in demand and the characteristics of the shippers’ choice inertia. To solve COSDM, a heuristic algorithm is created that combines Genetic Algorithm and Simplex Method. The results show that the COSDM gives an optimized design scheme of the system that takes into account the stability of transportation services and improves the user experience of shippers while increasing the revenue of the liner company. Moreover, the results also reveal new explanations for the increasing size of container ships.     

Valuation of freight transportation contracts under uncertainty

This paper applies concepts from the theory of Real Options to hedge uncertainty in transportation capacity and cost using derivative contracts, called truckload options. We make three contributions. First, we provide a closed-form pricing formula for basic truckload options when the truckload spot price on a given lane follows a simple mean-reverting process. Second, since only monthly statistics about truckload spot prices are currently available, we provide an approach to estimate the parameters needed to value truckload options. Finally, a numerical illustration based on real data shows that truckload options could be valuable to both shippers and carriers.     

Cooperation through capacity sharing between competing forwarders

In this paper, we consider a shipping system consisting of one carrier and two shipping forwarders who compete on price for businesses from potential shippers. The carrier may quote different prices or a single price to the two shipping forwarders who will then order shipping capacity from the carrier and set the selling prices to the shippers before market uncertainties are revealed. Inspired by cooperation between competing parties in many industries including the maritime shipping industry, we propose a new model under which the shipping forwarders are allowed an opportunity to purchase shipping capacity from each other after they order capacity from the carrier but before they set the selling prices and satisfy demand, referred to as the capacity reservation model. We show analytically that capacity reservation between competing forwarders benefits both the carrier and the forwarders, leading to a win–win situation under various market conditions. Furthermore, capacity reservation can offset the negative effect of a carrier’s pricing power which enables the carrier to charge discriminatory shipping prices to squeeze more profits out of the forwarders.     

Measuring the effect of transportation infrastructure on retail firm co-location patterns

This paper studies the effects of transportation infrastructure on the location behavior of competing retail firms. First, in a game theoretic framework that describes the location choices made by retailers with respect to each other, the connection between relative firm location and transportation demand is outlined. Second, a multivariate point pattern statistic based on this theoretical framework is applied to location patterns of fast food outlets to measure the effects that major road infrastructure has on firm location behavior in this sector.The results suggest that transportation infrastructure affects the location behavior of firms with respect to their location in relation to their competitors. Access to important transportation infrastructure induces competing outlets to locate next to each other—a tendency not necessarily observed among outlets without such access. Theoretically, this does not only affect economic outcomes, but also travel demand and consumer accessibility. The findings from this study stress the importance of accounting for how transportation infrastructure changes the location behavior of firms in travel demand frameworks.     

Exploring impact factors of shippers’ risk prevention activities: A European survey in transportation

This paper reports results of a survey examining the impact factors for shippers to implement risk prevention activities. A regression analysis illustrates the relations between risk and quality related impact factors and the shippers’ ability to implement risk prevention activities. The study identifies the corporate risk culture and product vulnerability as main impact factors for the implementation of prevention activities in transportation. This paper will be beneficial for transportation managers considering the implementation of risk prevention activities in the transportation field, and will support further empirical research in the transportation management and supply chain risk management research area.     

ICT and transport behavior: A conceptual review

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have considerable importance for transport systems, as they provide access to travel information, planning tools, opportunities to share transport modes, to work at-a-distance, compare transport mode cost, make payment, improve safety and health, and to communicate travel patterns. Over the past decade, there has been massive growth in the availability of transportation ICT, in particular, smartphone applications. There is considerable evidence that ICTs have profoundly changed the ways in which transport systems are perceived and used, and mobilities performed, with far-reaching implications for transport mode choices and transport demand. Against this background, the paper seeks to conceptualize ICT with relevance for transport systems, and to discuss the implications for the environmental sustainability of the transport sector. Findings suggest that while some ICT innovations foster and support sustainable transport choices, others raise new and significant barriers to more sustainable transport futures.     

International air transportation and economic development

Legislation in 1977 and 1978 effectively deregulated the US domestic air cargo and air passenger transportation industries. International air transportation, largely as the result of the ‘Open Skies’ initiative from 1979 has also gradually been liberalized but progress has been geographically and temporally uneven. This study is concerned with extending the Open Skies concept and in accessing the benefits to the US economy of removing the remaining impediments to the provision of free market services involving, in particular, the full transatlantic market. It initially reviews some of the previous work that has looked at links between industrial location and the quality of international air transportation. It develops a modeling framework to examine the implications of further liberalization on the economies of US regions that currently have limited international services. The work involves a macro-analysis of the impact of European international services for 41 Metropolitan Standard Areas.     

Analyzing private communities on Internet-based collaborative transportation networks

The establishment of private communities on Internet-based transportation networks is a relatively new trend that has met with mixed success. Within industry, there has been uncertainty over the costs and benefits of these communities to shippers and carriers. Through a theoretical model based on assumptions derived from industry executives, this paper suggests that shippers may indeed benefit by establishing private communities. Further, the results show that in high-trust relationships carriers may be no worse off by cooperating with shippers in their private communities.     

A service position model of package tour services based on the hybrid MCDM approach

ABSTRACT

Traditionally, package tour (PT) agencies assumed that tourists only pay attention to the PT’s price, so PT service providers often offer limited package tours based on options and prices. Nowadays, PT service providers face the difficult challenge of how to offer diverse PTs to satisfy tourists’ needs based on a reasonable price. This study proposes an evaluation model of package tours based on diverse resources and transportation means. This study proposes a two-dimensional evaluation framework to analyse tourists’ needs regarding package tour services and the proposed model could be applied to plan mass customized package tours based on the portfolio of value satisfaction index (VSI) and the price satisfaction index (PSI). The study also proposes that mass customized package tours can improve the traditional tour planning method through a portfolio of diverse tourism resources. Moreover, the study integrates the different choices of traffic and transportation tools, as well as tourism resources and providers in six portfolios of package tours in the Nantou county of Taiwan. These six package tours can be planned through three traffic and transportation tools (tourist coach, railroad, and minibus) and four tourism resources (natural experiences, cultural exploration, shopping and cuisine, and event participation).     

Evaluating public transit services for operational efficiency and access equity

Assessing the performance of public transit services has long been an important yet challenging issue for transportation agencies and researchers. Transit service performance measurement reflects a very first step towards an efficient and proactive management, where public transit agencies are increasingly pressured to provide high-quality services in spite of constrained resources. However, the performance evaluation of transit services is complicated by an array of quantitative measures available to assess the goals and the diversity in the goals themselves, which usually include improving operational efficiency and providing equitable access. While much previous work has examined public transit services for achieving optimal operational efficiency and/or access equity separately, the interplay of the two has rarely been investigated to date. This article proposes a new method for evaluating the overall performance of public transit services via a combination of data envelopment analysis (DEA), Geographic Information System (GIS), and multi-objective spatial optimization techniques. The new method is applied to assessing the performance of fixed route bus services operated by the Utah Transit Authorities (UTA) in the Wasatch Front, Utah. Results demonstrate that the proposed method can effectively account for operational efficiency and access equity in an integrated framework, providing a more comprehensive assessment for transit service performance.     

Long haul freight network design using shipper–carrier freight flow prediction: A California network improvement case study

Transportation network design is a method for analyzing the interactive benefits of transportation projects applied to a network. In this paper, a network design model is developed for long haul freight movements which are represented by relationships between shippers and carriers. Additionally, an explicit capacity constraint is used to divert traffic volume from congested links. A case study based on the California transportation network is implemented to examine the effectiveness of this model when applied to a large network. A geographic information system is used to facilitate data management and analysis of the results.     

The impact of carrier service attributes on shipper–carrier partnering relationships: a shipper’s perspective

Carrier service attributes are important for developing shipper–carrier partnering relationships. This study used structural equation modeling to investigate the impact of carriers’ service factors––timing-related, pricing, warehousing and sales services––on shippers’ satisfaction from shipper–carrier partnering relationships. Results indicate that timing-related services influence shippers’ satisfaction from such relationships, and shippers’ satisfaction positively influences partnering. However, the four service factors do not directly influence shipper–carrier partnering relationships.     

Shipping route choice across geographies: Coastal vs. landlocked countries

This paper investigates how geography and transportation costs influence the decisions by shippers of which port of export to use. Using a large sample of disaggregated shipments originating from several countries in Europe, we show that European logistics networks exhibit a low level of international integration that affects shipping route choice. Furthermore, we find significant differences in shipping behaviors across landlocked and coastal countries, with shippers in landlocked countries avoiding long land transportation, crossing borders readily, and placing more value on transportation infrastructure. These findings have implications in designing port competitiveness strategies and economic development policies in landlocked countries.     

Understanding the usage of dockless bike sharing in Singapore

A new generation of bike-sharing services without docking stations is currently revolutionizing the traditional bike-sharing market as it dramatically expands around the world. This study aims at understanding the usage of new dockless bike-sharing services through the lens of Singapore's prevalent service. We collected the GPS data of all dockless bikes from one of the largest bike sharing operators in Singapore for nine consecutive days, for a total of over 14 million records. We adopted spatial autoregressive models to analyze the spatiotemporal patterns of bike usage during the study period. The models explored the impact of bike fleet size, surrounding built environment, access to public transportation, bicycle infrastructure, and weather conditions on the usage of dockless bikes. Larger bike fleet is associated with higher usage but with diminishing marginal impact. In addition, high land use mixtures, easy access to public transportation, more supportive cycling facilities, and free-ride promotions positively impact the usage of dockless bikes. The negative influence of rainfall and high temperatures on bike utilization is also exhibited. The study also offered some guidance to urban planners, policy makers, and transportation practitioners who wish to promote bike-sharing service while ensuring its sustainability.     

Consumer willingness to pay for in-flight service and comfort levels: A choice experiment

In the competitive aviation market as a result of the emergence of low cost carriers, charter airlines have had to reconsider their approach to service provision. Specifically, the reduction in service and comfort levels offered by the low cost airlines provides charter carriers with an opportunity to differentiate their product based on the quality of the offering. To consider this strategic option we employ an on-line choice experiment to examine consumer choices with respect to the bundle of services on offer when deciding to purchase a flight. With these data we use the Bayesian methods to estimate a mixed logit specification. Our results reveal that in principle passengers are willing to pay a relatively large amount for enhanced service quality.     

The first rapid tram line in Poland: How has it affected travel behaviours,housing choices and satisfaction,and apartment prices?

The opening of the Poznań Rapid Tram (pol. Poznański Szybki Tramwaj, PST) in the year 1997 symbolically marked the beginning of a new era in the development of urban transportation systems in Poland. In this paper we would like to address the following question: more than one decade after the opening of the PST, what are its effects in terms of travel behaviours, housing choices and satisfaction, and apartment prices? In order to answer this question, we combined data on travel behaviours and housing choices from a survey based on a sample of nearly 300 households with data on housing prices from over 1400 real estate transaction records from the period between 2010 and 2013. Our results show that the proximity to PST affects travel behaviours, as respondents living close to PST stops confirmed that they use this form of transportation more often. There also seems to be some effect on housing choices; in locations close to PST stops we found many households living in rental housing, particularly university students. Also, about 20% of interviewees declared that they would pay more for apartments located closer to the rapid tram. However, that effect was only partly confirmed through the analysis of transaction prices. Using standard and spatial econometric regressions including variables like apartment size, floor number, amenities, and type of building we found a weak correlation between the proximity to PST and apartment prices. In conclusion, we argue that treating property price effects as the main justification for public transportation projects might be a doubtful choice, because in some cases the principal impacts of such projects might be visible in terms of residents' satisfaction and travel behaviours.