A note on transit time and reliability for regular-route trucking

Abstract

This paper describes the development of an empirical model for predicting transit time and reliability for regular-route LTL trucking. It is postulated that the distribution of transit time of a city-pair is a Gamma function with parameters determined by the length of haul. Parameters for a family of shifted Gamma distributions have been estimated using the travel time information from seven regular-route motor common carriers of general freight. Transit time and reliability are two of the most important level of service measures for any mode. The model developed is a level of service model from the “shipper's view” of the carrier's operation. It can be used in many of the partial equilibrium analyses of the transportation market. To model the intercity freight demand is a typical example. The procedures for applying the transit time model developed in the paper are outlined.