Estimating trade-off among logistics cost, CO2 and time: A case study of container transportation systems in Korea

Abstract

One of the basic necessary conditions for successful implementation of policies which encourage the use of intermodal freight transportation systems is to understand “what the desired mode share of the intermodal freight transportation systems is” and also “what the trade-off relationships among various concerns such as logistics cost, time and CO2 emissions are”. The objective of this study is to estimate the trade-off relationships among logistics cost, time and CO2 emissions of the freight transportation systems of Korea. For this, container cargo data, the road network for trucks and the railway network are used as a case study. The relationships are estimated by assigning container cargoes between production zones and consumption zones and by solving linear-programming-based transportation problems. This study clearly shows the trade-off relationships between attributes. The desired levels of modal split of the railway-based intermodal freight transportation system with respect to different aspects are identified. It is considered that the findings of this study would be valuable as anchor points for setting national policy directions on freight transportation system development and determining the level of subsidies for shippers or carriers who shift from trucking to a railway-based intermodal freight transportation system.