PROPOSAL OF A METHODOLOGY OF CRITERIAL ASSESSMENT OF TECHNICAL INDICATORS FOR THE PURPOSE OF SELECTING AN OPTIMAL SEMI-TRAILER TRACTOR FOR THE NEEDS OF A TRANSPORT COMPANY

A Freight Modal Shift Model for Slovakia

The goal of this study is to quantify and analyse the costs of road-intermodal freight transportation in Pakistan. For the design of the problem, a performance model is utilised, which provides calculations of the costs incurred in road and intermodal freight transports. Our research shows a big cost difference between road and road-rail freight transport. The results show that the cost of road freight transport is 1.48 million Pkr/day and the cost of intermodal freight transport is 1.26 million Pkr/day for the delivery of 220 tonnes of cargo to the consumers. The quantitative analysis of real-life data from one of Asia's leading paper and board businesses used in this study demonstrates operational benefits of more than 60% cost reductions when switching from road to intermodal freight (road-rail) transport. Sensitivity analysis is also presented to assist decision-makers in selecting the most efficient and cost-effective mode of transportation.

The paper focuses on measuring and quantification of the negative externality of noise pollution generated by freight transport in the Slovak Republic and the Czech Republic. The paper describes negative impacts and significance of noise externalities, whereas it is established that noise causes psychological and physiological harm to affected persons. A separate part of the paper is dedicated to the current status of the European legislation dealing with the issues of the negative externality of noise pollution, in particular Directive 2002/49/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council and Communication COM(2008) 435. The actual measurement of the total, average and marginal costs of noise pollution is implemented in line with the defined methodology and using expert studies defined in the paper. The measurement results show that the costs of the negative externality of noise pollution are high in both countries. According to authors’ calculations, the total costs of the negative externality of noise pollution amount to EUR 100.8 mil in the Czech Republic and EUR 16.9 mil in the Slovak Republic. The paper contains a proposal of internalisation of these costs in the form of performance charges applied to operation of heavy goods vehicles.

The choice of transportation mode for freight transport has a profound effect on logistics companies, infrastructure providers and society as a whole. The efficiency of freight transport is important because it has a profound effect on several economic and environmental factors. The paper analyses the costs difference between railroad and road freight transport. The stakeholder analysis is used to enable the identification of the interests of various groups. The government is identified as the focal stakeholder. The governmental decision support model that focuses on the Slovenian case of road and railway freight transport is proposed. The proposed model can serve the government with its decision-making process when adopting policies that concern road and railroad transport such as subsidies or increased road tolls in order to promote railroad transport.

In this study, the relationships between two variables: the strategy of sustainable development and the efficiency of waste management in the commercial power industry company have been subjected to discussion. The basis for the explanation of the aforementioned relationships is the assumption that the level of implementation of the strategy of sustainable development is expressed through capital expenditures incurred on the implementation of modern tools of waste management. On the other hand, the efficiency of waste management in the commercial power industry company is reflected by the level of costs incurred on the storage, transport, and sales of this waste. The whole of the presented considerations has been divided into two basic parts, theoretical and empirical. The first part of the paper exposes the strategic dimension of the concept of sustainable development taking into account the economic and environmental efficiency of waste management achieved due to the use of modern management tools. The considerations presented in the second part constitute the response to the research question. The empirical part includes the identification of waste in the commercial power industry company in Poland and the research aiming at the cognition and assessment of relationships between the efficiency of waste management and the implementation of the strategy of sustainable development in the surveyed company. The publication increases the understanding of the coexistence of the strategy of sustainable development and the efficiency of waste management in the company of the commercial power industry operating in Poland, with particular emphasis on waste reduction and the possibility of its redevelopment. The research methods applied to accomplish the objective are literature studies, case study, descriptive analysis, trend analysis, and the Pearson correlation coefficient.

The article is an original synthesis of accessibility and mobility modelling that is carried-out in the Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization, Polish Academy of Sciences (IGSO PAS). The paper takes into account the spatial context of industry development in Poland, with particular emphasis on the spatial dis- tribution of population, GDP and location of commercial companies. The potential accessibility in HGV trans- port, where attractiveness depends on both population and GDP is taken into consideration. For the empirical analysis the OGAM application was used. In the part of the paper devoted to mobility issues, a model uses the results of the distribution of traffic on the national and voivodeship road network and VISUM software. The original method compares the results of the gravity model for travel between commercial companies carried out by entrepreneurs (businessmen, sales representatives, etc.) with the real traffic distribution. The overestimation/underestimation of traffic with respect to the results of the General Traffic Survey in 2010 was shown. Both in the accessibility and mobility studies a matrix of travel time at the municipal level (2,321 units) was used. Speeds were calculated based on the IGSO PAS speed model. It was pointed out that the potential and gravity models are still not very popular methods of analysis of determinants of industrial de- velopment in Poland. They provide the opportunities for indicating potential locations for new investments in the context of both freight transport and business travel

The aim of this paper is the analysis of indicators of corporate responsibility in road freight transport, with special emphasis on freight transport and delivery to Fast Moving Consumers Goods (FMCG) retailers and final consumer. The main task is to rank the importance of corporate responsibility indicators in freight transport from the perspective of the management of transport companies, as well as management of retail stores. In this context, empirical research was conducted on a sample of 124 managers of transport enterprises and 181 managers of FMCG retailers in Serbia. The results showed that the impact of indicators does not depend on the region, transport company and retail store. The indicators show a statistically significant dependence on FMCG type that is being transported. The conducted analysis and achieved results are important in practice as they show to the management of transport companies which indicators should be developed, so that customers (retailers), and thus the users of final products are satisfied. Disadvantages of the existing research and suggestions for future studies are provided in the paper.

The problem of driver’s business in road freight transport is regulated by several regulations in the Slovak legal order. An entrepreneur in the field of transport can use any of the legal forms offered by Slovak legislation. The transporter most often chooses between a business in the form of a trade or in the form of a limited liability company. In choosing the legal form, one specific aspect of freight transport must be taken into account in addition to the normal factors applicable to these legal forms, irrespective of the subject of business. During operation of a transport company, high-value goods are often transported, which entails considerable risks. In this article we will deal with the legal aspect of road freight transport, either in the form of a company, self-employed person or employee, as well as its legal impact on the performance of the road freight driver. We will focus only on the most appropriate form of company in this area, which is a limited liability company. We identify the current legal situation in the Slovak Republic and the possibilities of detours the law in the field of road freight transport.

This study focuses on road freight transport in South Africa, as one part of a transport system which should integrate different modes of transport. Road freight is seen not only as closely related to the movement of passengers, but also as integral to the process of production. The efficient organisation of road freight transport is seen to hinge largely on minimising the waste of capacity. Better utilisation of infrastructure, new technology, new methods of operation and of organising human resources are seen to be key elements in improving efficiency. However, the economic imperative of eliminating wasted capacity have to be matched by environmental and social imperatives. A transport policy framework therefore has to encompass these factors. Part One of the study includes an overview of existing transport policy objectives, and suggests some possible alternatives. Part Two describes and analyses the relationship of transport to the South African economy as a whole and the economic structure of freight transport (both road and rail). Part Three describes and analyses the administrative framework which currently determines the operation of the freight transport industry. Part Four looks at road freight transport in more detail. The role of freight transport in manufacturing, commerce, and agriculture in South Africa is analysed; various technological developments are explored; external costs such as fuel and maintenance are detailed; and ownership within the road freight sector is analysed. In the Conclusion the author draws some implications of the issues explored in the rest of the study for road freight transport policy formation.

Freight transport impacts from the economic crisis in Greece

The manuscript discusses the current development trends related to electric vehicles and very concept of electromobility in the context of road passenger as well as road freight transport. The introductory section of the manuscript presents the most relevant information and characteristics associated with electromobility, such as breakdown of types of electric vehicles, basic competences of the electromobility system actors, potential options for its application in the field of transport, and the most significant advantages and disadvantages of such vehicles. The second chapter elaborates a brief overview of existing literature sources, such as research studies, electronic scientific papers, conference papers and other publications, regarding the concept of electromobility in terms of road passenger and freight transport. The third and fourth chapter, as the most important manuscript part, describes and processes the data in relation to prediction of electromobility development in both investigated modes of transport, as well as partial results in regard to electromobility and relevant discussion.

Competition between freight and passenger transport for the use of the road infrastructure is an increasingly important problem. This research is carried out in the framework of the DIDAM (Disaggregated demand and assignment models for combined passengers and freight transport) research project which aims at proposing some advances in fundamental research in transportation modelling and analysis, and this paper presents some preliminary results obtained on the Belgian network. The DIDAM project's methodology is organized around two axes: on one hand, a disaggregated dynamic demand model for freight transport is proposed. In this model, the freight transport actors are represented by agents. These agents are extracted from existing databases and their behavior is then generated by means of a simulation that tries to represent the interactions between shippers and carriers who both try to minimize their costs. The carriers try to fill their trucks and to combine several trips to maximize their benefits (by minimizing the empty-trips for example). This step of the model faces a well-known optimization problem called Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP). In the meanwhile the shippers try to find the best transport opportunity by putting the carriers into competition. On the other hand, the Belgian road network is represented in a GIS based transport model software developed at FUCaM and called NODUS. Each arc of the network is associated with a dynamic cost function built using standard OD matrices for passenger transport combined with global traffic density data. By doing this, one takes into account the passenger flows everywhere and at every moment of the day. That way, the rush-hours are also taken into account. These dynamic cost functions are then used by the transporter-agents of the simulation that tries to minimize their costs. A time-dependent OD matrix for freight transport is built as result from this process. Finally, a prototype of a joint traffic assignment model is being developed. This new assignment procedure assigns the flow for each time-slice sequentially, keeping the still running flows from previous time slices into account. Still under development, this algorithm should provide the agents a feedback on their traveling time, which could be retained to allow them to change their habits if needed during a next trip. This paper will first present the time-dependent freight origin-destination matrices generation process, discussing the agent's generation, their characteristics and the implementation of their behavior in a simulation. Finally, the first time-dependent freight transport OD matrices built on the basis of this methodology will be assigned on the Belgian network using the experimental assignment model.

The relationship between economic growth and transport sector is an important and popular topic for researchers, but it also has several untapped areas. To ensure continuous economic growth, it is necessary to answer how and to what extent economic sectors contribute to sustainability; what factors or sets of factors can determine freight performance in a country or region; and how it affects the global economy. This study aims to test the presence of spatial dependence. In this research, the authors looked for the spatial relationships between economic activity (GDP) and freight transport performance using spatial econometric models. The results showed that the spatial impact of freight transport performance and GDP significantly influence each other. The intensity calculation shows that the Baltic States have a high intensity in road freight transport, followed by the Central European region. Eastern Europe, including Russia and the Baltics, are prominent players in rail freight. Furthermore, the spatial econometric models have highlighted that a country with high GDP has some sort of "suction" effect on neighbouring countries with lower GDP along with the freight performance. This is especially true for rail freight. In the long run, the outlined results may even support strategic decision-makers in managing the economic impacts of both road and rail freight transport at the regional level.

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on road freight transportation – A Colombian case study

The increase in the number of freight vehicles on South Africa’s rural road network has received substantial attention. Insinuations persist that long-distance road freight haulage is of a somewhat unsavoury economic nature, and that strict economic re-regulation of the land freight transport is necessary. During the 1970s road transport replaced rail carriage as the dominant form of long-distance freight transport (excluding minerals and ore) in South Africa. On long hauls road freight carriers transport certain primary products of an organic nature (such as timber, fish and agricultural produce), some semi-finished goods, many finished goods and most consumer goods. Road freight carriers are continuously gaining market share on long-distance links where rail transport is the more cost efficient mode. The greater value added by road freight carriers in comparison with rail transport through service effectiveness is often more than the cost premium paid for utilising their service rather than making use of rail transport. Throughout history, governments have involved themselves in transport. A diverse range of arguments have been advanced for this involvement in transport, including the following:Control of excessive competition, co-ordination of transport, integration of transport with economic policy, maintenance of safety, security, and order, provision of costly infrastructure, provision of public goods, recovery of the true resource cost of transport inputs, regulation of harmful conduct and externalities, restraint of monopoly power, and social support. A set of nine instruments can be identified that governments apply to influence the performance of the freight transport industry: Legislation, direct supply, fiscal measures, monetary measures, moral appeal and persuasion, policies relating to strategic commodities, procurement policy, provision of information, and research and development. The best prospects for a sound development of land freight transport activity in South Africa will be offered within the framework of a free-functioning freight transport market.