Regulation of Motor Freight Transportation: A Quantitative Evaluation of Policy

Abstract

This study develops a way of using data to measure certain economic effects of transport regulation, particularly the rate effects associated with regulation of the motor carrier industry. The comprehensiveness of regulation in the United States has made cross-section studies of the effects of regulation virtually impossible. However, province-to province differences in regulation in Canada produce statistical information for the for-hire motor truck industry making it possible to estimate the rate levels associated with particular degrees of regulation there. A series of regression equations indicate that trucking charges in Canada have been higher under regulation than in its absence. Extension of the analysis to the for-hire motor trucking industry in the United States, using the more limited data available there, suggests that the same conditions may account for increased motor freight charges of $300 million per annum.