Freight Transportation Modes Research Articles

The correlation between GDP and different transport modes turnover based on grey correlation analysis

Transportation is the inherent law of economic development. With the deepening of reform and opening up, the adjustment of economic and industrial structure, transport volume have driven GDP growth to varying degrees. Therefore, based on the 1990-2017 transport turnover and GDP in China, this paper studies the decoupling relationship between GDP and transport volume at different stages, in which traffic volume has a week decoupling with GDP. By using the grey correlation analysis, the degree of correlation between different freight and passenger transportation modes at sample period is calculated to demonstrate the similarity with economic growth.

China Railway Express Subsidy Model Based on Game Theory under “the Belt and Road” Initiative

China Railway Express (CR Express) is an emerging freight transport mode between China and Europe, which provides a new option in addition to air transport and ocean shipping. At the initial stage of development, due to the higher freight costs compared to ocean shipping, the government subsidy provided for the China Railway Express operator plays an important role in the process of market cultivation. The original intention of the government subsidy was to promote the rapid and sustainable development of China Railway Express and the further subsidy scheme should encourage China Railway Express operators to act towards the expected goal of the local government. This research is devoted to modeling and solving the problem of optimal subsidy amount in the operation of China Railway Express. Firstly, a subsidy model is established with the consideration of different objectives of local government and China Railway Express operator, which are affected by the operational effort level of the China Railway Express operator, actual freight rate and the highest freight rate that the shipper is willing to pay. Then, the validity of the proposed model is analyzed in the case study of the China Railway Express line (Wuhan–Hamburg). The effects of different subsidy amounts on the social benefits of local government and profits of the China Railway Express operator are analyzed and the sensitivity analysis is carried on the operational effort level of China Railway Express operator and the highest freight rate that shipper is willing to pay. The analysis results show that the optimal subsidy amount is between 2000 and 2500 USD per Forty-Foot Equivalent Unit (FEU). Finally, suggestions are proposed according to the analysis results. These findings can provide useful references for promoting the sustainable development of China Railway Express.

Optimizing Energy Consumption in Transportation: Literature Review, Insights, and Research Opportunities

From airplanes to electric vehicles and trains, modern transportation systems require large quantities of energy. These vast amounts of energy have to be produced somewhere—ideally by using sustainable sources—and then brought to the transportation system. Energy is a scarce and costly resource, which cannot always be produced from renewable sources. Therefore, it is critical to consume energy as efficiently as possible, that is, transportation activities need to be carried out with an optimal intake of energetic means. This paper reviews existing work on the optimization of energy consumption in the area of transportation, including road freight, passenger rail, maritime, and air transportation modes. The paper also analyzes how optimization methods—of both exact and approximate nature—have been used to deal with these energy-optimization problems. Finally, it provides insights and discusses open research opportunities regarding the use of new intelligent algorithms—combining metaheuristics with simulation and machine learning—to improve the efficiency of energy consumption in transportation.

Evaluating interregional freight accessibility conditions through the combination of centrality and reliability measures

The main contribution of this paper is a new approach to evaluate and compare the freight accessibility conditions offered in a set of regions or cities. The key innovation of this approach lies in that it combines (statistical) centrality and reliability measures of accessibility, thus tackling one of the weaknesses that researchers have identified in the vast accessibility literature. The proposed approach is first explained in details for a hypothetical setting, and then is applied to Iran using data collected in the latest transport survey conducted in this country. The focus is placed on road transport, by far the dominant freight transport mode in Iran. The results obtained through this application provide clear insights into the relative positions of the main freight production and attraction zones of Iran with respect to road accessibility conditions, and therefore valuable information to assist transport authorities in their decisions regarding the evolution of the country's road network.

Importance of freight mode choice criteria: An MCDA approach

Road transportation has been the dominant mode for inland freight transportation for decades. Rail and waterways transportation are less frequently used alternatives, but in general more attractive from an environmental perspective. Even though many policies promoting the use of intermodal transportation have been proposed, they have had little impact to trigger shippers to shift mode from road transportation to rail or inland waterways transportation. One main reason might be that the requirements of shippers towards transportation modes are still not well understood. Hence this research investigates freight transportation mode choice with a new approach, multi-criteria decision analysis, as well as from the perspectives of different types of industries and experts. Reviewing the literature, the requirements for transportation modes are abstracted into a set of criteria, including transportation cost, door-to-door travel time, on-time reliability, flexibility, frequency, and reduction of CO2 emissions. As the importance of these factors might be different for different industries, we consider four segments: the manufacturing industry, the agriculture industry, the perishable food industry, and the chemical industry. Data from practitioners, industry experts, and academics are collected via online questionnaires and analyzed using the ‘best worst method’ (BWM) to identify weights for the mentioned criteria. The results indicate that transportation cost is viewed as the most important, closely followed by on-time reliability, while reduction of CO2 emission is viewed as the least important. Several comparison studies are conducted to see any difference in the importance of these factors with respect to different industries or respondent groups.

Evaluating the interrelationships among inhibitors to intermodal railroad freight transport in emerging economies: A multi-stakeholder perspective

Abstract Intermodal railroad (IRR) mode of freight transport has been considered as a sustainable and efficient solution for ensuring the sustainability of the freight transport industry, but the IRR transport adoption faces many challenges in real cases. However, so far, studies considered inhibitors of IRR transport under logistics shippers or forwarders' perspectives. Unfortunately, no existing research has evaluated the interrelationships of IRR freight transport inhibitors in emerging economies, nor in Indian Context. This study aims to give a structural model of IRR freight transport inhibitors interrelationships with a case of the Indian freight industry. The considered stakeholders in the present research are academic researchers, freight shippers, and Indian Railways officials’. The considered research framework presents twenty-two inhibitors, that were selected from the previous literature and experts' input. Then, a blend of grey theory and decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory method (Grey-DEMATEL) was used to identify the causal relationships between the selected inhibitors and the strength of their interrelationships. A Euclidian distance analysis was used to highlight the similarities and differences between stakeholders’ views. All the stakeholders find some common inhibitors such as poor rail freight transport infrastructure, low frequency of freight trains, the poor delivery reliability of rail mode, lack of competition between transport modes, and lack of holistic transportation business model. The unique contribution of present work relies on the fact that no past studies were found, to consider the impact of multiple stakeholders in the intermodal freight business. Moreover, policymakers may take proactive actions to improve the inhibitors of IRR into practices for improving modal balance in emerging economies. Finally, the conclusion and limitations of the present work are highlighted.

The comparative CO2 efficiency of short sea container transport

European transport policies have over the last decades advocated the CO2 efficiency of maritime transport relative to road haulage, and consequently, shipping reaping the benefits of being considered the green mode of freight transport. To date, research focusing on CO2 emissions from ships has to a great extent followed a modeling approach, based on a set of more or less well-founded assumptions. Yet these presumptions raise questions regarding the reliability of the emission results presented and the foundation of which transport policies are built upon. In an attempt to broaden the discussion, this paper presents CO2 emissions that have been calculated based on data from actual container feeder operations in Europe over a full year of service. Through the development of origin-destination matrices representing these real container flows, a mode-comparative analysis of CO2 efficiency is undertaken by constructing a counterfactual road transport alternative serving the same market. Although the results generally corroborate the environmental superiority of short sea container shipping with respect to CO2 efficiency, the comparative edge seems to be marginal in some scenarios. Thus, highlighting the need for shipping services to obtain a fairly high capacity utilization in order to still represent the green mode of transport in terms of CO2 emissions.

Long- and Short-Run Effects of Fuel Prices on Freight Transportation Volumes in Shanghai

Freight transportation modes consume enormous amounts of energy. This paper estimates the long- and short-run effects of fuel prices on freight volumes in various modes of transportation in Shanghai. Data included monthly changes during the period 2009–2016. Air cargo series were suggested to include one or two unit roots, and hence were removed from the cointegration analysis. Both the Phillips–Ouliaris and Johansen tests did not detect long-run relationships between real fuel prices, water cargo, road, and rail freight. Conventional first-differenced VAR (vector autoregressive) models were estimated. Overall, whether in the short- or long-run, real fuel prices did not influence freight transportation volumes. However, we found a Granger causality running from rail to road freight, as in the short-run (one month), a 1% change in rail freight would lead to a reduction of 0.07% in road freight. Therefore, simply by increasing fuel prices, the government could seldom encourage the shift from energy-inefficient modes of freight transportation to energy-efficient ones to achieve a sustainable freight transport. The allocation of more time and routes for rail freight traffic and the reduction in rail freight taxes may increase the rail freight volume and hence decrease the overall energy use. Our findings, to some degree, contribute to freight transportation economics. Future research may examine the impact of gasoline prices or diesel prices on freight traffic volumes.

Modeling dynamic behavior of navigable inland waterways

The inland waterway transportation system of the United States links its inland ports with the rest of the world by providing a cost-effective, fuel-efficient, and environmentally friendly mode of freight transportation. For this research study, a maritime transportation simulator (MarTranS) that integrates agent-based modeling, discrete-event simulation, system dynamics, and multiregional input–output analysis was developed to elucidate the relationships between inland waterway transportation system components and their associated economic impacts. An improved understanding of these relationships is critical to the assessment of risk reduction within the system, decisions concerning investment in support infrastructure, and future economic impacts. It is hypothesized that failure to invest in future improvements to the infrastructure that supports the inland waterway transportation system will have negative long-term economic consequences. While the performance of the MarTranS is demonstrated through a case study of the McClellan–Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System, the work is generalizable to other segments of the inland waterway transportation system and can enable maritime transportation stakeholders to better allocate investment budgets and increase the economic benefits of waterway transportation systems.

Declarations regarding the energy consumption and emissions of the greenhouse gases in the road freight transport sector

This manuscript is focused on the matter concerning the emissions of the greenhouse gases produced by the road freight transport mode. Those emissions influence the ozone layer structure and help to create the greenhouse impact causing the global warming, i.e. issues particularly related to the weather change aspects as well as extreme weather occurrences. In the first part of the paper, the calculation approaches, energy consumption examination as well as evaluation of emissions of the greenhouse gases created by the transport modes operation are performed by the EN 16258:2013 standard. The research chapter outlines the implementation of the approach technique to particular consignment on a specific transport section, while the sum of the energy consumption and greenhouse gases emissions production per pallet of goods weighing 1000 kg is specified. The resulting values form the fundamentals for declarations of energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. The proper and precise examinations of energy consumption and emissions production can help to identify the share of external costs for specific transport modes quite accurately. This ensures that such costs are fairly carried by the individual producers thereof.

Joint model of freight mode choice and shipment size: A copula-based random regret minimization framework

In our study, we examine the joint choice of freight transportation mode and shipment size. While shipment size could be considered as an explanatory variable in modeling mode choice (or vice-versa), it is more likely that the decision of mode and shipment choice is a simultaneous process. A joint model system is developed in the form of an unordered choice model for mode and an ordered choice model for shipment size. We adopt a closed form copula-based model structure for capturing the impact of common unobserved factors affecting these two choices. Further, we explore alternatives to the traditional random utility structure in modeling mode choice. Specifically, we explore both the random utility (RU) based multinomial logit and the random regret (RR) minimization based multinomial logit (MNL) within a copula-based model. The shipment size is analyzed using ordered logit (OL) model within the copula structure. The RU and RR MNL structures are explored for several copula-based structures including Gaussian, Farlie-Gumbel-Morgenstern (FGM), Clayton, Gumbel, Frank and Joe. The proposed approach considers copula models with multiple copula-based dependencies within a single model. The copula-based model dependency is also allowed to vary across the data by parameterizing the dependency as a function of observed attributes. The models are estimated based on the data from 2012 U.S. Commodity Flow Survey data. The copula RRM based MNL-OL copula with Frank and Joe copula dependencies offered the best data fit indicating the strong interconnectedness between shipment mode and shipment size choice decisions. A validation exercise provides further evidence of the joint model superiority for overall sample level and freight characteristics variables specific sub-samples.

Importance Analysis of Decision Making Factors for Selecting International Freight Transportation Mode

Currently, the competition among carriers in the international freight service industry is getting fierce. In particular, the LCC (Low Cost Carriers) in Korea secured the licenses for international freight delivery service. However, due to the high costs, most shippers prefer car ferry services over air transportation, even though the service level of air transportation is considerably better. The present paper investigates how the LCCs, as compared to car ferry services, secure the competitive advantage in the international transportation service as compared to car ferry services. We have focused on the factors shippers regard as the most important for selecting transportation mode. For a reasonable comparison, we have limited the business area to the north eastern Asian countries, including Korea, China, Japan, and Russia. We have developed a questionnaire for the shippers who export their own product in these countries from Korea. Based on the results of fuzzy-AHP, it can be concluded that the factors related to the reliability and convenience are regarded as the important factors for selecting the transportation mode. Furthermore, the results of this study can be used by LCCs to develop their own strategies for competing with car ferry services.

Study on the Effect of Freight Structure Change on Air Pollution

Cargo transportation is the derivative demand of economic and social development and the real logistics of goods. The change of freight structure is directly related to the direction of national infrastructure construction. Chinese freight transportation is mainly based on land transportation, railway and road transportation are parallel and there is a substitution relationship between them. The mode of freight transportation in China has gradually changed from the railway-dominated to the highway-dominated, which also causes the gradual increase of vehicle pollutant emissions. The most notable is that heavy trucks share 68% of the particulate matter, which has seriously affected the air environment. The structure of freight transportation needs to be improved urgently and road transport to rail transport is a must-have road.

Geographies of governance in the freight transport sector: The British case

This paper explores the changing geography of governance in the British freight transport sector. Policy and regulation have evolved in a neoliberal direction based on private sector provision of transport services, resulting in a much smaller role for the public sector. An exploration of the intersection between the previous institutional settings and the unfolding regulatory frameworks across water, rail and road modes of freight transport suggests that the differences in each mode also influence the levers available to address issues as they arise. The economic characteristics of the road haulage sector keep the system responsive to user needs, whereas the lack of a port regulator encourages rent seeking. The rail regulator intervenes in cases of anti-competitive practice but cannot prevent an oligopolistic market structure and relies on ongoing subsidy as road haulage does not pay its full share of external costs. A distinctive British geography of governance is revealed in the different liberalisation pathway it has followed compared to continental European countries. A key conclusion is that governance analysis must include not merely the formal governance arrangements but the ability and willingness to apply suitable instruments to regulate the market to maximize economic welfare.

Life cycle externalities versus external costs: The case of inland freight transport in Belgium

This paper proposes a case study on Belgium in which externalities and external costs of inland freight transport modes in Belgium are compared for the year 2012. The well-known Life Cycle Assessment methodology is used to identify the updated specific Belgian externalities related to three categories of negative impacts: climate change, photochemical ozone formation and particulate matter formation. The obtained values of externalities are then compared to the related external cost values. The objective is to determine if these two tools can be used interchangeably. We find that road transport has the maximum impact for every environmental impact indicator, with rail freight transport presenting the minimum one. We identify that each category of negative impact on the environment does not represent the same percentage of global externalities and external costs. In the analysis of the environmental impact per mode, it is observed that, when external costs are considered instead of externalities, the impact of road transport is slightly increased compared to both impacts of rail and inland waterways. Using externalities and average external costs interchangeably for estimating the impact of specific transport categories on the environment may thus lead to different results and different related policies.

Selection of ports, tariffs, service frequency, and ship size for a SSS Route in Java Island

Short Sea Shipping (SSS) is one of modes to reduce the dominance of trucking mode of freight transportation in Indonesia. It concerns to multimodal freight transportation network system through sea mode transportation line. As a maritime nation, it is possible to develop SSS lines in Indonesia. The development of the SSS lines is expected to improve the continuity of goods which supporting the efficiency and effectiveness of the national logistics system. It develops integrated connectivity in local, inter-island and national scale. The objective of this study is to obtain optimum SSS route with objective function to maximize the difference of total transportation cost by designing SSS operating system model. Several factors are considered in SSS operating system model as policy measures, such as transit ports selection, tariffs, services, and ship sizes. This SSS model is approached by Incremental Assignment method. SSS operating system model will be applied to the freight mobility in Java.

Intermodal Terminal Design for Autonomous Freight Pipeline System

This paper investigates the design and operation of an intermodal terminal for Underground Freight Transportation (UFT) system. UFT is considered as a new mode of autonomous freight transportation that uses pipelines for transporting freight between two intermodal terminals. The load size and route length of the UFT system can be variable depending on the purpose and specifications of the project. In this paper two sizes of loads and two route lengths are considered to show that the terminal design and operation are independent from route length and load size. Each UFT route starts at the Port of Houston where shipping container or pallet size loads will be delivered to the UFT system. The short-haul route ends at a proposed intermodal satellite terminal outside Houston and the long-haul route terminates in a proposed intermodal inland port in Dallas. This paper develops inclusive equations to estimate the operational attributes of the UFT intermodal terminal. These attributes include operational headway, system flow, fleet size, and number of handlers/forklifts required in operation of the terminal. Based on the terminal operation requirements, a typical design for a UFT intermodal terminal is presented. In addition, the loading/unloading process and the freight circulation scheme are discussed. Although, this schematic terminal design and operation are for shipping container loads, but the same concept can be applied to smaller scale loads such as pallets.

Hydraulic Characteristics of Transporting a Piped Carriage in a Horizontal Pipe Based on the Bidirectional Fluid-Structure Interaction

Energy shortage restricts the rapid development of the global transport industry. Trying to develop innovative modes of transport becomes an inevitable trend. Hydraulic Capsule Pipelines (HCPs) are the freight transportation modes that use a kind of fluid to push capsules filled with bulk solids materials through water-filled pipelines. HCPs not only alleviate everincreasing costs caused by energy scarcities and oil price up, but also solve issues like traffic congestion and environmental pollution. Published literature is mainly limited to numerical simulation of the unidirectional fluid-structure interaction between the capsules and the fluid inside the pipelines; furthermore, the hydraulic characteristics only involve the speed of the capsules and the pressure drop characteristics of the fluid within the pipe. This research was conducted on the following four aspects of HCPs. First, an improved cylindrical capsule called a “piped carriage” was evaluated. Second, an associated solution between the fluid domain within the pipe and the solid domain of the piped carriage was investigated numerically on the basis of the bidirectional fluid-structure interaction methods. Third, the effects of diameter ratiob(ratio of a diameter of the piped carriageDeto a pipe diameterDp, widely ranging inb=0.4~0.95) on hydraulic characteristics of transporting the piped carriage within the pipeline were extensively discussed. Finally, based on Least-Cost Principle, an optimization model of HCPs was effectively built. The results showed that the simulated results were in good agreement with the experimental results, which further indicated that it was feasible for solving the hydraulic characteristics of transporting the piped carriage by using the bidirectional fluid-structure interaction methods. The results will be of great reference value for further research on HCPs and also provide a theoretical foundation for the optimal design of HCPs.

Choice Factors of Freight Transport Mode in Korea: Literature Review and Directions for Future Research

Choice Factors of Freight Transport Mode in Korea: Literature Review and Directions for Future Research

Range of technical-economic competitiveness of rail-road combined transport

PurposeRoad haulage has been the most widely used mode of freight transport in many European countries for several decades. Given the attention to sustainable transport in this century, the rail-road combined transport may result to be a good alternative, under specific conditions, to road haulage. This paper analyses the main conditions to make the option competitive, using a simplified method useful for the stakeholders involved in decision processes.MethodRelevant cost items have been identified since previous studies available in literature. The proposed formulas consider the different phases of transport chain and have been used to investigate such parameters as the external costs and the location of terminals.ResultsIf the pre- and post-phases are too long or simply too onerous, the economic advantages of the rail section may not be sufficient to guarantee the convenience of the combined transport. It can be economically competitive over long distances, even when the drayage covers greater distances.ConclusionsThe method has been used to examine those situations, in terms of distance covered and frequency of the service, in which rail-road combined transport can be cost-effective as an alternative to the full-road solution. The obtained range can be reviewed based on the services, such as shuttle trains to connect seaports with dry ports: the short distance covered may be more convenient due to the high quantities of goods as well as the fixed train composition and path allocation, which means lower terminal cost and times. Finally, some innovative proposals have been introduced.