ENTROPY OF FREIGHT TRANSPORTATION AND PRICE VARIATION

An examination is made of possible relationships between network entropy of commodity flow and variation in unit price of freight transportation service. Entropy of seventy-five major commodity flows through the railroad network in the United States have been calculated using data available in the 1974 waybill sample; unit price of transportation service for various networks has been measured as cents per ton-mile. The results of empirical analysis confirm that an inverse relationship exists between variation in unit price and network entropy of commodity flow. Commodities with high network entropy appear to exert forces towards a constant price and those commodities with lower entropy, providing greater marginal utility, appear to have a wide variation in unit price. These findings can be used in regulating pricing decisions in the transportation industry.

• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/03772217
• Corporate Authors:

  North-Holland Publishing Company

  Box 211
  1000AE Amsterdam,   Netherlands 
• Authors:
  • Nazem, S M
• Publication Date: 1979-9

Media Info

• Features: References;
• Pagination: p. 413-416
• Serial:
  • European Journal of Operational Research
  • Volume: 3
  • Issue Number: 5
  • Publisher: Elsevier
  • ISSN: 0377-2217
  • Serial URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/european-journal-of-operational-research

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Commodity flow; Freight traffic; Marketing; Network analysis (Planning); Pricing; Rates
• Uncontrolled Terms: Freight rates
• Old TRIS Terms: Commodity flow patterns
• Subject Areas: Economics; Freight Transportation; Railroads;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00310666
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Engineering Index
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Jun 9 1980 12:00AM