THE CHANGING PATTERN OF COMMERCIAL VEHICLE MOVEMENTS

Research is described in this paper, based mainly on data from the department of the environment continuing survey of road goods transport, to investigate the changes in trip lengths over the period 1973 to 1979. The investigation is restricted to single-drop trips. Although single-drop trip kilometers have only declined by 8 per cent over the period, the number of single-drop trips has fallen by over 26 per cent and the average trip length has increased by 25 per cent. There has also been a continuing shift towards the use of larger vehicles. An analysis, given in the appendix, shows that the length of haul has increased for all commodities, resulting in fewer short-distance lengths of haul. Consignment size has increased over all lengths of haul, resulting in, or caused by, the use of heavier and larger vehicles over all distances. There has been an increase in the number of trips by commercial vehicles of over 24 tonnes gvw over all trip lengths and a decrease in the number of trips by vehicles under 24 gvw over all lengths. There has been a large set decrease in the number of short-distance commercial vehicle trips, and only a marginal increase in long-distance trips resulting in increasing average trip lengths. The authors suggest that the exclusion of multi-drop trips has biased the results but, although this bias cannot be checked, the basic deductions are unaffected by this bias. (TRRL)

• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/00410683
• Corporate Authors:

  Printerhall Limited

  29 Newmart Street
  London W1P 3PE,   England 
• Authors:
  • EASTMAN, C R
  • Dunford, J E
• Publication Date: 1981-11

Media Info

• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: p. 576-580
• Serial:
  • Traffic Engineering & Control
  • Volume: 22
  • Issue Number: 11
  • Publisher: Hemming Group, Limited
  • ISSN: 0041-0683
  • Serial URL: http://www.tecmagazine.com/

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Commercial vehicles; Freight traffic; Gross vehicle weight; Heavy vehicles; Length; Numbers; Size; Travel; Travel patterns; Trip length; Vehicle miles of travel
• Uncontrolled Terms: Modifications
• Geographic Terms: United Kingdom
• ITRD Terms: 9014: Dimension; 698: Journey; 6488: Length; 1236: Lorry; 9048: Modification; 6432: Number; 8119: United Kingdom; 292: Vehicle mile
• Subject Areas: Freight Transportation; Highways; Planning and Forecasting; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00348956
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Transport Research Laboratory
• Report/Paper Numbers: HS-032 787
• Files: ITRD, TRIS
• Created Date: May 28 1982 12:00AM