STUDIES IN RAILROAD OPERATIONS AND ECONOMICS. VOLUME 15. A MODEL OF RAIL/TRUCK COMPETITION IN THE INTERCITY FREIGHT MARKET

The report proposes a model based on the logit function to predict the rail and truck market share for specific city pairs and commodity groups. Effort was devoted to the problem of introducing both transport service variables and shipper's logistic variables into the model. The model was calibrated with data from the 1967 Census of Transportation and from various carriers. Significant regressions were obtained from linear logit models once the proper variables were identified. Theoretical monetary values of carriers' services were compared to the empirical values in the model, indicating that shippers pay more for quality service than predicted; this result may be due to bias in the model introduced by use of aggregated and unreliable data. It is concluded that further research using this model form with more disaggregate data could yield significant improvements in results and provide valuable information for public and private transportation planning.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • See also Volume 13, PB-244 130.
• Corporate Authors:

  Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  Transportation Systems Division
  Cambridge, MA  United States  02139

  Federal Railroad Administration

  Office of Policy and Program Development, 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Authors:
  • Kullman, B C
• Publication Date: 1973-12

Media Info

• Pagination: 318 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Competition; Demand; Economic analysis; Economic factors; Freight forwarders; Freight service; Freight transportation; Intermodal transportation; Logistics; Market research; Market surveys; Mathematical models; Mode choice; Motor carriers; Quality of service; Railroad transportation; Railroads; Regression analysis; Reliability; Shipments; Traffic managers; Transportation modes; Transportation planning; Trucking
• Uncontrolled Terms: Shippers
• Old TRIS Terms: Cargo transportation; Freight forwarding; Intermodal shipping; Market profiles
• Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Economics; Freight Transportation; Motor Carriers; Railroads;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00092239
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: National Technical Information Service
• Report/Paper Numbers: MIT-R74-35 Final Rpt., FRA/RPD-75/1.14
• Contract Numbers: DOT-FR-10006
• Files: NTIS, TRIS, USDOT
• Created Date: Oct 18 1976 12:00AM