ROAD PRICING FOR FREIGHT TRAFFIC

Road pricing can help to make the road transport market work more effectively, and can also help specific environmental objectives to be met. Most of the recent discussions of road pricing have focused on car restraint, but have not addressed road freight for several reasons, even though road pricing is especially well suited to road freight. Reasons for introducing freight road pricing include promoting fair competition between modes and countries, and, more important, avoiding damage, especially environmental, and disbenefits to road users. Environmental problems caused by road freight include: reduced safety, noise, vibration, air pollution (including carbon monoxide emissions), and community severance. Disbenefits to road users include: congestion and effects of gross weight and axle weight. Benefits from higher charges for road freight include: improved vehicle usage, fair competition, and encouragement of changes in the production and distribution process that can substitute for transport. Some results of the effects of various types of pricing and other measures on road freight in the UK since 1980 are given for: articulated lorry efficiency, competition between modes, heavy lorry safety, and substitutes for transport. For the covering abstract, see IRRD 885092.

Language

  • English

Media Info

  • Pagination: p. 83-93

Subject/Index Terms

Filing Info

  • Accession Number: 00729811
  • Record Type: Publication
  • Source Agency: Transport Research Laboratory
  • ISBN: 3-909162-00-2
  • Files: ITRD
  • Created Date: Dec 26 1996 12:00AM