"TRB's National Cooperative Freight Research Program (NCFRP) Report 22: Freight Data Cost Elements identifies the specific types of direct freight transportation cost data elements required for public investment, policy, and regulatory decisionmaking. The report also describes and assesses different strategies for identifying and obtaining the needed cost data elements"--Publisher's description.
U.S. railroads have improved their productivity, but increasing freight volume threatens performance-degrading capacity constraints. This report describes the current state of railroad capacity and performance for freight transportation. The public consequences of private investment decisions justify a public role in addressing concerns about railroads, but better data and analysis are needed to inform transportation policymaking.
"This report presents a comprehensive, objective, and consistent set of measures to gauge the performance of the freight transportation system. These measures are presented in the form of a Freight System Report Card, which reports information in three formats, each increasingly detailed, to serve the needs of a wide variety of users from decision makers at all levels to anyone interested in assessing the performance of the nation's freight transportation system."--Pub. desc.
This is a must-have resource for anyone interested in the latest information about the complex field of transportationand how it is transforming today's business environment. This wide-ranging, two-volume work explores the transportation industry in all its many guises. It demonstrates how transportation is vital to most businesses and how it facilitates trade and globalization. It also explains how transportation figures into environmental and supply chain security challenges in the modern world. The contributors get into the nitty-gritty of how the business of transportation works and who the players are. Equally important, they show why those who depend on transportation in their business cannot afford to ignore such details when seeking greater efficiency, growth, profit, and market share.
Efficient movement of freight within the United States and across its borders is a critical enabler of future U.S. economic growth. The authors provide an overview of the freight-transportation system and the problems it faces, concluding with a discussion of key system-modernization issues, including increasing capacity, making the system less vulnerable to disruption, addressing environmental concerns, and building support for funding.
Road, rail, and waterway freight transportation is vital to the nation's economy. Gov't., tax, regulatory, and infrastructure investment policies can affect the costs that shippers pass on to their customers. If gov't. policy gives one mode a cost advantage over another, then shipping prices and customers' use of freight modes can be distorted, reducing the overall efficiency of the nation's economy. This report: (1) describes how gov't. policies can affect competition and efficiency within the surface freight transportation sector; (2) determines what is known about the extent to which all costs are borne by surface freight customers; and (3) discusses the use of the findings when making surface freight transportation policy. Illus. A print on demand report.
This is the 8th report from the Transport Committee (HCP 249, session 2007-08, ISBN 9780215521941) and focuses on freight transport. The Committee has set out 29 recommendations, including: that the Government needs to adopt a more proactive freight strategy, given there are significant economic and transport benefits to be gained; the Department of Transport should produce a national freight plan, setting out aspirations for the reduction in congestion and transport emissions, freight infrastructure and job opportunities and the development of future technologies that maybe beneficial for the freight business; that rail and water freight must be able to compete on a an equal footing with road transport; that the Government could do more to encourage waterborne freight transport; that Network Rail must recognise the importance of freight instead of treating it as the poor relation of passenger services; that the Government needs to engage with European freight schemes to ensure that UK business is not disadvantaged and further, highlight the importance of the UK air freight operators' competiveness with continental operators; the Government needs to discuss a way forward with the UK haulier industry, which the Committee sees as being unfairly treated through subsidising their continental competitors through high levels of taxation on fuel.
