The thesis has been written as a part of the Bachelor degree in Industrial engineering and management at the School of Engineering in Jönköping. The work is focused on the part of Husqvarna AB’s supply chain that is associated with the lorry transports to Italy. Husqvarna AB has approximately ten Italian customers, whose delivery patterns have been studied from January 2007 to July 2008. Some of the customers have a low delivery frequency and small amounts of goods that they therefore have not been fully analyzed in this report. The main focus has been put on the two largest customers. The main goal of this thesis is to analyze how the lorry transports to Italy can be made more cost-effective with maintained or increased customer service level. In addition, it is intended that the result of this thesis will become applicable for the transports to the rest of the European countries. To structure the work and to reach the main goal, it has been fragmented into three sub targets. Today, Husqvarna AB works with two fixed departure days per week to Italy. Exceptionally there can be more frequent deliveries in case of enough goods to fill up a lorry. The costs for the transports are regulated by the agreement Huqvarna AB has with DHL. To reach the result of this thesis a data collection was made as an introduction, to gather all the information regarding the shipments which had departed during the investigated period. Each customer was put in a separate Excel sheet, where the costs were calculated for the current situation as well as for the different solutions that were introduced by the authors. To assure that consideration was taken to the customer service a structured written interview was distributed to representatives from the two largest customers. The result shows that changes can take place in several steps. It is estimated that the most cost-effective solution would give a reduction of the transportation costs by over 40 percent. However, the authors do not hold this solution as implementable, as it gives a too low delivery frequency to keep an acceptable customer service level. The alternative which the authors would like to recommend the thesis submitter Husqvarna AB gives a reduction of the transportation costs by 13.7 percent and involves lowering the delivery frequency to departures once a week, or more often if there are enough goods to fill a lorry. Furthermore the solution implies a usage of the rules in the agreement with DHL, which allows mixed consignments to customers within the same zone. The authors do not think that this solution will affect the customer service level in a noticeable way, but if further research should show that that is the case, the authors have stressed a number of small changes in the discussion chapter. They do for example concern improvements of packing and loading. / Examensarbetet har utförts som ett led i högskoleingenjörsexamen inom Industriell organisation och ekonomi vid Tekniska Högskolan i Jönköping. Arbetet har fokuserats kring den del av Husqvarna AB:s logistikverksamhet som handlar om lastbilstransporter till Italien. Det rör sig om ett tiotal kunder, vars sändningar har studerats under perioden januari 2007 till och med juli 2008. Då vissa av kunderna både har en låg frekvens på avgångar och små godsmängder på varje sändning har fokus framför allt legat på de två största kunderna. Huvudmålet med examensarbetet är att analysera hur lastbilstransporterna till Italien kan göras mer kostnadseffektiva med bibehållen eller ökad leveransservicenivå. I förlängningen ska resultatet även kunna vara applicerbart på transporter till övriga Europa. För att strukturera arbetet och nå huvudmålet delades det i tre delmål. I dagsläget arbetar Husqvarna AB med två fasta avgångar per vecka till Italien, där det i undantagsfall kan avgå gods tätare om det är tillräckligt för att fylla en lastbärare. Transportkostnaderna regleras av det transportavtal som Husqvarna AB har med DHL. För att få fram ett resultat gjordes inledningsvis en datainsamling kring alla de sändningar som hade avgått under den undersökta perioden. Varje kund fördes in i separata Excel-ark där transportkostnader beräknades för nuläget, men också för de olika transportalternativ som togs fram. För att ta hänsyn till leveransserviceaspekten genomfördes en strukturerad skriftlig intervju med representanter från de två största kunderna. Resultatet visar att förändringar kan ske i flera steg och att den mest kostnadseffektiva lösningen skulle ge en sänkning av transportkostnaderna med drygt 40 procent. Författarna anser dock inte att denna lösning är genomförbar då den ger för låg avgångsfrekvens för att bibehålla en acceptabel leveransservicenivå. Det alternativ som författarna rekommenderar uppdragsgivaren Husqvarna AB ger en sänkning av transportkostnaderna med 13,7 procent och innebär en sänkning av avgångsfrekvensen så att sändningar avgår en gång i veckan, och oftare om det är tillräckligt med gods för att fylla en lastbärare. Vidare innebär alternativet att de kunder som ligger inom samma zoner enligt transportavtalet med DHL samlastas. Författarna tror inte att ett sådant transportsätt skulle påverka leveransservicen i för stor utsträckning, men om det i vidare studier skulle visa sig att så är fallet, har författarna fokuserat ett antal mindre förändringar i diskussionskapitlet. Bland annat rör det sig om att mer aktivt arbeta med förbättring av packning och lastning.

<p>The thesis has been written as a part of the Bachelor degree in Industrial engineering and management at the School of Engineering in Jönköping. The work is focused on the part of Husqvarna AB’s supply chain that is associated with the lorry transports to Italy. Husqvarna AB has approximately ten Italian customers, whose delivery patterns have been studied from January 2007 to July 2008. Some of the customers have a low delivery frequency and small amounts of goods that they therefore have not been fully analyzed in this report. The main focus has been put on the two largest customers.</p><p>The main goal of this thesis is to analyze how the lorry transports to Italy can be made more cost-effective with maintained or increased customer service level. In addition, it is intended that the result of this thesis will become applicable for the transports to the rest of the European countries. To structure the work and to reach the main goal, it has been fragmented into three sub targets.</p><p>Today, Husqvarna AB works with two fixed departure days per week to Italy. Exceptionally there can be more frequent deliveries in case of enough goods to fill up a lorry. The costs for the transports are regulated by the agreement Huqvarna AB has with DHL. To reach the result of this thesis a data collection was made as an introduction, to gather all the information regarding the shipments which had departed during the investigated period. Each customer was put in a separate Excel sheet, where the costs were calculated for the current situation as well as for the different solutions that were introduced by the authors. To assure that consideration was taken to the customer service a structured written interview was distributed to representatives from the two largest customers.</p><p>The result shows that changes can take place in several steps. It is estimated that the most cost-effective solution would give a reduction of the transportation costs by over 40 percent. However, the authors do not hold this solution as implementable, as it gives a too low delivery frequency to keep an acceptable customer service level. The alternative which the authors would like to recommend the thesis submitter Husqvarna AB gives a reduction of the transportation costs by 13.7 percent and involves lowering the delivery frequency to departures once a week, or more often if there are enough goods to fill a lorry. Furthermore the solution implies a usage of the rules in the agreement with DHL, which allows mixed consignments to customers within the same zone. The authors do not think that this solution will affect the customer service level in a noticeable way, but if further research should show that that is the case, the authors have stressed a number of small changes in the discussion chapter. They do for example concern improvements of packing and loading.</p> / <p>Examensarbetet har utförts som ett led i högskoleingenjörsexamen inom Industriell organisation och ekonomi vid Tekniska Högskolan i Jönköping. Arbetet har fokuserats kring den del av Husqvarna AB:s logistikverksamhet som handlar om lastbilstransporter till Italien. Det rör sig om ett tiotal kunder, vars sändningar har studerats under perioden januari 2007 till och med juli 2008. Då vissa av kunderna både har en låg frekvens på avgångar och små godsmängder på varje sändning har fokus framför allt legat på de två största kunderna.</p><p>Huvudmålet med examensarbetet är att analysera hur lastbilstransporterna till Italien kan göras mer kostnadseffektiva med bibehållen eller ökad leveransservicenivå. I förlängningen ska resultatet även kunna vara applicerbart på transporter till övriga Europa. För att strukturera arbetet och nå huvudmålet delades det i tre delmål.</p><p>I dagsläget arbetar Husqvarna AB med två fasta avgångar per vecka till Italien, där det i undantagsfall kan avgå gods tätare om det är tillräckligt för att fylla en lastbärare. Transportkostnaderna regleras av det transportavtal som Husqvarna AB har med DHL. För att få fram ett resultat gjordes inledningsvis en datainsamling kring alla de sändningar som hade avgått under den undersökta perioden. Varje kund fördes in i separata Excel-ark där transportkostnader beräknades för nuläget, men också för de olika transportalternativ som togs fram. För att ta hänsyn till leveransserviceaspekten genomfördes en strukturerad skriftlig intervju med representanter från de två största kunderna.</p><p>Resultatet visar att förändringar kan ske i flera steg och att den mest kostnadseffektiva lösningen skulle ge en sänkning av transportkostnaderna med drygt 40 procent. Författarna anser dock inte att denna lösning är genomförbar då den ger för låg avgångsfrekvens för att bibehålla en acceptabel leveransservicenivå. Det alternativ som författarna rekommenderar uppdragsgivaren Husqvarna AB ger en sänkning av transportkostnaderna med 13,7 procent och innebär en sänkning av avgångsfrekvensen så att sändningar avgår en gång i veckan, och oftare om det är tillräckligt med gods för att fylla en lastbärare. Vidare innebär alternativet att de kunder som ligger inom samma zoner enligt transportavtalet med DHL samlastas. Författarna tror inte att ett sådant transportsätt skulle påverka leveransservicen i för stor utsträckning, men om det i vidare studier skulle visa sig att så är fallet, har författarna fokuserat ett antal mindre förändringar i diskussionskapitlet. Bland annat rör det sig om att mer aktivt arbeta med förbättring av packning och lastning.</p>

This thesis consists of five chapters, based on four different articles. All of them are devoted to different aspects of spatial heterogeneity and its impact on economic equilibrium in space. The concept of heterogeneous continuous space is discussed in the introductory chapter.The first model "Equilibrium in Continuous Space under Decentralized Production" addresses the issue of the impact of differences across locations in exogeneous productivity on the structure of equilibrium prices, production and trade. The goal is to describe the general equilibrium in a spatially decentralized economy, when production, consumption and markets are distributed in continuous space and transportation costs are essentially linear. It is shown that an autarky equilibrium can exist only if transport costs are high enough. In the general case, the general equilibrium in this model includes some endogeneously determined trade areas, with flows of goods across space, and autarky areas where production and consumption activities take place only at the same point. An analytical solution in explicit functions is obtained; it contains equilibrium prices, labor supply and flows of goods as functions of the spatial variable. The model can be applied to a set of practical questions in regional economics. In particular, it is able to describe persistent price differentials across regions and non-local consequences of road construction and transportation cost shocks for the economy. The differences across locations in population density may have either historical or economic reasons.The second model "Hotelling's Revival" extends a well-known research of H.Hotelling (1929) to the two-dimensional case with spatially heterogeneous demand density, preserving the rest of his classical assumptions. It is shown that the problem of demand discontinuity in the one-dimensional model, which was discovered by d'Aspremont, Gabszewich and Thisse (1979), disappears in this case. This also holds for any bounded distribution of consumers on any compact set on a plane, which can describe real geographical situations. Demand continuity still holds for any transport costs, strictly increasing in distance and not necessarily linear. Although this is sufficient for the existence of Nash equilibrium in mixed strategies, in pure strategies it exists only for some subset of cases. Examples of both existence and non-existence are constructed, and for some family of densities the separation point between the two cases is found.The third model addresses locational choice of heterogeneous consumers, when land is also heterogeneous in quality. It is based on two articles. The first, "Dacha Pricing", is presented in chapter 4 and studies the problem of locational rent in a city-neighbourhood when utility includes both the impact of transport costs and time for transportation. For the case of identical agents the problem is solved explicitly and comparative statics with respect to exogeneous changes in transport cost and speed is studied. For the case of agents who are heterogeneous with respect to their income, a solution is also obtained. The model explains some evidence about dacha pricing in Russia and its dynamics during the transition period. The second article related to this model is "Location and Land Size Choice by Heterogeneous Agents". It generalizes the first one and form a separate chapter 5. A new approach about the general equilibrium allocation of heterogeneous divisible good (like land) among a continuum of heterogeneous consumers is proposed. The model is based on continuity of primitives which allow not only to finding a general equilibrium solution in a class of continuous functions, but also to treat the solution to a continuous problem as the limit of the corresponding sequence of discrete problems. This solves one of Berliant's paradoxes, related to spatial economics. The multiplicity of equilibria is shown to take place.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:27:55Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2007-03-23Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T19:15:35Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 silva_fm_me_sjrp.pdf: 817059 bytes, checksum: eb6c0e0e69f3687d3831dbbbc3cf6e09 (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / Este trabalho consiste numa extensão do estudo de um problema de dimensionamento de lotes com custo de transporte feito por Norden e Velde [53], onde a produção dos itens é transportada, em paletes, para um armazém. O transporte é feito por uma empresa terceirizada sob um contrato com os seguintes custos pré-estabelecidos: um custo fixo de contrato, um custo para o transporte de um determinado volume de paletes e um custo adicional para paletes extras. O problema foi estendido, no presente trabalho, considerando restrições de capacidade e a possibilidade de atrasos no atendimento a demanda. Nosso objetivo é propor um modelo matemático para o problema estendido e desenvolver dois métodos heurísticos de resolução. Tais métodos são baseados em dois tipos de relaxação: relaxação Lagrangiana e relaxação Lagrangiana/Surrogate. Os resultados obtidos pelas heurísticas são comparados com os resultados obtidos pelo pacote de otimização CPLEX 10.0. Além disso, é feita uma comparação entre os métodos heurísticos. / This work consist of an extension of a study of the capacitated lot-sizing problems with transportation cost by Norden and Velde [53], where the production of itens is transported into pallets to an warehouse. The transportation is executed by another company, under a contract with the following transportation cost established: a fixed contract cost, a transportation cost for determined quantity of pallets and an additional cost for extra pallets. The problem was extended, in this work, considering capacity constraint and backlogging. Our objective is to propose a mathematical model for the extended problem and to develop two heuristics methods of resolution. The methods are based on two types of relaxation: Lagrangian relaxation and Lagrangian/Surrogate relaxation. The results obtained by heuristics are compared with the results obtained by CPLEX 10.0. Furthermore, a comparison between the heuristics is made.

Today, inventory management at Marabou is organised in such way that articles are stored based on which production line they belong to and are sent to storage locations close to their production line. However, some storage locations are not optimised, insofar articles are stored out of pure habit and follow what is considered most convenient. This means that the storage locations are not based on any fixed instructions or standard. In this report, we propose optimal storage locations with respect to transportation cost by modelling the problem mathematically as a minimal cost matching problem, which we solve using the so-called Hungarian algorithm. To be able to implement the Hungarian algorithm, we collected data regarding the stock levels of articles in the factory throughout 2016. We adjusted the collected data by turning the articles into units of pallets. We considered three different implementations of the Hungarian algorithm. The results from the different approaches are presented together with several suggestions regarding pallet optimisation. In addition to the theoretical background, our work is based on an empirical study through participant observations as well as qualitative interviews with factory employees. In addition to our modelling work, we thus offer several further suggestions for efficiency savings or improvements at the factory, as well as for further work building on this report. / Idag är lagerhanteringen i Marabou fabriken ordnat på sådant sätt att artiklarna är lagrade utifrån vilken linje den tillhör och därmed står i ett lager nära den specifika linjen. Dock finns det lagerplatser idag som inte är optimerade, i den mån att det endast är lagrade från vana och vad som anses enklast. Därmed är lagerplatserna inte ordnade utifrån någon standard.I detta examensarbete föreslår vi därför de mest optimala lagerplatserna med hänsyn till totala transportkostnaderna. Det här problemet kan modelleras som ett matchningsproblem som kan lösas av en så kallad Ungersk algoritm. Denna ska resultera i den optimala matchningen mellan produktionslinjens behov mot lagerplatserna i fabriken med tillhörande kostnad. För att använda Ungerska algoritmen samlade vi in data av den totala mängd artiklar som fanns i fabriken för 2016, vilket togs fram genom datasystemet SAP som Marabou använder sig av. Därefter justerade vi datat genom att dela upp alla artiklarna i antalet pallar samt vilken linje den tillhör. Denna information kompletterades med empiriska undersökningar genom egna observationer samt kvalitativa intervjuer med de anställda i fabriken. I metoden använder vi tre olika implementeringar av den Ungerska algoritmen. I resultatet presenteras resultaten från de olika tillvägagångsätten tillsammans med flera palloptimeringsförslag. I slutet sammanställs flera förbättringsförslag och idéer om vidareutveckling i rapporten.

Woody residues are byproducts with high lignocellulosic content, such as mill residues, logging residues, and other woody waste. This study estimated the impact of different mill characteristics, procurement attributes, constraints, and geospatial features on the utilization of woody residues to produce bioenergy by primary forest products manufacturers in the southern United States. Data were collected using a mail survey, and USDA and Esri geodatabases. Data analysis was conducted using analysis of variance, two-stage least squares, binary logit, and spatial logistic regression models. Approximately 70% of mills utilized woody residues for bioenergy purposes and 11% were willing to utilize additional logging residues to produce electricity. Mills were willing to pay US$12 (2012 dollars) per metric ton of logging residues at the mill gate and haul them for up to 93 kilometers. Mills with a larger capacity to utilize woody residues were more willing to utilize additional logging residues, pay a higher gate price, and haul them over longer distances. Regarding a mill type, pulp, paper, and paperboard mills and composite wood products mills were the largest woody residue utilizers and were willing to increase utilization of logging residues, pay higher prices, and haul them over longer distances. Utilization of woody residues increased with a processing capacity increase, equipment upgrades, and lower transportation costs logging residues. Mill willingness to utilize additional logging residues was higher for mills with the larger utilization of woody residues, lower quantities of disposable mill residues, anticipated equipment upgrades, and low importance for lack of storage space. Mills were more likely to utilize additional logging residues within proximity to a sawmill; pulp, paper, and paperboard mill; and a major road system, and less likely if a mill was in the vicinity of a river, forest, and mill producing other forest products. Results will help formulate future bioenergy policies, guide biomass energy investments and financial incentives, and help mill and land managers make more informed decisions regarding production and utilization of woody biomass. Future research is needed to evaluate the feasibility of utilizing logging residues by other facilities such as power plants and bioenergy facilities.

本研究以Hotelling之線形城市模型為基礎模型，但對運輸成本由消費者負擔之假設改為由生產者負擔，廠商以運送貨物至消費者所在地之形式負擔運輸成本，而非直接補貼消費者之運輸成本。在此新的模型架構之下，本研究對廠商是否能夠向消費者價格歧視，以及是否有買賣承諾存在，兩者組合產生之四種情況分別進行探討。最後得出在廠商不能夠對消費者價格歧視，但無買賣承諾存在時，以及在廠商能對消費者價格歧視，無論買賣承諾存在與否時，兩廠商會設廠於線形城市之1/4及3/4處，達到社會福利極大之均衡。但若廠商不得採價格歧視，而有買賣承諾之存在時，兩廠商會選擇極小化差異，也就是設廠於線形城市之中心點，此時將造成社會的無謂損失。 / This research is based on Hotelling model. The only difference is that the firms have to pay transportation cost in this research. The firms absorb transportation cost in two ways. One way is the firms accept orders from the consumer and send the commodities to them. The other ways is the firms sent the commodities to some chain stores and the consumers will go to buy them in their neighborhoods. Since the transportation cost is decreased almost to zero and thus can be neglected, it is just like the consumers do not have pay it. This research considers four conditions under this new structure -whether the firms can price discriminate or not and whether there exists a commitment between the consumers and firms- combined together. If the firms can price discriminates, the firms will settle down on the 1/4 and 3/4 of the linear city. But if the firms cannot price discriminates, when the commitment exits, they will still choose their location on 1/4 and 3/4, or they will minimize differenciation.

Orientador: Douglas Tacla / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Civil, Arquitetura e Urbanismo / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-15T15:02:49Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Silva_LuizFernandoMoreirada_M.pdf: 1451507 bytes, checksum: 58e3a59b22897945f6af446c8a495907 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010 / Resumo: Esta dissertação objetiva discutir a situação atual da logística farmacêutica na Grande São Paulo e analisar uma alternativa para a distribuição de medicamentos destinados às farmácias, sob os aspectos estratégico, tático e operacional. Esta alternativa deverá permitir a redução de custos e melhorar a eficiência desta distribuição urbana com entrega feita por meio de transporte rodoviário. Uma vez aplicada esta alternativa, espera-se uma redução nas taxas de poluição e de tráfego de veículos de entregas, com vantagens em comparação ao método atualmente utilizado pelo mercado farmacêutico. O uso da logística colaborativa no desenho da malha desta estratégia de distribuição fina é facilitado pela grande interação já existente entre as empresas do setor farmacêutico. Esta interação será ainda maior devido à publicação da Lei 11.903/09 e, mais recentemente, à regulamentação da ANVISA RDC 059/09, que torna obrigatória a coleta e troca de informação entre produtores, distribuidores e varejistas. De modo a tornar esta estratégia viável, sua composição de custos deve permitir a inserção de um parceiro de distribuição na malha atual. Este parceiro deverá estar apto a planejar e executar as entregas destinadas à região metropolitana, reduzindo o número de veículos usados na operação em comparação ao método de distribuição regular. Por se tratar de um método de distribuição em grandes centros urbanos por intermédio de um único parceiro, o ganho de escala proporcionado pode tornar viável o uso de uma frota de veículos movida a combustível limpo ou ecológico, como etanol ou eletricidade, permitindo maior redução da poluição gerada pela distribuição urbana. A forma utilizada para desenvolver este trabalho se deu pela análise de uma operação real de distribuição de medicamentos na Grande São Paulo, sua comparação com uma abordagem colaborativa para a distribuição de medicamentos na mesma região e a conclusão com base nos resultados gerados pela simulação e comparação das variáveis que influenciam o tráfego, a emissão de poluentes e os custos envolvidos com a distribuição de medicamentos em áreas urbanas. Após o desenvolvimento destes dois métodos de distribuição, eles foram aplicados às variáveis atribuídas a cada um, a partir de dados e premissas baseadas em operações reais colhidas junto a um operador logístico de distribuição de medicamentos, gerando valores comparáveis e que embasaram uma conclusão e recomendação, a partir deste estudo. Uma das premissas mais importantes deste estudo é que, adicionalmente às variáveis consideradas, esta nova configuração deve provar sua eficiência também no que se refere ao nível de serviço, isto é, a frequência e a pontualidade nas entregas urbanas, mantendo-o, no mínimo, no mesmo nível encontrado atualmente. A conclusão deste trabalho será a comparação de três variáveis entre a configuração atual - em que vários e diferentes transportadores precisam atingir lojas de varejo diariamente, entregando diversos tipos de produtos, e configuração proposta - em que apenas um transportador fará as entregas nas áreas urbanas / Abstract: This dissertation aims to discuss the current situation of pharmaceutical logistics in the São Paulo metro area and analyze an alternative for the distribution of pharmaceutical products for the drugstores and pharmacies located in the metro regions under the aspects strategic, tactic and operational. The alternative for the distribution method presented in this study shall allow a cost reduction and improve the efficiency of the urban distribution using the ground transportation. Once this alternative is applied, it will be expected a reduction in pollution and transit rates generated by this urban deliveries, bringing advantages when in comparison with the current method utilized by the pharmaceutical market. The use of collaborative logistics to design this distribution network strategy is facilitated by the great interaction already existing among the pharmaceutical industry. This interaction will be even bigger due to the issue of a new law n. 11.903/09 and a new rule from the Federal Sanitary Agency (ANVISA), n. 059/09, which states the obligation of exchanging information among industry, logistics providers, wholesalers and retailers. To make the strategy presented in this study feasible, the costs involved in its operation must to allow insert a new partner in current supply chain. This partner must be apt to plan and execute the deliveries in the metro area, reducing the number of vehicles used in this operation in comparison with the current or regular distribution method. Considering this is an urban distribution method for a big city using an unique provider, the scalability can allow the use of a clean fuel fleet, as ethanol or electricity, allowing an even bigger reduction in the pollution generated by this urban distribution piece. The methodology used was the analysis of a real operation for pharmaceutical distribution in the Sao Paulo metro area, its comparison with a collaborative approach and then the conclusion based on the results obtained through the simulation of the two scenarios using the arguments that affect the traffic, pollution and the costs involved in this distribution. The data to simulate the two scenarios were taken from a real operation of pharmaceutical distribution located in the Sao Paulo metro area. One of the most important assumptions is that this model must to prove its efficiency in the service level, assuring at least the same level provided currently. The conclusion will be the comparison between the current methods, where many different carriers need to carry goods to retail stores daily, with the proposed method, where only one carrier will provide the deliveries in the metro area / Mestrado / Transportes / Mestre em Engenharia Civil

The study investigated the impact of transport costs on household income the case of Nkonkobe Local Municipality. The objective of the study was to establish the impact of transport costs on household income. To achieve the objective, the study hypothesized that transport costs have a negative impact of household income. The research design of the study that was used include research instrument, research technique, sample size, population and data analysis procedure. However the research instrument that was followed was the questionnaire which contains a set of questions whilst the research technique used to collect primary data was the self-administered questionnaire. The results of the study revealed that households in Nkonkobe Local Municipality were spending more of their income on transport. Finally, the study recommended that subsidies for poor households must be provided by the government.

Ce travail étend nos connaissances des entropies libres et des équations différentielles stochastiques (EDS) libres dans trois directions. Dans un premier temps, nous montrons que l'algèbre de von Neumann engendrée par au moins deux autoadjoints ayant une information de Fisher finie n'a pas la propriété $Gamma$ de Murray et von Neumann. C'est un analogue d'un résultat de Voiculescu pour l'entropie microcanonique libre. Dans un second temps, nous étudions des EDS libres à coefficients opérateurs non-bornés (autrement dit des sortes d' EDP stochastiques libres ). Nous montrons la stationnarité des solutions dans des cas particuliers. Nous en déduisons un calcul de la dimension entropique libre microcanonique dans le cas d'une information de Fisher lipschitzienne. Dans un troisième et dernier temps, nous introduisons une méthode générale de résolutions d'EDS libres stationnaires, s'appuyant sur un analogue non-commutatif d'un espace de chemins. En définissant des états traciaux sur cet analogue, nous construisons des dilatations markoviennes de nombreux semigroupes complètement markoviens sur une algèbre de von Neumann finie, en particulier de tous les semigroupes symétriques. Pour des semigroupes particuliers, par exemple dès que le générateur s'écrit sous une forme divergence pour une dérivation à valeur dans la correspondance grossière, ces dilatations résolvent des EDS libres. Entre autres applications, nous en déduisons une inégalité de Talagrand pour l'entropie non-microcanonique libre (relative à une sous-algèbre et une application complètement positive). Nous utilisons aussi ces déformations dans le cadre des techniques de déformations/rigidité de Popa / This works extends our knowledge of free entropies, free Fisher information and free stochastic differential equations in three directions. First, we prove that if a $W^{*}$-probability space generated by more than 2 self-adjoints with finite non-microstates free Fisher information doesn't have property $Gamma$ of Murray and von Neumann (especially is not amenable). This is an analogue of a well-known result of Voiculescu for microstates free entropy. We also prove factoriality under finite non-microstates entropy. Second, we study a general free stochastic differential equation with unbounded coefficients (``stochastic PDE"), and prove stationarity of solutions in well-chosen cases. This leads to a computation of microstates free entropy dimension in case of Lipschitz conjugate variable. Finally, we introduce a non-commutative path space approach to solve general stationary free Stochastic differential equations. By defining tracial states on a non-commutative analogue of a path space, we construct Markov dilations for a class of conservative completely Markov semigroups on finite von Neumann algebras. This class includes all symmetric semigroups. For well chosen semigroups (for instance with generator any divergence form operator associated to a derivation valued in the coarse correspondence) those dilations give rise to stationary solutions of certain free SDEs. Among applications, we prove a non-commutative Talagrand inequality for non-microstate free entropy (relative to a subalgebra $B$ and a completely positive map $eta:Bto B$). We also use those new deformations in conjunction with Popa's deformation/rigidity techniques, to get absence of Cartan subalgebra results