The purpose of this study is to identify firm safety practices, safety technologies, and firm characteristics that are related to motor carrier accident rates. The theory of the firm suggests that firms maximize profit by investing in safety practices and safety technologies until marginal cost is equal to the marginal benefit. The data set used in the empirical analysis is unique, in that it will allow for testing of the relationship between firm safety performance and safety practices, new safety technologies, and firm marketing strategies. By testing the impact of the safety performance marketing strategy on carrier accident rates, it can be shown that firm managers have control over the safety performance of their firm through management decisions. The results indicate that firms with a safety performance marketing strategy have significantly lower accident rates. All tested technologies, and most safety practices, are found to be negatively related to carrier accident rates. These results support the idea that through investment policies, safety practices, and choice of marketing strategy managers have a direct impact on their carrier accident rate. Interestingly, the firm characteristics of unionization and use of owner-operators are found to reduce carrier accident rates the most. This suggests that motor carrier managers should consider their firm's characteristics in their management of carrier safety. / Graduation date: 2003

Reducing fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions is becoming increasingly important in the United States, and new legislation can be expected in the near future that will affect trucks either directly or indirectly. This work is a qualitative examination of operational strategies for reducing fuel consumption from freight trucking, and also compares them with vehicular strategies. A focus is placed on who implements, benefits from, and pays for each strategy, and what type of trucking each strategy is applicable to. / text

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1990. / Vita. Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 208-221). Also available via the Internet.

Thesis (M.S.)--Rutgers University, 2009. / "Graduate Program in Civil Engineering." Includes bibliographical references (p. 129-133).

The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract appears in the public.pdf file. Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on September 16, 2009). Thesis advisor: Dr. Wooseung Jang. Includes bibliographical references.

This paper analyzes the impact on the productivity of the U. S. interstate trucking industry of changes in the regulatory climate in 1980. Two methods of analysis are used; Total Factor Productivity (TFP) and Neo-Classical Cost Function analysis. The industry's performance in 1978 is compared to the performance in 1982. Results of the Total Factor Productivity analysis indicate the TFP of the industry in 1982, after deregulation, was lower than that of 1978. However drawing conclusions from this result would be unfounded. TFP analysis assumes constant returns to scale. Cost Function analyses find that the U. S. trucking industry exhibits significant economies of scale. As the trucking industry does not have constant returns to scale, TFP cannot be used to draw conclusions about its economic performance. The results of the Cost Function analyses are dependent on which model is chosen. The variable measuring the effect of deregulation is either positive or negative depending on exactly what other variables are included in the model. In none of the initial models is this variable found to be significantly different from zero. After deleting six data points which produce extreme residuals and correspond to questionable observations, this variable is found to be positive and significant, indicating increased costs in 1982. / Business, Sauder School of / Graduate

The material transport system in an open pit mine significantly affects the capital and operating costs. All truck haulage is the most common and is a reliable and flexible transport system. On the other hand, this system is very expensive and can cost up to 50% of total mining costs. Its cost is continuously increasing due to the inflation of the fuel, tire, and labour expenditures. In-pit crushing and conveying is an alternative transport system which requires a higher initial investment but gives substantial savings in operating costs. An evaluation of the all truck system versus the in-pit crushing and conveying system has been performed by means of a simulation of both transport systems in the same mine model. Results of the simulation and the data obtained from the feasibility studies provided input for an economic comparison of the alternative transport systems. A cash flow analysis showed that the in-pit crushing and conveying system was competitive with the all truck system, giving a payback within four years and resulting in total costs over 30% lower than those of an all truck system. Three computer programs, written by the author, have been used to analyse the mine model: (1) Open Pit Simulation Program - to model a hypothetical mine and simulate its haulage operation over the mine life, (2) Off-Highway Truck Simulation Program - to simulate the truck haulage on average annual routes in terms of the operating time and fuel consumption for the estimation of the truck fleet size and the fuel cost, (3) Cash Flow Analysis Calculation Program - to compare costs of the alternative transport systems over the whole period of a mine life. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Mining Engineering, Keevil Institute of / Graduate

The trucking industry has been an extremely important part of the process of economic growth and cultural integration in British Columbia. The specific trajectories taken by both the provincial economy and the trucking industry are entwined, each shaping the other. The story of trucking in British Columbia is a story of constant change. Forced to respond to changing political and economic conditions, the industry has taken at least three different configurations. The state of the roads, the trucks and the industry form the three main axes of inquiry. This thesis explores the history of the industry in specific detail in order to understand the constraints the provincial economy, culture and landscape has brought to the creation of a viable trucking industry. It al examines the ways the industry has, in turn, affected the economy and culture of British Columbia.

The trucking industry has been an extremely important part of the process of economic growth and cultural integration in British Columbia. The specific trajectories taken by both the provincial economy and the trucking industry are entwined, each shaping the other. The story of trucking in British Columbia is a story of constant change. Forced to respond to changing political and economic conditions, the industry has taken at least three different configurations. The state of the roads, the trucks and the industry form the three main axes of inquiry. This thesis explores the history of the industry in specific detail in order to understand the constraints the provincial economy, culture and landscape has brought to the creation of a viable trucking industry. It al examines the ways the industry has, in turn, affected the economy and culture of British Columbia. / Arts, Faculty of / Geography, Department of / Graduate

This study investigated the relationship between firm economic well-being and preventable accident rates in the U.S. motor carrier industry between 1975 and 1986. In 1980 the U.S. motor carrier industry was deregulated which produced highly competitive market conditions. Firms facing such conditions were required to devise coping strategies if they were to survive in this new highly competitive business environment. This research suggests that financially weakened firms trying to survive in a deregulated environment would be forced to rely on cost cutting strategies which are inherently threatening to workplace safety. However, the ability to implement such strategies would be limited at firms where union contracts restricted management from modifying work rules. As such, not all motor carriers were expected to exhibit the same relationship between firm economic well-being and preventable accident rates. Multiple regression analysis was utilized to assess the relationship between carrier economic well-being and preventable accident rates at two points in time, pre-deregulatory 1975-76 and post-deregulatory 1985-86. Three major hypotheses were tested. First, the economic well-being of the firm was hypothesized to have a greater effect on the firm's preventable accident rate after deregulation than before deregulation. Second, the economic well-being of the firm was hypothesized to have less effect on preventable accident rates for union firms than for other types of firms. Third, changes in the effects of firm economic well·being on preventable accident rates were hypothesized to differ less across time for union firms than for other types of firms. As expected, union firms and owner operator firms exhibited a stronger relationship between fum economic well-being and preventable accident rates following deregulation than prior to its passage. However, the regression analysis for nonunion firms produced unexpected results. Nonunion fums exhibited a weaker relationship between fum economic well-being and preventable accident rates in the post-deregulatory model than was the case in the pre-deregulatory model. Possible explanations for this unexpected finding are discussed. In addition, this study challenges a widely accepted approach to analyzing workplace safety problems. That approach advocates focusing on the inappropriate behavior of specific individuals when firms are confronted with deteriorating workplace safety conditions rather than investigating organizational level variables which are routinely associated with unsafe working environments. This distinction is important because merely removing isolated individuals who are thought to compromise workplace safety will not provide a meaningful remedy if, in fact, such unsafe behavior is a response to managerial pressures. This study suggests that such pressuring would trigger :unsafe behavior in almost any individual confronted with similar circumstances. / Master of Science