Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 187-196). Also available online.

Obesity among over-the-road truckers (OTRs) is an epidemic creating significant public health issues among this population. The consequences of obesity (hypertension, diabetes, heart disease) put both truckers' health and their medical clearance at significant risk. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of gender, physical activity, diet, and sleep on obesity among OTRs. Through a socioecological lens, this study examined whether obesity is significantly impacted by gender, physical activity, nutrition, and sleep. This study also examined the impact of the trucking environment on obesity. The study used a quantitative research design and data were collected through a national online survey. Descriptive statistics were used to characterize the sample. The final sample size analyzed consisted of 105 adult men and women. The findings of the research questions were that the source of food for truckers impacted obesity. Truckers who got their food from truck stops and restaurants had a higher incidence of obesity than those who got their food from grocery stores. In addition, those truckers who consumed most or all of their meals/food on the road had higher levels of obesity than those who consumed most or all of their meals in a home environment. In this study, gender was a compelling variable, as women had twice the rate of obesity as men; however, there were more women than men who participated in the study. Limitations included small sample size, unequal gender distribution, and limited ability to advertise the study. Helping the trucking industry understand what contributes to obesity could be the key to creating positive social change through health policy development and implementation. This in turn has the potential to create a healthier workforce in the trucking industry.

Owner-operator lack of knowledge about financial and operation costs is a serious impediment to business survival. The purpose of this correlational study was to examine the relationship between the knowledge of financial and operational costs among trucking owner-operators and their business performance. The theoretical framework for the study was the resource-based theory and knowledge gap theory. A convenience sample of 78 owner-operator truckers across the United States participated in this study. The response rate was 17% for a web-based survey that was distributed to owner-operators in Facebook, and 83% for the paper-based surveys from the owner-operators who were visiting more than 10 truck stops in Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. The findings from multiple linear regression analysis indicated a significant relationship between the trucking owner-operators' financial knowledge, operational costs knowledge, and financial performance. A significant relationship also existed between the financial knowledge of trucking owner-operators, operational costs knowledge, and nonfinancial performance. The findings of this study provide the owner-operator with a better understanding of factors that relate to business performance, which may inform their reasons for successes and failures. The implications for social change will occur if the failure rate of owner-operators declines and the opportunities for sustainable businesses increase. Sustainable owner-operator performance could lead to higher employment by the trucking industry and contribute to a better economy

This research focuses on the development of multi-criteria tools for measuring and analyzing the impacts of recurring and non-recurring congestion on freight corridors in the Portland Metropolitan Area. Unlike previous studies, this work employs several distinct data sources to analyze the impacts of congestion on Interstate 5 (I-5) in the Portland Metropolitan Area: global positioning system (GPS) data from commercial trucks and Oregon DOT corridor travel-time loop data and incident data. A new methodology and algorithms are developed to combine these data sources and to estimate the impacts of recurrent and non-recurrent congestion on freight movements' reliability and delays, costs, and emissions. The results suggest that traditional traffic sensor data tend to underestimate the impacts of congestion on commercial vehicles travel times and variability. This research also shows that congestion is not only detrimental for carriers and shippers costs but also for the planet due to major increases in GHG emissions and for the local community due to large increases in NOx, PM, and other harmful pollutants. The methodology developed throughout this work has the potential to provide useful freight operation and performance data for transportation decision makers to incorporate freight performance measures into the planning process.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Civil Engineering, 1982. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ENGINEERING / Bibliography: leaves 180-184. / by Shaw-er Judy Wang Chiang. / Ph.D.

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This dissertation is about the incorporation of labor migrants from Turkey in the context of precarious U.S. labor markets. Labor market transitions and work experiences are two aspects of incorporation. This dissertation analyzes the process by which first-generation Turkish male immigrants arrive in the United States, enter low-wage jobs, and then shift to the trucking industry. This shift brings a significant upward mobility for them. This discussion explains how the socio-economic cleavages within the immigrant community both conform to and challenge the dynamics of immigrant-dominated sectors. Moreover, this study examines the work life of immigrant truckers through their conception of money, time, occupation, entrepreneurship, and labor. This dissertation addresses two sets of research questions: The first set analyzes the structural reasons of labor market transitions by looking at the limitations that immigrants face. The second set looks at the role of agent, examining the formation of family-based and community-based networks and resources. It asks the question of how migrants navigate the labor market by changing jobs and sectors as well as by forming businesses. The findings of this research draw from investigations spanning three years. The qualitative data is based on 24 in-depth interviews, as well as several hundred hours of participant observations among first-generation Turkish immigrants who work as truckers in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The present study contributes to sociological knowledge in general and specifically to three areas of the discipline. First, it enriches the limited literature on Turkish immigrants in the United States, as there is a dearth of research on their labor market incorporation in the trucking industry. Second, it contributes to the theoretical discussions on the entrepreneurship of first-generation immigrants by focusing on small and understudied immigrant communities. Third, this study extends the academic knowledge about the work experiences of immigrant truckers. It examines how the varying immigrant work experiences outcomes are influenced by employment status and the structure of trucking segments. Chapter 2 develops a conceptual framework regarding the labor transitions of immigrants focused on three dimensions: the migration policies of sending and receiving countries, the structure of labor markets in the receiving context, and the characteristics of the immigrant community. Chapter 3 details the methodology and methods used in this study. Chapters 4, 5, 6 and 7 encompass the empirical sections of this dissertation. Chapter 4 discusses the migration patterns of truckers by focusing on the importance of social networks. Chapter 5 explores the pre-trucking period during which Turkish immigrants work in dead-end jobs and prepare to become truckers. Chapter 6 examines the work life of truckers by revealing the processes of obtaining commercial driver's licenses (CDL), choosing the segment of the industry where they will work, and their search for and selection of trucking companies and loads. Chapter 7 scrutinizes the acts of entrepreneurship in which these migrants are engaged. Chapter 8 summarizes the empirical findings while engaging with the theoretical debates within sociology on the incorporation of migrants. First, the labor demands of U.S. capitalism attract immigrants to certain low-income jobs with little promise. After the early years of settlement, nonetheless, migrants are able to mobilize networks and resources to change this early labor-intensive occupational entrapment. Such a change provides income and status increases for the migrants. I term this new concentration “creative occupational entrapment,” which can (potentially) bring migrants some economic success via entrepreneurship. However, the accessed immigrant resources are constrained by the limitations of the dynamics within the trucking industry. The segmentation within the trucking sector is not something created by immigrants, as they only fill out the existing segments depending on their resources and ties. Second, the characteristics of a migrant community heavily shape the differentiation within the trucking industry in terms of an individual’s sector segment and employment status. The way in which immigrants mobilize ties are affected by three dynamics: hometown background, class-based dispositions, and family-based resources. I define three segments of trucking in this study: (1) national tractor-trailer trucking, (2) regional tractor-trailer trucking, and (3) local dump trucking. National tractor-trailer trucking attracts a variety of immigrants who tend to leave this “tough” segment after a brief while due to opportunities in the other segments. Immigrants of relatively higher education levels from urban backgrounds are more likely to work in the “cool” regional tractor-trailer throughout New Jersey and Pennsylvania. These individuals have loose ties to the immigrant community and have no tight-knit community ties. Conversely, immigrants of relatively lower education levels from rural background tend to concentrate in “dirty” dump trucking in specific counties of New Jersey. They have closer ties with the immigrant community and strict ties with their tight-knit community. Within each segment, new differentiations based on employment status are formed. Through the course of this research, five categories of immigrants were identified. Such categories depend on an individual’s employment status and the number of trucks they have: pre-trucking migrant workers have nothing to sell but labor (Employment 1), company truckers (Employment 2), survivalist truckers with one truck (Employment 3), family truckers with two trucks (Employment 4), and boss truckers who have more than three trucks (Employment 5). For the regional tractor-trailer segment, having class-based dispositions (such as English proficiency and the familiarity with the economic system) enables for the transitions from Employment 2 to Employment 3. Those who have family resources are more likely to increase their position from Employment 3 to Employment 4 and 5. For the local dump trucking segment, having tight-knit community ties and resources is usually enough to jump from Employment 2 to Employment 3. Thus, class-based dispositions are not strictly required given their tight-knit community resources. Those who have family-based resources have additional likelihood to increase their position from Employment 2 to Employment 4 and Employment 5. While individual-based resources are important to be self-employed due to the lack of community resources in regional tractor-trailer trucking, an individual’s tight-knit community helps truckers in local dump trucking to be self-employed. In both segments, family-based resources are key to becoming employers. The use of labor characterizes the labor market experiences of immigrants. For my participants, such a process begins with taking commands from employers, and ends with giving commands to their own employees. Labor matters when immigrants are exploited in non-trucking as well as trucking businesses. It also matters when they exploit themselves and family members in individual or family-based trucking businesses respectively. Only those who have several trucks are exempted from getting exploited. Although entrepreneurship might be economically beneficial for some, success is not always guaranteed in the long-term. Moreover, entrepreneurship potentially brings destructive competition, long hours of work and the intensive use of family labor. / Sociology

Recent interest in logistics and physical distribution has fueled a move to position such activities as mainstream marketing functions. Transportation has been of particular interest due to the changes in the regulatory environment in the United States in the last decade. The changes have resulted in an extremely competitive market facing the carriers, and have provided shippers with a strategic opportunity to use physical distribution as a competitive tool in the marketplace. Research in the past in the area of transportation purchasing has focussed on identification of carrier characteristics that are considered important in the selection process. The present study viewed purchasing of transportation as an organizational service buying phenomenon. The carrier selection decision was viewed within the framework of the Sheth (1973) model of industrial buying behavior. Organizational characteristics, environmental variables and source loyalty toward existing Carriers were empirically investigated to determine their influence on the locus of the shippers carrier selection decision. The impact of the variables above on the development of criteria for carrier selection was also investigated. The impact of shippers' source loyalty toward existing carriers on the buyclass variable, and the decision outcome were also investigated. Organizational variables such as terms of shipment used, nature of firms business, and usage of intermodal carriage were found to have significant relationship to the locus of the carrier selection decision. Among environmental variables, sources of information that were utilized had a significant relationship to the locus of the carrier selection decision. Source loyalty toward existing carriers was found to be positively related to the frequency of purchase situations that were classified as routine purchase. Carrier selection criteria used by shipper firms were found to differ as the firms differed in their organization characteristics and environmental variables facing them. The results of the study provide an empirical test of a portion of the industrial buyer behavior model (Sheth 1973). The results provide carrier companies with tools to segment their potential market, and knowledge of the shippers carrier selection decision process. / Ph. D.

This thesis focuses on decision support for regional LTL carriers. The basic operating characteristics of regional LTL carriers are similar to those of national LTL carriers, i.e., they operate linehaul networks with satellites, breakbulks, and relays to consolidate freight so as to be able to cost-effectively serve their customers. However, there are also key differences. Most importantly, because the area covered by a regional carrier is smaller, a regional carrier handles less freight (sometimes significantly less) and therefore typically has fewer consolidation opportunities, which results in higher handling and transportation costs per unit of freight. Consequently, competing with national carriers on price is difficult. Therefore, to gain or maintain market share, regional carriers have to provide better service. To be able to provide better service, regional carriers have to be more dynamic, e.g., they have to be able to deviate from their load plan when appropriate, which creates challenges for decision makers. Regional carriers deliver about 60% of their shipments within a day and almost all of their shipments within two days. Furthermore, most drivers get back to their domicile at the end of each day. Therefore, the focus of the thesis is the development of effective and efficient decision models supporting daily operations of regional LTL carriers which provide excellent service at low cost. This thesis presents an effective solution approach based on two optimization models: a dynamic load planning model and a driver assignment model. The dynamic load planning model consists of two parts: an integer program to generate the best paths for daily origin-destination freight volumes and an integer program to pack freight into trailers and trailers into loads, and to determine dispatch times for these loads. Techniques to efficiently solve these integer program solution are discussed in detail. The driver assignment model is solved in multiple stages, each stage requiring the solution of a set packing models in which columns represent driver duties. Each stages determines admissible driver duties. The quality and efficiency of the solution approach are demonstrated through a computational study with real-life data from one of the largest regional LTL carriers in the country. An important "technique" for reducing driver requirements is the use of meet-and-turn operations. A basic meet-and-turn operation involves two drivers meeting at a location in between terminals and exchange trucks. A parking lot or a rest area suffices as a meet-and-turn location. This ensures that drivers return to the terminal where they started. More sophisticated meet-and-turn operations also exist, often called drop and hook operations. In this case, drivers do not exchange trucks, but one of their trailers. The motivation in this case is not to get drivers back to their domicile, but to reduce load- miles. The thesis presents analytical results quantifying the maximum benefits of using meet and turn operations and optimization techniques for identifying profitable meet-and-turn opportunities.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-12-03T18:35:18Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Jose_Ary_Garcia_de_Lima.pdf: 676236 bytes, checksum: 3b4f0905d165dc1470ced7c006988eac (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-03-25 / In an essential and highly competitive economical branch as the road transport of loads, the effective administration depends of accurate and timely information to support the decisive process. The experienced verification of the difficulties of those companies in obtaining such information this research was orientated to reach the objective of verifying as the companies of road transport of loads use the instruments of the managerial accounting for the administration of costs, prices and investments. The research was accomplished through a study of multiple cases, in six companies of the branch, located in the State of S??o Paulo, through of semi-structured interviews, starting from the previous verification by questionnaires about the existence of the unit of research, the costing process, pricing and analysis of investments and with the application of previous tests validating the script of interviews used. It was verified that the researched companies know the instruments, however they still are not used in her fullness, mainly in the process of analysis of investments, dependent of the managers' intuition. As for the process of costing of the services, it was observed that the variable costing is the method more used, much more for the intrinsic needs of the business than for a conscious choice together to the conditionality of market of esteeming the costs through the cost-pattern and that the determination of prices by mark-up it is the method more used. / Em um ramo econ??mico essencial e altamente competitivo como o transporte rodovi??rio de cargas, a gest??o eficaz depende de informa????es precisas e tempestivas para apoiar o processo decis??rio. Na constata????o experimentada das dificuldades dessas empresas em obter tais informa????es norteou-se esta pesquisa para alcan??ar o objetivo de verificar nas empresas de transporte rodovi??rio de cargas a utiliza????o dos instrumentos da contabilidade gerencial para a gest??o de custos, pre??os e investimentos. A pesquisa foi realizada por meio de um estudo de m??ltiplos casos em seis empresas do ramo, localizadas no estado de S??o Paulo, atrav??s de entrevistas semi-estruturadas, a partir da verifica????o pr??via por question??rios estruturados sobre a exist??ncia da unidade de pesquisa, o processo de custeio, precifica????o e an??lise de investimentos, posteriormente ?? aplica????o de pr??-testes para validar o roteiro de entrevistas empregado. Constatou-se que as empresas pesquisadas conhecem os instrumentos, por??m, ainda n??o s??o utilizados em sua plenitude, principalmente no processo de an??lise de investimentos, dependente da intui????o dos gestores. Quanto ao processo de custeio dos servi??os, observou-se que o custeio vari??vel ?? o m??todo mais utilizado, muito mais pelas necessidades intr??nsecas do neg??cio do que por uma escolha consciente, juntamente ?? condicionante mercadol??gica de se estimar os custos atrav??s do custo-padr??o e que a precifica????o por mark-up ?? o m??todo mais utilizado.