This research provides an example delay calculation for long-haul single unit and combination trucks on Interstate-75 (I-75) in Georgia. Truck profiles on Georgia interstates are used to calculate the value of freight by truck type and commodity moved. Determining the types of trucks and commodities moved within the state of Georgia allows the researcher to monetize the effect of recurring congestion by location in addition to the cost of lost time. A more accurate calculation of delay based on truck type and commodity moved will better inform the Georgia Department of Transportation about the performance of Georgia's major truck routes and its potential effect on the local economy. A review of past research on this topic found that the calculated cost of delay in previous studies varied widely based on truck and commodity type. The identification of the types of commodities moved can assist in better monetizing the value of truck freight. Using forecast data on future truck traffic volume increases in the corridor, the growing importance of putting a value on different types of truck freight delay costs are demonstrated.

Due to the significant cost of transport in the sugar industry, a model, named FastTrack, was developed to investigate infrastructure planning opportunities. The model mathematically incorporates road construction and maintenance costs, terrain and land-use maps, vehicle performance specifications and annual sugarcane volumes to determine the most cost effective route, per vehicle type, from a production region to a mill. Route planning using geographical information systems (GIS) is a standard approach for determining the optimum alignment for pipelines, roads and canals. Theory of this approach was reviewed to create a foundation for the development of FastTrack. A small portion of the Noodsberg sugar mill region in the KwaZulu-Natal midlands was selected as a case study area to test the capabilities of FastTrack. A start location was identified as a natural flow point for 70 000 tons of sugarcane hauled from an area south of the mill. Currently this volume is transported along a 9.3 km stretch of national road from the start location to the sugar mill, while the Euclidean distance is approximately 7 km. Three vehicle types, differing in payload, fuel consumption and road speed were assessed. Two common and currently utilised vehicles, the tractor hilo and interlink combinations, were aligned by FastTrack along existing national roads. A financial penalty for driving on national roads was assumed for the third vehicle type considered, land trains, as these are currently not permitted to operate on national roads in South Africa. This high bulk vehicle was selected to test the capabilities of FastTrack and to identify if cost savings could be realised through increased consignment capacity as has been achieved in Australia, Malawi and Brazil. Utilising the model a new and more direct theoretical route was generated for the land train with a length of 7.4 km. Existing farm roads which would require upgrading made up 34 % of this proposed route. An economic analysis was conducted and showed that under current conditions, the private route generated by FastTrack for land train use, would be the most cost effective, with a system cost of R 57.50 t" . The tractor hilo and interlink had system costs of R 59.58 t" and R 60.98 t"1 respectively. Repeating the economic analysis with projected fuel prices indentified that the cost saving advantage of the land train system over the other two vehicle configurations increases with increasing fuel costs. A rigorous validation process, including a sensitivity analysis of results from FastTrack, revealed that the model performs predictably under a wide range of input conditions and could be a valuable tool for decision making in the sugar industry. However, further research is required to combine more economic and logistical aspects into FastTrack and to increase its usability. / Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2008.

The aim of the research was to assess what competitive advantage a Removals company could expect to gain by outsourcing its driver function to owner drivers. An extensive literature review identified key outsourcing issues. The literature was related to a case study of Stuttaford Van Lines (SVL), a company that is experiencing problems with its current independent contractor driver arrangements and that needs to review its outsourcing decision. In order to learn from best practice in the field of outsourcing to owner drivers, a benchmarking exercise was undertaken at South African Breweries (SAB). The benchmarking exercise identified six key issues that contributed to the success of the SAB owner driver scheme. These points, together with others identified from the literature, were integrated into a recommended outsourcing implementation process for SVL. The research found that it is possible for SVL to outsource the driver function to owner drivers and that such a scheme can be expected to improve customer service levels. The success of the scheme will depend on the selection of the drivers and how effectively it is managed. It was found that it would not be profitable for SVL to outsource to owner drivers using the compensation model proposed. Cost reduction is however only one of the factors to consider in an outsourcing decision.

This diploma thesis deals with the changes of toll taxes and their implication in the Czech Republic between years 2007 -- 2015. The research was done using a dynamic regression analysis of monthly data provided by the web portal MYTO CZ. Based on the available data it was shown that the increase in average prices of toll transactions of ecologically unfavorable EURO groups leads to a decline in the share of total realized transactions. As a result carriers are most likely motivated to vehicle fleet renewal, which is reflected in the increase in the share of cars with lower environmental load.

The United States trucking industry underwent deregulation starting in 1980. There was much opposition to the process in fears that trucking companies would be adversely affected by increased competition. There were also many proponents and researchers who proved that the increased competition due to regulatory reform only helped strengthen the industry by forcing firms to become more cost efficient. There has been similar opposition and support for the trucking provisions of NAFTA. Although the provisions have not been fully implemented, the trucking industry is well aware it will only be a matter of time. In early 2002 it was announced that the process to begin implementing the trucking provisions would begin in mid-2002. Many in the industry and other groups have opposed implementing the provisions, concerned that U.S. trucking firms would be subject to competition from Mexican firms, just as they feared trucking firms would be adversely affected by deregulation more than 25 years ago. This thesis analyzes the effects the 2002 announcement of the process to begin implementing the trucking provisions has had on the cost structure of the industry. It uses a translog cost function to determine if firms have become more efficient in the years following the announcement in anticipation of increased competition from Mexican firms after the provisions are fully implemented. The translog cost function is used to determine what effects the NAFTA variable has had on costs and what specific operating characteristics have caused the costs to increase or decrease.

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A load plan specifies how freight is routed through a linehaul terminal network operated by a less-than-truckload (LTL) carrier. Determining the design of the load plan is critical to effective operations of such carriers. This dissertation makes contributions in modeling and algorithm design for three problems in LTL load plan design: (1) Refined execution cost estimation. Existing load plan design models use approximations that ignore important facts such as the nonlinearity of transportation costs with respect to the number of trailers, and empty travel beyond what is required for trailer balance that results from driver rules. We develop models that more accurately capture key operations of LTL carriers and produce accurate operational execution costs estimates; (2) Dynamic load planning. Load plans are traditionally revised infrequently by LTL carriers due to the difficulty of solving the associated optimization problem. Technological advances have now enabled carriers to consider daily load plan updates. We develop technologies that efficiently and effectively adjust a nominal load plan for a given day based on the actual freight to be served by the carrier. We present an integer programming based local search procedure, and a greedy randomized adaptive search heuristic; and (3) Stochastic load plan design. Load plan design models commonly represent origin-destination freight volumes using average demands, which do not describe freight volume fluctuations. We investigate load plan design models that explicitly utilize information on freight volume uncertainty and design load plans that most cost-effectively deal with varying freight volumes and lead to the lowest expected cost. We present a Sample Average Approximation approach and a variant of the method for solving the stochastic integer programming formulations.

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Magister Legum - LLM