Analyzing qualitative attributes of freight transport from stated orders of preference experiment

Abstract

This paper examines the role that service quality factors play in transport decisions to better gauge the effects of policies to substitute rail and inland waterways for trucking. It employs a stated preference experiment with 20 Belgian transport managers with firms that employ at least 20 people and serve all industries and destinations in all of Europe. Revealed preference methods are not possible because of a lack of data. The questionnaire used in the survey is described, along with a description of the six transport attributes that define the typical transport flow. Frequency, time, reliability, flexibility, loss and cost are the factors that make up the flow. The model used is a conditional logit model with coefficients common to all observations. The general conclusion is that the value transport managers give to the quality attributes of a transport service depend on many different factors, including the type and value of goods, the distance and time of transport, the internal and external logistics of the firms, and the configuration of the network. The authors suggest caution in considering the estimated values of time, reliability and other qualitative factors. They can vary among managers and from market to market. Efforts to induce use of rail and waterways should be focused on markets that can best be served by them.

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