Direct and cross elasticities for freight distribution access charges

Abstract

The interest in reform of road user charges for freight distribution in many countries continues unabated, linked to a desire to improve economic efficiency as well as recognition of the declining revenue base from traditional sources, especially fuel excise. A critical input into the assessment framework used to identify the impact of alternative access charges on freight vehicle utilisation, by vehicle class, is a suite of direct and cross elasticities. This paper uses data collected in Australia in 2010- 11 on alternative access charge regimes obtained from a stated choice experiment, used in estimation of mixed logit models calibrated on vehicle market shares, to derive matrices of direct and cross access charging elasticities that represent the relationship between an access charge (defined by combinations of distance, mass, and location), vehicle class choice, total kilometres, and tonne-kilometres carried in the vehicle class segments. The elasticities can be used to estimate the response of heavy vehicle operators (and shippers) to price signals under the different access charging schemes.