Behavioural responses of freight transporters and shippers to road user charging schemes: An empirical assessment

Abstract

Heavy goods vehicles not only have a non-marginal impact on the performance of the road network in terms of traffic congestion, exposure to risk and accidents, they also provide an essential service in the distribution chain. Both sellers and purchasers of goods rely on an efficient transport system to ensure that goods are available at a time and location that meets the demands of end users. As congestion on the road network grows, especially in urban areas, the calls for ‘solutions’ increase. Although many of the suggestions to resolve delays due to traffic avoid the call for reform of road pricing, there is a growing recognition that user charges have to be more closely aligned to user cost and user benefit. Aiding this call is a technological capability now in place to facilitate a fine tuning of variable users charges that is inter-operable across networks and almost seamless to the customer. The major challenge we face is behavioural – a need to understand more fully the role that specific charging regimes might play in the distribution of freight and who in the supply chain is affected by specific charges in terms of willingness to pay for the gains in network efficiency. This chapter investigates the potential influence of variable user charges, relative to fuel prices (the current main source of charging), in the freight distribution chain. A choice modelling framework is presented that identifies potential responses from the freight distribution sector to variable user charging within the context of the wider spectrum of costs imposed on the sector, as well as the potential benefits (e.g. time savings) from alternative pricing regimes. We highlight the role that agents in the distribution chain play in influencing sensitivity to variable user charges.