Impacts of highway congestion on freight operations: perceptions of trucking industry managers

To better understand how road congestion adversely affects trucking operati ons, we surveyed approximately 1200 managers of all types of trucking compa nies operating in California. More than 80% of these managers consider traf fic congestion on freeways and surface streets to be either a "somewhat ser ious" or "critically serious" problem for their business. A structural equa tions model (SEM) is estimated on these data to determine how five aspects of the congestion problem differ across sectors of the trucking industry. T he five aspects were slow average speeds, unreliable travel times, increase d driver frustration and morale, higher fuel and maintenance costs, and hig her costs of accidents and insurance. The model also simultaneously estimat es how these five aspects combine to predict the perceived overall magnitud e of the problem. Overall, congestion is perceived to be a more serious pro blem by managers of trucking companies engaged in intermodal operations, pa rticularly private and for-hire trucking companies serving airports and pri vate companies serving rail terminals. Companies specializing in refrigerat ed transport also perceive congestion to be a more serious overall problem, as do private companies engaged in LTL operations. The most problematic as pect of congestion is unreliable travel times, followed by driver frustrati on and morale, then by slow average speeds. Unreliable travel times are a s ignificantly more serious problem for intermodal air operations. Driver fru stration and morale attributable to congestion is perceived to be more of a problem by managers of long-haul carriers and tanker operations. Slow aver age speeds are also more of a concern for airport and refrigerated operatio ns. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.