Taste heterogeneity and latent preferences in the choice behaviour of freight transport operators

Angela Bergantino, Michel Bierlaire, Mario Catalano, Marco Migliore and Salvatore Amoroso

Transport Policy, 2013, vol. 30, issue C, 77-91

Abstract: In this paper we show that individual attitudes of road carriers and their latent preferences toward specific freight service attributes do play a role in determining their mode choices. Specifically, we contribute to the empirical literature on freight agents' mode choice by exploring the role of the “perceived importance” of the most relevant service dimensions in determining the attractiveness of two alternatives to “all-road” transport: logistics terminals and road–sea intermodal services. This is carried out through a revealed/stated preference experiment and a mixture of logit framework. Our results support the hypothesis that operators' attitudes towards time, punctuality and risk of loss/damage can significantly enhance the explanatory power of the choice model, thus providing useful information for policy-makers to improve the regional freight mobility system. The “all road” option is preferred by hauliers concerned with the risk of loss/damage but it is, instead, disregarded by those assigning great relevance to punctuality. We also found substantial heterogeneity among respondents: larger firms tend to assign a lower value to time but a higher importance to the risk of loss/damage, especially if shipments are not frequent. In addition, the relevance of service reliability is higher the reliability greater the load size. Finally, we find that the nature of the transported goods significantly influences the choices of operators: when consigning perishables, hauliers tend to prefer the flexibility of a road-related mode. Any policy aiming at fostering the growth of intermodal transport and logistics and to remove obstacles to implementing rationalisation policies in the field of freight transport should take account of these elements.

Keywords: Stated Preference; Intermodal freight transport; Attitudes; Latent variable; Heterogeneity; Mixture Logit (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (24)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0967070X13001297
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:trapol:v:30:y:2013:i:c:p:77-91

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/supportfaq.cws_home/regional
https://shop.elsevie ... _01_ooc_1&version=01

DOI: 10.1016/j.tranpol.2013.08.002

Access Statistics for this article

Transport Policy is currently edited by Y. Hayashi

More articles in Transport Policy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().