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...carriers moved more than billion tons (17 billion metric tons) of products in 2002, worth some $13 trillion. Trucks carried about 60 percent of the tonnage and nearly 70 percent of the value. As the demand for goods and services increases, so will the amount of truck traffic on the Nation's highways.
Manufacturers, distributors, retailers, and fleet operators consider reliability and other characteristics of the transportation network when choosing the best method to deliver raw materials to the factory and finished goods to customers. Reliability also influences the answers to logistics questions such as: How many distribution centers do I need? Where do I locate them? What inventory should they contain?
Research on the trucking industry shows that shippers and carriers cost out transit time at $25 to $200 per hour, depending on the product being moved. Unexpected delays can increase that cost by 50 to 250 percent. With the recent adoption of just-in-time management approaches, manufacturers and distributors are even more dependent on efficient shipment of goods, making a reliable freight transportation system that much more indispensable.
The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) recognizes that timely and reliable movement of freight is critical to the Nation's economy. In its March 2005 report, Research Activities of the Department of Transportation: A Report to Congress, USDOT named global connectivity as one of the department's top priorities for research, development, and technology to "facilitate a more efficient domestic and global transportation system that enables economic growth and development."
Within the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), the Office of Freight Management and Operations is charged with advancing programs, policies, and initiatives that improve the Nation's highway freight system. Recently the FHWA Freight Office launched the Freight Performance Measurement (FPM) initiative to monitor and measure the performance of the freight system. The goal of the project is to determine how effectively the surface transportation network is accommodating the increasing demand for reliable freight movement and meeting the demands and expectations of its users.
Federal, State, and local agencies have long struggled with the difficulties of measuring performance. Among the many factors that limit the ability of public transportation agencies to implement successful systems for measuring performance are the following:
* Diverse and contradictory objectives, such as the social, economic, mobility, and environmental objectives expressed by transportation decisionmakers and those noted by transportation system users and the community
* Intangible products and services, such as providing an efficient and seamless transportation system or increasing the accessibility and mobility of people and freight
* Unreliable measurement tools, such as speed sensors or wire loops buried in the pavement, which may not be available in all areas or may be broken or inoperable
* Lack of resources and data, such as staff, expertise, and funding to collect new data and successfully apply available data
One potential remedy for the lack of data available for measuring the performance of the freight transportation network is to leverage information produced by automatic vehicle location (AVL) technology installed onboard commercial vehicles, specifically data on location and time. The freight industry uses AVL technology to enhance the "visibility," or tracking, of cargo as it moves from supplier to customer and to improve the availability of information on shipment status. Vehicle-monitoring technologies, such as AVL, increase shippers' confidence that goods will be delivered on time and in the right quantity.
One of the greatest advantages of using AVL data for performance measurement is that it...
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