Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Rail transportation and freight services'

Modal shift from road to rail for freight movements is a potential means by which the negative environmental and social impacts of such transport can be reduced. As such it features strongly in contemporary transport policies in Great Britain. This thesis examines the interactions between logistical structure and freight modal choice, to determine the extent to which rail's mode share is likely to be increased. The research assesses the influence of recent logistical changes both within companies and along supply chains on mode choice and identifies the likelihood of future changes resulting in greater rail usage. A combined approach involving a postal questionnaire survey and in-depth company interviews was adopted. Further, to consider the interactions between the supply of rail freight services and their level of uptake, original databases of rail freight services at the disaggregated level have been constructed and analysed for the years 1991, 1997, 1998, 1999 and 2000. The research thus provides a greater understanding of the importance of modal choice in individual firms' logistical decision-making processes, as well as through supply chains from source to customer. Key logistical issues that have affected, and are likely to affect, mode choice are identified and utilised to assess the potential for rail. Significant potential for modal shift is found to exist though many obstacles are also identified for many types of movement, relating to both supply- and demand-side factors. The importance of a coherent transport policy to deal with these obstacles to allow rail freight to meet its potential is highlighted.

Rail and truck freight transportation systems provide vital logistics services today. Rail systems are generally used to transport heavy and bulky commodities over long distances, while trucks tend to provide fast and flexible service for small and high-value products. In this dissertation, we study two different distribution planning problems that arise in rail and truck transportation systems. In the railroad industry, shipments are often grouped together to form a block to reduce the impact of reclassification at train yards. We consider the time and capacity constrained routing (TCCR) problem, which assigns shipments to blocks and train-runs to minimize overall transportation costs, while considering the train capacities and shipment due dates. Two mathematical formulations are developed, including an arc-based formulation and a path-based formulation. To solve the problem efficiently, two solution approaches are proposed. The sequential algorithm assigns shipments in order of priority while considering the remaining train capacities and due dates. The bump-shipment algorithm initially schedules shipments simultaneously and then reschedules the shipments that exceed the train capacity. The algorithms are evaluated using a data set from a major U.S. railroad with approximately 500,000 shipments. Industry-sized problems are solved within a few minutes of computational time by both the sequential and bump-shipment algorithms, and transportation costs are reduced by 6% compared to the currently used trip plans. For truck transportation systems, trailer fleet planning (TFP) is an important issue to improve services and reduce costs. In this problem, we consider the quantities and types of trailers to purchase, rent, or relocate among depots to meet time varying demands. Mixed-integer programming models are developed for both homogeneous and heterogeneous TFP problems. The objective is to minimize the total fleet investment costs and the distribution costs across multiple depots and multiple time periods. For homogeneous TFP problem, a two-phase solution approach is proposed. Phase I concentrates on distribution costs and determines the suggested fleet size. A sweep-based routing heuristic is applied to generate candidate routes of good quality. Then a reduced mathematical model selects routes for meeting customer demands and determines the preferred fleet size. Phase II provides trailer purchase, relocation, and rental decisions based on the results of Phase I and relevant cost information. This decomposition approach removes the interactions between depots and periods, which greatly reduces the complexity of the integrated optimization model. For the heterogeneous TFP problem, trailers with different capacities, costs, and features are considered. The two-phase approach, developed for the homogeneous TFP, is modified. A rolling horizon scheme is applied in Phase I to consider the trailer allocations in previous periods when determining the fleet composition for the current period. Additionally, the sweep-based routing heuristic is also extended to capture the characteristics of continuous delivery practice where trailers are allowed to refill products at satellite facilities. This heuristic generates routes for each trailer type so that the customer-trailer restrictions are accommodated. The numerical studies, conducted using a data set with three depots and more than 400 customers, demonstrate the effectiveness of the two-phase approaches. Compared to the integrated optimization models, the two-phase approaches obtain quality solutions within a reasonable computational time and demonstrate robust performance as the problem sizes increase. Based on these results, a leading industrial gas provider is currently integrating the proposed solution approaches as part of their worldwide distribution planning software.
Ph. D.

Thesis (M. Eng. in Logistics)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, 2012.
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 49-51).
The objective of this thesis is to improve the accuracy of individual freight train run time predictions defined as the time between departure from an origin node to arrival at a destination node not including yard time. A correlation analysis is conducted to identify explanatory variables that capture predictable sources of delay and influence run times for use in a regression model. A regression model is proposed utilizing the following explanatory variables: rolling historical average, congestion window, meets, passes, overtakes, direction, arrival headway, and departure headway to predict train run times. The performance of the proposed regression model is compared against a baseline simple historical averaging technique for a two year period of actual train operational data. The proposed regression model, though subject to specific limitations, offers substantial improvements in accuracy over the baseline technique and is recommended as justifying further exploration by the railroad to ultimately enable more accurate train schedules with subsequent improvements in railroad capacity, customer service, and asset utilization.
by Kunal Bonsra and Joseph Harbolovic.
M.Eng.in Logistics

The demand for grain freight transportation is a derived demand; consequently changes in the grain supply chain in production and handling, and those in the transportation domain will affect the demand for grain transportation. The U.S. transportation industry (e.g. railroad and trucking), and the grain supply chain in general have witnessed structural changes over the years that have potential long-run implications for demand, intermodal competition, and grain shippers mode choices both nationally and regionally. Deregulation of the railroad and trucking industries initiated innovations (e.g. shuttle trains) that have revolutionized the way grain is marketed. These and other related trends in agriculture including bioenergy suggest a dynamic environment surrounding grain transportation and the need to revisit agricultural transportation demand and evaluate changes over time. A majority of freight demand studies are based on aggregate data (e.g. regional) due to lack of disaggregate data. Aggregation of shippers over large geographic regions leads to loss of information with potential erroneous elasticity estimates. This study develops a method to estimate transportation rates at the grain elevator level to estimate a shipper link specific cost function for barley, corn, durum, hard red spring wheat, and soybeans shippers. The aim of this study is to assess and characterize the nature of rail-truck competition for the transportation of five commodities over distance and time as well as to assess whether North Dakota grain shippers? mode choices reflect an allocatively efficient mix assuming the choice of mode is based on shipping rates. Our findings indicate that in general, rail dominates most of the grain traffic, however, the degree of dominance is variable by commodity. Additional findings suggest that grain shippers utilize more rail than they would if they chose modes based on rates. This may suggest unmeasured service quality advantages of rail in comparison to truck.
Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute (UGPTI)
Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute (UGPTI)

Road-rail transfer facilities ( or terminals, as they are referred to), represent a significant component of intermodal transportation. The term "intermodal" refers to the combination of two or more different modes used in transportation process of freight, in case of this study taking place between the road and the rail. The complexity of intermodal transportation has created a considerable demand for extensive application of computer modelling of its operations. Intermodal infrastructure represents a multimillion dollar capital investment, the utilisation of which has to be closely monitored. In recent years some innovative technologies have found their way into intermodal and some of them have been implemented with a various degree of success. One of those successful innovations is a system commonly known as RoadRailer. Its main features are bimodal trailers with the capability of being hauled on road as well as on rail. The research presented here includes the development of simulation models which are used to evaluate the operating performance of road-rail intermodal terminals. Two main types of terminals are modelled, namely: conventional container transfer facilities and RoadRailer trailer port facilities. The results of changing key operating resources and the incidence of trailer breakdowns have been tested using the simulation models developed as part of this thesis. Operations of other types of terminals and/or their combinations (for example sea-rail) are not the subject of this work. 960 detailed observations of important operations activities were made by the author during the research. The data collected were analysed to find the appropriate type of statistical data distribution. The Chi-Square test was performed to determine the best-fit line, with the conclusion, that the Erlang distribution was chosen correctly (Chapter 4.4 and Appendix F). The RoadRailer model described in Chapter 6 was developed as a mean of assessment of the new extended Adelaide RoadRailer terminal operation expected to commence from 1 March 1994. Data representing real-life operating performance were to be collected in due course, evaluated and used for the calibration of that model. However, due to changed ownership of RoadRailer trailers and interstate operating rights (which resulted in cessation of the interstate operation), the forecast scope of operation has not been realised. Thus the necessary data have not become available for the planned model calibration. An alternative approach had to be adopted, resolving the absence of data. A comparison of results achieved under the past limited scale of operations, with that given by the model, was performed. The RoadRailer terminal operation can take place under different set of conditions which influence the final result. The impact of specific conditions is investigated in depth in the model described in Chapter 6. The results thus obtained provide to the best knowledge of the author the first successful attempt in Australia to use computer simulation in modelling RoadRailer terminal operation. Dynamic simulation was found to be a very efficient tool for investigation/modelling of intermodal operations, both conventional and RoadRailer. As such it can be recommended for practical application whenever a number of factors with variable parameters of performance have to be considered The investigation of a Conventional terminal operation has proved the container manipulations (it means loading, unloading, transferring and storage manipulations from road to rail and vice versa) to be more efficient/productive than RoadRailer manipulations performed under a comparable set of operating conditions. However, it is recommended that a decision about the right choice between these two technologies be made according to marketing objectives and results of a detailed comparison of infrastructure capital costs. The close investigation of RoadRailer terminal operations has revealed a considerable impact of the number of resources deployed and the trailer breakdown ratio upon the performance reliability. If a performance commensurate with the best world standards is targeted, while sustaining a high breakdown ratio, then a relatively high level of resources have to be used. Reliability of trailers has been proved as a very important issue. The technical complexity of trailer design raises the possibility of trailer breakdowns unless an efficient preventive maintenance system is put in place. With the breakdown ratio grater than 5% it is highly recommendable that a dedicated repair crew be used. If the ratio exceeds 10% then successful performance is not achievable without such a crew, especially in the long run. These results have nevertheless to be considered as valid for the particular operating environment and as such do not claim general validity. After setting out the results obtained using the terminal models, several topics closely associated with the operating performance of road-rail terminals are discussed in Appendices. These are based on the experience of the author and Australian National. In Appendix G the key performance factors for a terminal are discussed, and associated performance indicators are put forward. In Appendix H the types of lifting equipment commonly used in terminals are described together with their main advantages and drawbacks. The strong relationship between the linehaul and terminal components of the overall road-rail intermodal task is highlighted with respect to customer service variables in Appendix I.

In intermodal freight transport context, the selection process of appropriated transport services that fit with user requirements is a big challenge, this master thesis project analyze different alternatives to improve that process based on reputation information of transport providers. Reputation is a social abstract concept which is analyzed in this research establishing a categorization of reputation parameters in the freight transportation context. Using this categorization is proposed two different architectures of reputation systems to manage the sources and processing of this kind of data. This project is based on a framework to develop generic system architecture for intermodal transport management based on previous European efforts.

Thesis (M.S.C.E. ) -- University of Maryland, College Park, 2005.
Thesis research directed by: Civil Engineering. Title from t.p. of PDF. Includes bibliographical references. Published by UMI Dissertation Services, Ann Arbor, Mich. Also available in paper.

The aim of the thesis is to analyse the status of the rail freight transport in Europe in the sense of its competitiveness on the transport market. The analysis is based on the identification of main barriers that characterise European rail freight and the extent of technological and legislative harmonisation across Europe. The status of the rail freight transport is also explored on the basis of the volume of goods transported by rail in European countries as well as on the comparison with road transport. In order to get the realistic idea about this issue the thesis focuses also on the main Czech rail carrier, ČD Cargo, a.s. and their realized transportations.

The transportation industry is a rapidly changing business. As a result of the increased demand for transportation and the tougher demands on transportation companies’ performance, it is important that they have good and reliable processes that are able to live up to those demands in a highly competitive market. Increased performance is important for transportation companies in order to create value for its customers and steps that can help them to achieve this can be seen as valuable. In Sweden, vehicle manufacturers offer extended services in order to respond to the changes on the transportation market. However, there is a knowledge gap about the experiences of using a product together with extended services that has a more service dominant logic compared to buying and using only the product. This research is conducted as a multiple-case study with five companies within the freight transportation industry to investigate their experiences of using extended services regarding risk and value concepts. To be able to conduct this research, literature and empirical study has been conducted through the collection of secondary- and primary data such as face-to- face interviews. The result of this study shows that there are several determining factors, which the case companies consider when determining how to resolve the issues of extended services such as financial aspects, location of workshop, flexibility, size of transporter, and control. Fur- thermore was advantages of using extended services offered by vehicle manufacturers found that related to financial advantages, increased customer service levels, assurance that best service will be provided, and increased up-time. In addition to that it was found that these services could help transportation companies to reduce some risks related to the financial- and goods/physical risk categories. In contrast were advantages of not using extended services offered by vehicle manufacturers found such as financial benefits, possibilities to cooperate, flexibility, increased up-time as a result of location, and control. The loss of control was a risk found that could be decreased if not using vehicle manufacturers extended services.

Although the original intent of this study was to do a pre-and post-deregulation assessment of rail rates per ton-mile, the results using post-deregulation data show a significant decrease in rail rates between 1981 and 2000. While accounting for changes in shipment characteristics, savings for wheat, barley, com, oat, and soybean shippers were 63.80%, 69.17%, 49.07%, 67.97%, and 59.36%, respectively. Rate savings over time for an average 1981 shipment were 45%, 55%, 38%, 45%, and 36% for wheat, barley, com, oat, and soybean shippers, respectively. Analysis regarding the effects of deregulation of rail rates on com, soybean, and wheat on a regional basis shows that rail rates not only differ across commodities, but also among regions. In general, it was found that grain producers within regions that had higher levels of intermodal competition had lower rates than their counterparts with lower levels of intermodal competition. Distribution of benefits as a result of market-based pricing has varied among regions, and these variances are increasing over time.

Thesis (M.S. in Information Technology Management)--Naval Postgraduate School, September 2005.
Thesis Advisor(s): Alex Bordetsky. Includes bibliographical references (p.65-66). Also available online.

Le transport par camions entiers est un mode courant de transport de marchandises, qui représente une part importante de l’industrie de transport, où les expéditeurs achètent des services de transport auprès des transporteurs. L'achat de services de transport est souvent réalisé par des enchères. Par concevoir des mécanismes d'enchères efficaces et des méthodes efficaces pour résoudre les problèmes de génération d'enchères associés, les expéditeurs et les transporteurs peuvent réduire leurs coûts et augmenter leurs bénéfices respectivement. Cette thèse étudie trois problèmes soulevés dans l'achat de services de transport par camions entiers réalisé par une enchère combinatoire. Premièrement, deux mécanismes d'enchères combinatoires à deux phases sont conçus avec des paquets supplémentaires de demandes offerts à l’enchère générés respectivement par le commissaire-priseur et les transporteurs dans la deuxième phase. Deuxièmement, un algorithme de génération de colonnes est proposé pour résoudre le problème de génération d'enchères apparu dans l'enchère combinatoire. Enfin, le problème de génération d’enchères est étendu à un problème qui tient compte à la fois plusieurs périodes et l'incertitude dans l'achat de services de transport par camions entières. Ce problème d'optimisation stochastique est formulé par l’optimisation de scénario et l’équivalence déterministe. Pour résoudre ce modèle, une approche de décomposition de Benders est proposée
Truckload transportation is a common mode of freight transportation, which accounts for a substantial portion of transportation industry, where shippers procure transportation services from carriers. Transportation service procurement is often realized by auction. Through designing effective auction mechanisms and efficient methods for solving related bid generation problems, shippers and carriers can save costs and increase profits respectively. This thesis studies three problems raised in the procurement of truckload transportation services realized by combinatorial auctions. Firstly, two two-phase combinatorial auction mechanisms are designed with supplementary bundles of requests offered for bid generated by the auctioneer and the carriers respectively in the second phase. Secondly, a column generation algorithm is proposed to solve the bid generation problem appeared in the combinatorial auction. Finally, the bid generation problem is extended to one that considers both multiple periods and uncertainty in truckload transportation service procurement. This stochastic optimization problem is formulated through scenario optimization and deterministic equivalence. To solve this model, a Benders decomposition approach is proposed

The aim of this survey is to evaluate the quality of customer service delivery offered by the East London public transport commuter rail service provider Metrorail, a division of the state owned enterprise (SOE) PRASA. The former tolerant rail commuter has become increasingly frustrated at the ever-decreasing quality of rail service delivery. This is evidenced by increasing incidents of commuter arson to failed rail assets and the practice is considered to be a strategy to enforce the replacement of unreliable infrastructure and ineffective/reactive management controls. The objectives of the research are guided by three fundamental service quality indicators. In order to evaluate these indicators, the research focuses on whether the quality of customer services provided by Metrorail meets commuter expectations, whether commuters rank five dimensions of service quality differently and whether the level of service quality provided is perceived differently amongst the various demographic commuter segments. Service organizations which are highly interactive, labour-intensive, reliant on a number of service providers, required to perform at various locations and have high intensity/volume operations, will be susceptible to failure; Metrorail services fall into this category. The legacy of the apartheid era regime and strategy resulted in poor rail planning and underfunding. Commuter rail operations in South Africa are fraught with a myriad of inadequacies of the past that only now manifest. As a consequence, their ability to operate effectively and efficiently is impaired. The situation is further exacerbated by the global economic crisis of 2008 and the impact of constricted budget allocations by the State to all SOE's which could further impede the interventions and innovation required to improve service quality. The in-depth literature review provided sufficient information relating to a wide array of service organizations similar in nature to Metrorail. This information is translated into useable knowledge and recommendations from which Metrorail can benefit. The research methodology is clearly articulated and the data analysis ensures distinct findings which are discussed in the final chapter. The research undertaken identifies and prioritises the service quality attributes and dimensions that will require redress to improve overall service quality. The findings are clearly defined from which a set of recommendations are suggested.

The goal of this diploma thesis is to give a comprehensive overview about the use of international freight road transportation within forwarding company Transforwarding a.s. and also to suggest suitable solution for their future system of organizing international freight road transportation within a new area.

У роботі розглядаються теоретичні аспекти здійснення діяльності з міжнародного транспортування та експедирування вантажів, визначається вплив внутрішнього та зовнішнього середовища на діяльність з міжнародного транспортування та експедирування вантажів та методи її оцінки. Проаналізовано діяльність з міжнародного транспортування та експедирування вантажів ТОВ «ВАНВЕЙЛ», здійснено аналіз впливу чинників, що сприяють та заважають здійсненню транспортно-експедиційної діяльності. Запропоновано напрями вдосконалення діяльності з міжнародного транспортування та експедирування вантажів ТОВ «ВАНВЕЙЛ» за рахунок організаційних заходів та технологій транпортно-експедиційної діяльності.
The master's qualification work consists of three sections. The object of the study is the activity of international transportation and forwarding of goods and the process of its improvement. The paper considers the theoretical aspects of the activities of international transportation and forwarding of goods, determines the impact of internal and external environment on the activities of international transportation and forwarding of goods and methods of its evaluation. The activity of international transportation and forwarding of goods of LLC "VANVEIL" is analyzed, the analysis of the influence of the factors promoting and interfering with realization of transport and forwarding activity is carried out. The directions of improvement of activity on the international transportation and forwarding of cargoes of LLC "VANVEIL" at the expense of organizational measures and technologies of transport and forwarding activity are offered.

Бура, А. П. Формування маркетингової стратегії реалізації послуг з вантажних перевезень (на матеріалах ФОП Кулик Д.О.) : випускна кваліфікаційна робота : 075 "Маркетинг" / А. П. Бура ; керівник роботи В. А. Москаленко ; НУ "Чернігівська політехніка", кафедра маркетингу, PR-технологій та логістики. – Чернігів, 2021. – 80 с.
валіфікаційна робота присвячена обґрунтуванню маркетингової стратегії для сфери вантажних перевезень. Перший розділ роботи містить характеристику маркетингу сфери послуг, особливості застосовування інструментів маркетингу в даній сфері. Другий розділ містить аналіз діяльності підприємства сфери мікробізнесу ФОП Кулик Д.О. Оцінені особливості маркетингу сфери вантажних перевезень. У третьому розділі вноситься ряд пропозицій щодо вдосконалення процесу формування стратегії маркетингу для представників мікробізнесу. Висновки відбивають основні результати проведення дослідження та пропозиції щодо вдосконалення роботи підприємства в сфері вантажних перевезень.
Qualification work is devoted to substantiation of marketing strategy for the sphere of freight transportation. The first section of the work contains a description of marketing in the service sector, especially the use of marketing tools in this area. The second section contains an analysis of the activities of the enterprise in the field of microbusiness FOP Kulik D.O. The peculiarities of freight marketing are evaluated. In the third section, a number of proposals are made to improve the process of forming a marketing strategy for microbusiness representatives. The conclusions reflect the main results of the study and proposals for improving the company's work in the field of freight.

Dans la réalisation technico-commericiale du transport de fret, la répartition des wagons vides participe fortement aux coûts de production, à la qualité et à la consistance du service offert. Dans un environnement aussi concurrentiel que celui du transport de marchandises, les enjeux pour la SNCF sont multiples. Les objectifs fondamentaux d'une nouvelle application informatique sont de satisfaire des demandes en matériel de la clientèle et d'optimiser la répartition par l'utilisation d'un algorithme de recherche opérationnelle. La principale difficulté de la répartition est d'appréhender un problème de grande taille (environ 85 000 wagons pour 6 000 demandes hebdomadaires) dans un système complexe et rigide, pour informatiser la prise des décisions optimales en temps réel (2 fois par jour) en tenant compte de l'état fictif du réseau sur l'horizon de travail. Il est donc nécessaire d'intégrer les aspects dynamiques, prévisionnels et multiniveaux dans la prise des décisions optimales. L'objectif de ce travail est d'adapter une méthode de décomposition au modèle global de transbordement dynamique. Nous proposons une décomposition temporelle du problème, puis une décomposition par catégorie de matériel et enfin une décomposition spatiale. Dans ce troisième axe de recherche, nous proposons une méthode encore très peu étudiée, de type primale-duale.

The main goal of the diploma thesis is to describe and evaluate the form of city logistics and transportation services in New York City and to define related basic problems. The theoratical part focuses on the general background of distribution processes, logistics technologies based on transport and city logistics in general. Then in the practical part there is commented the status and trends in personal, freight transport, distribution and storage of goods in New York region, the largest problems of transportation services in aglomeration and strategies of their solution. The conclusion contains the summary and recommendations.

The main goal of the diploma thesis is to describe and evaluate the form of city logistics and transportation services in Pardubice -- Hradec Králové area and to define related basic problems. The theoretical part focuses on the general background of city logistics, sustainable development, relation between transportation and environment and possibilities of reduction of negative influences on environment. In the practical part there is analysis of current situation of traffic infrastructure and logistics flows in the area with samples of resolution of the largest problems of transportation services. The conclusion contains the summary and recommendations.

Брайковська, А. М. Забезпечення конкурентоспроможності операторських компаній на ринку залізнично-морських вантажних перевезень : авт. дис. к. е. н.: 08.00.04 / А. М. Брайковська ; Дніпропетр. нац. ун-т залізн. трансп. ім. акад. В. Лазаряна. - Д., 2014. - 21 с. : іл. ГРНТИ 06 УДК 338.47:656.078.8(043.3) Захист – 30 травня 2014 р.
UK: АНОТАЦІЯ В дисертаційній роботі обґрунтувано концептуальні основи формування стратегії забезпечення конкурентоспроможності операторських компаній на міжнародному ринку залізнично-морських вантажних перевезень за рахунок організації перевезень на мультимодальних умовах, упровадження бенчмаркінгу та вдосконалення логістично-маркетингової діяльності відповідно до ланцюга цінності, що забезпечує формування сталих конкурентних переваг, у тому числі бренду підприємства. Здійснений аналіз підходів до визначення змішаних вантажних перевезень і систематизувана їхня базова класифікація. Розвинено методичні підходи до здійснення бенчмаркінгу у сфері організації вантажних перевезень у змішаному сполученні шляхом виявлення ключових індикаторів успіху та основних показників якості змішаних перевезень і напрямів для оцінки оптимальності ланцюга змішаного перевезення. Удосконалені підходи логістично-маркетингової діяльності до вибору оптимальної лінії змішаних вантажних перевезень і визначення конкурентоспроможної наскрізної тарифної ставки. Обґрунтувані підходи до оцінювання економічної ефективності при забезпеченні конкурентоспроможності операторських компаній та доцільності здійснення перевезення вантажу на мультимодальних умовах.
RU: АННОТАЦИЯ В диссертационной работе впервые обоснованы концептуальные основы формирования стратегии обеспечения конкурентоспособности операторских компаний на международном рынке железнодорожно-морских грузовых перевозок за счет организации перевозок на мультимодальных условиях, внедрения бенчмаркинга и совершенствования логистически-маркетинговой деятельности в соответствии с цепочкой ценности, тем самым обеспечивая формирование устойчивых конкурентных преимуществ, в частности, бренда предприятия. Выявлены различия в трактовке понятий: «смешанные перевозки», «мультимодальные», «интермодальные», «комбинированные» и предложена классификация смешанных перевозок путем разделения по организационно-правовым и технико-технологическим признакам. Приведена характеристика опыта в сфере транспортной политики и организации смешанных грузовых перевозок в Германии, Великой Британии, Швеции, России. Обосновано, что вертикально-интегрированная модель реструктуризации с ориентацией на мультимодальное развитие обеспечивает высокий уровень конкурентоспособности операторских компаний. Осуществлен анализ состояния и перспективы развития рынка железнодорожно-морских грузовых перевозок, а также потенциальной экономико-организационной и технико-технологической грузовой базы развития мультимодальных перевозок в Украине. Усовершенствованы методические подходы по применению бенчмаркинга как базиса обеспечения конкурентоспособности предприятия за счет исследования ожиданий стейкхолдеров операторских компаний и дальнейшего ситуативно-временного формирования системы ключевых индикаторов успеха и показателей эффективности смешанной перевозки груза. Предложено решение задачи оптимизации схем железнодорожно-водных перевозок грузов согласно критерию минимальных затрат, соответствующих требованиям товарного рынка потребителя (грузополучателя) и рынка транспортных услуг путем экономико-математического моделирования с учетом технико-технологических особенностей использования инфраструктуры и загрузочных средств, а также права собственности на загрузочные транспортные средства. Расчет конкурентоспособной сквозной тарифной ставки предложено осуществлять путем последовательного анализа вариантов с учетом оптимального выбора схемы перевозки груза и прогнозов фрахтового рынка. Определены подходы к оценке экономической эффективности процесса обеспечения конкурентоспособности операторских компаний, в частности за счет внедрения сбалансированной системы показателей. Обоснован подход к оценке эффективности смешанной перевозки грузов на мультимодальных условиях, основанный на учете изменения скорости, себестоимости и доходной части.
EN: ANNOTATION The thesis is devoted to the theoretical grounding, methodical approaches and strategy to ensuring the operator’s competitiveness on the international market of freight. Approaches to the definition of multimodal transport have been analyzed and the basic classification of mixed freight has been systematized. Analysis of the status and trends of the rail market – maritime has been done and appropriateness of mixed traffic on multimodal conditions are justified. The benchmarking mechanism in the organization of mixed freight have been developed by identifying the key indicators of success and main indexes of quality of multimodal transport and directions for evaluating the optimality of the multimodal transport chain. Approaches logistics and marketing activities to the choice of the optimal line of mixed freight and identify competitive through tariff rates have been improved. Approaches to assessing the economic efficiency of the activities in order to ensure the competitiveness of the operator and base of a balanced scorecard have been proposed. The thesis contains approach to evaluating the effectiveness of a mixed freight on multimodal conditions, based on the account of change of speed, cost and revenue sides.
Державний економіко-технологічний університет транспорту, м. Київ

Naturalistic driving studies as a method to explore driving and driver behaviour in a natural environment have become increasingly popular in road safety research. However, data acquisition systems needed for these studies are expensive and require a profound technical expertise for the installation. This thesis reports on an alternative approach towards more affordable naturalistic driving studies – a smartphone-based system called Sensor Platform that leverages the phone’s sensors as well as external sensors to gather relevant driving data. In close cooperation with road safety experts, this project aimed to specify the requirements for such a system, develop a prototype, and evaluate from an user perspective as well as from a technical point of view. A focus group and an in-vehicle user study were conducted to gather the expert’s feedback. In order to judge the accuracy of Sensor Platform, a comparison to an industry-grade data acquisition system was performed on the real road. The analysis of the study data suggests that road safety experts like the high usability and value the time savings. Yet, in comparison to industry-grade data acquisition systems, Sensor Platform is not on par when it comes to data accuracy, mainly due to simpler filtering algorithms. All in all, the thesis adds to the knowledge of mobile data acquisition systems while also providing a basis for future road safety applications such as real-time interventions.

Cette thèse étudie une approche intégrant la gestion de l’horaire et la conception de réseaux de services pour le transport ferroviaire de marchandises. Le transport par rail s’articule autour d’une structure à deux niveaux de consolidation où l’affectation des wagons aux blocs ainsi que des blocs aux services représentent des décisions qui complexifient grandement la gestion des opérations. Dans cette thèse, les deux processus de consolidation ainsi que l’horaire d’exploitation sont étudiés simultanément. La résolution de ce problème permet d’identifier un plan d’exploitation rentable comprenant les politiques de blocage, le routage et l’horaire des trains, de même que l’habillage ainsi que l’affectation du traffic. Afin de décrire les différentes activités ferroviaires au niveau tactique, nous étendons le réseau physique et construisons une structure de réseau espace-temps comprenant trois couches dans lequel la dimension liée au temps prend en considération les impacts temporels sur les opérations. De plus, les opérations relatives aux trains, blocs et wagons sont décrites par différentes couches. Sur la base de cette structure de réseau, nous modélisons ce problème de planification ferroviaire comme un problème de conception de réseaux de services. Le modèle proposé se formule comme un programme mathématique en variables mixtes. Ce dernie r s’avère très difficile à résoudre en raison de la grande taille des instances traitées et de sa complexité intrinsèque. Trois versions sont étudiées : le modèle simplifié (comprenant des services directs uniquement), le modèle complet (comprenant des services directs et multi-arrêts), ainsi qu’un modèle complet à très grande échelle. Plusieurs heuristiques sont développées afin d’obtenir de bonnes solutions en des temps de calcul raisonnables. Premièrement, un cas particulier avec services directs est analysé. En considérant une cara ctéristique spécifique du problème de conception de réseaux de services directs nous développons un nouvel algorithme de recherche avec tabous. Un voisinage par cycles est privilégié à cet effet. Celui-ci est basé sur la distribution du flot circulant sur les blocs selon les cycles issus du réseau résiduel. Un algorithme basé sur l’ajustement de pente est développé pour le modèle complet, et nous proposons une nouvelle méthode, appelée recherche ellipsoidale, permettant d’améliorer davantage la qualité de la solution. La recherche ellipsoidale combine les bonnes solutions admissibles générées par l’algorithme d’ajustement de pente, et regroupe les caractéristiques des bonnes solutions afin de créer un problème élite qui est résolu de facon exacte à l’aide d’un logiciel commercial. L’heuristique tire donc avantage de la vitesse de convergence de l’algorithme d’ajustement de pente et de la qualité de solution de la recherche ellipsoidale. Les tests numériques illustrent l’efficacité de l’heuristique proposée. En outre, l’algorithme représente une alternative intéressante afin de résoudre le problème simplifié. Enfin, nous étudions le modèle complet à très grande échelle. Une heuristique hybride est développée en intégrant les idées de l’algorithme précédemment décrit et la génération de colonnes. Nous proposons une nouvelle procédure d’ajustement de pente où, par rapport à l’ancienne, seule l’approximation des couts liés aux services est considérée. La nouvelle approche d’ajustement de pente sépare ainsi les décisions associées aux blocs et aux services afin de fournir une décomposition naturelle du problème. Les résultats numériques obtenus montrent que l’algorithme est en mesure d’identifier des solutions de qualité dans un contexte visant la résolution d’instances réelles.
This thesis studies a scheduled service network design problem for rail freight transportation planning. Rails follow a special two level consolidation organization, and the car-to-block, block-to-service handling procedure complicates daily operations. In this research, the two consolidation processes as well as the operation schedule are considered simultaneously, and by solving this problem, we provide an overall cost-effective operating plan, including blocking policy, train routing, scheduling, make-up policy and traffic distribution. In order to describe various rail operations at the tactical level, we extend the physical network and construct a 3-layer time-space structure, in which the time dimension takes into consideration the temporal impacts on operations. Furthermore, operations on trains, blocks, and cars are described in different layers. Based on this network structure, we model the rail planning problem to a service network design formulation. The proposed model relies on a complex mixed-integer programming formulation. The problem is very hard to solve due to the computational difficulty as well as the tremendous size of the application instances. Three versions of the problem are studied, which are the simplified model (with only non-stop services), complete model (with both non-stop and multi-stop services) and very-large-scale complete model. Heuristic algorithms are developed to provide good feasible solutions in reasonable computing efforts. A special case with non-stop services is first studied. According to a specific characteristic of the direct service network design problem, we develop a tabu search algorithm. The tabu search moves in a cycle-based neighborhood, where flows on blocks are re-distributed according to the cycles in a conceptual residual network. A slope scaling based algorithm is developed for the complete model, and we propose a new method, called ellipsoidal search, to further improve the solution quality. Ellipsoidal search combines the good feasible solutions generated from the slope scaling, and collects the features of good solutions into an elite problem, and solves it with exact solvers. The algorithm thus takes advantage of the convergence speed of slope scaling and solution quality of ellipsoidal search, and is proven effective. The algorithm also presents an alternative for solving the simplified problem. Finally, we work on the very-large-size complete model. A hybrid heuristic is developed by integrating the ideas of previous research with column generation. We propose a new slope scaling scheme where, compared with the previous scheme, only approximate service costs instead of both service and block costs are considered. The new slope scaling scheme thus separates the block decisions and service decisions, and provide a natural decomposition of the problem. Experiments show the algorithm is good to solve real-life size instances.

This report assesses the current and future freight conditions in Texas, and how more freight will need to be transported by rail to keep up with the population and economic trends. Public-private partnerships are necessary to accommodate this surge in growth in order to make it financially feasible for both the public and private sectors. The intent of this report is to introduce the concept of freight rail public-private partnerships in order to relate it to the State of Texas to help accommodate growth. Two case studies will be discussed as examples of successful public-private partnerships where freight rail expansion was feasible. At the end of each case study, there is a section for implications in Texas’ rail system. A series of interviews with public and private stakeholders will portray the sides of both sectors as to why freight rail publicprivate partnerships are difficult to achieve in Texas. Finally, some recommendations will be made for Texas based on the case studies and interviews.
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This dissertation explores the possibility of combining short sea shipping with European Union rail corridors and inland waterways to carry freight towards regions located away from the coastline. The contributions of this dissertation is the expansion of a network model and the introduction of new transport chains in new areas not cov-ered before. A review of intermodal transport policies in the European Union and of transport cost and transit time models in intermodal transport chains is carried out. A network-based model of intermodal transport chains in the Atlantic façade of Europe is developed, including different combinations of modes of transportation (road, short sea shipping, rail and inland waterways). These models are applied to the quantification of total transport cost, transit time and a combination of both using value of time for creating a generalized transportation cost. Results are presented for transport chains from Porto and Bragança to 75 NUTS 2 regions (Nomenclature of ter-ritorial units for statistics) in northern Europe. The regions for which the different in-termodal combinations are more competitive are identified. Parametric variations of critical transport parameters are carried out, allowing the identification of changes in the scope of regions for which the different intermodal combinations are more com-petitive. The results obtained by the model identify the competitiveness of intermodal so-lutions using short sea shipping rail and inland waterways in the transport of freight. Intermodal solutions prove to be slow when comparing with road haulage, which proves to be cost competitive for certain regions.
Esta dissertação explora a possibilidade de combinar o transporte marítimo de curta distância com os corredores ferroviários da União Europeia e vias navegáveis para transportar mercadorias para regiões distantes da costa. As contribuições desta dissertação são a expansão de um modelo de rede e a introdução de novas cadeias de transporte em novas áreas. É efetuada uma revisão das políticas de transporte intermo-dal na União Europeia e dos modelos de custos de transporte e de tempo de trânsito nas cadeias de transporte intermodal. É desenvolvido um modelo baseado em rede de cadeias de transporte intermodal na fachada atlântica da Europa, incluindo diferentes combinações de modos de trans-porte (rodoviário, marítimo de curta distância, ferroviário e vias fluviais). Estes mode-los são aplicados à quantificação do custo total de transporte, tempo de trânsito e uma combinação de ambos utilizando o valor do tempo para a criação de um custo genera-lizado de transporte. São apresentados resultados para cadeias de transporte entre o Porto e Bragança e 75 regiões NUTS 2 (Nomenclatura de unidades territoriais para es-tatísticas) do norte da Europa. São identificadas as regiões para as quais as diferentes combinações intermodais são mais competitivas. São realizadas variações paramétri-cas de parâmetros críticos de transporte, permitindo a identificação de mudanças no escopo de regiões para as quais as diferentes combinações intermodais são mais com-petitivas. Os resultados obtidos pelo modelo identificam a competitividade das soluções intermodais utilizando os modos marítimo, ferroviário e fluvial no transporte de mer-cadorias. As soluções intermodais mostram-se lentas quando comparadas com o trans-porte rodoviário, mas competitivas em termos de custos para determinadas regiões.

M.Com. (Business Management)
Transport plays a pivotal role within the South African economy as it enables the country to achieve economic growth. The transport industry does not only facilitate the movement of freight and people, it also employs a great number of individuals and forms a major part of South Africa‟s GDP. The 8th Annual State of Logistics Survey for South Africa indicated that transport costs were accountable for 6.8 per cent of the country‟s GDP in 2010. The importance of the transport industry necessitates that the industry is operated efficiently and effectively. Transport mode choices are not only made based on transportation costs but various other factors are affecting how companies choose the mode of transport for their freight movement requirements. Other factors that are considered include transit time, reliability, accessibility, capability and security/safety. Opportunity costs should also be considered when choosing a mode of transport. There are various different types of opportunity costs that exist within the supply chain, these include the opportunity cost associated with poor service levels, the opportunity cost of returning a vehicle without a backhaul, opportunity costs due to delays, the opportunity cost of holding inventory and lost sales opportunity costs. As transportation costs are not the only factor that companies consider when making a modal choice decision, many companies within South Africa have been moving their goods off rail and onto road. This study highlights the importance of determining the impact that an inefficient mode of transport has on a company‟s transportation model and costs. The main focus of this study is to determine the logistics opportunity cost of using road transport within a mining company. A case study approach is followed as the study aims to present a complex problem experienced by one company to be analysed and presented in an easily understandable format. All the data and company information used within this study was supplied by company DKVL. Data was collected through unstructured personal interviews and specific questions were developed for each person interviewed. The data was triangulated and verified through the use of company DKVL‟s financial statements. From the results of this study, the logistics opportunity cost associated with the mode of transport is substantial. This necessitates the need for companies to revise their transport mode choice on a regular basis as it has a major impact not only on their transportation costs, but also on their inventory holding and carbon emissions. Based on the findings of this study, Transnet Freight Rail (TFR) should not only focus on expanding its existing capacity, it should also focus on improving its customer service delivery. By providing poor service delivery, companies will not shift their freight back onto rail and will rather choose to use road transport to receive the benefit of reliability and flexibility, even if it is a more expensive mode of transport. The knock-on effect of companies choosing to use road transport as opposed to rail transport is significant. The quality of South African roads will continue to deteriorate, companies will continue to pay more to maintain and repair their vehicles and the transport industry will continue to increasingly damage the environment through increased carbon emissions. The impact of not having reliable rail transport is increased logistics costs which have a significant impact on the South African economy.

A severe capital shortage in South Africa during the 1980s resulted in significant losses for both freight and passenger rail, which gave rise to cutbacks in new investments for rail. By 1986 expenditure on fixed rail assets was reduced from R1.44 billion to R500 million; this was the beginning of the decline of freight rail. During this period freight transport was deregulated and road freight used this opportunity to compete with rail transport in the same market segment by transporting bulk goods on long hauls. The result of this was an increase in truck traffic on the roads, causing a negative impact on the conditions of the road and placing freight rail in a continuous decline, leading to the obsolete state of the rail infrastructure, rolling stock and its under-utilisation. This had a detrimental impact on freight rail and the economy. Having realised the extent of the problem, government, through the Department of Transport (DoT), decided to intervene by changing the current model of the freight transport system. To that effect the DoT is in the process of developing a National Rail Policy, with the main focus being to encourage the shift of freight transportation of bulk commodities from road to rail. As the National Rail Agency, Transnet undertakes all South Africa‟s freight rail operations through its Transnet Freight Rail (TFR) division. As such, TFR is ultimately responsible for the implementation of the road to rail implementation project. To that effect, TFR developed the MDS to revitalise itself and ensure its success. The objective of this research is to (a) assess the capacity of TFR to successfully implement the road to rail policy; (b) determine whether the implementation of road to rail will lead to freight rail efficiency and competitiveness, reliability and sustainability; and (c) establish the industry‟s reaction towards the shift from road to rail. In order to respond to the research question, qualitative research was chosen as the most appropriate approach. This facilitated an in-depth exploration and understanding of the issues around the road to rail project including how the industry feels about the issue, as well as an exploration of other possible alternatives which could provide the same or better results in a simpler and more effective manner. This research may serve as additional information for authorities to consider during the implementation of the road to rail project, and could render a better chance of success. Upon completion of this research the author concluded that Transnet Freight Rail has a good chance of success. The implementation of road to rail is being given adequate attention. Integration is possible as the industry welcomes and supports the road to rail programme, in fact a number of collaboration agreements already exist between rail and other transport modes. This will enable Transnet Freight Rail to achieve efficiency, sustainability and a competitive advantage within the seven year timeframe of the MDS.
Graduate School of Business Leadership (SBL)
M. B. A. (Business Leadership)

This research puts forth an examination of the relationship between municipal planning and short line freight railroads. Methodologically, it employs a content analysis framework that explores local master plans and zoning bylaws for the presence of concepts relevant to short line railroads. A historically omitted topic, the railroads are found to be frequently omitted from plans, often conflicting with civic and recreational interests despite their increasingly efficient ability, economic and environmental, to service numerous industries. Zoning bylaws show a disfavor to these entities, and at times may exceed their authority. Moreover, they may create physical and legal limitations to new, rail-sustained industry, as well as the rehabilitation of former industrial clusters. Findings related to regulatory preemption, transportation and land use policy, corridor conversion, and shifting land use patterns are presented. Consequentially, daunting implications may resonate for both the railroad and municipalities. Recommendations encompass municipal, regional, and state policy, as well as opportunities for multi-agency collaboration, economic development initiatives, and revised regulatory structures.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has been promoting Advanced Qualification Program (AQP) for pilot training and checking at Federal Aviation Regulations (FAR) Part 121 and Part 135 air carriers. Regarding pilot performance evaluation, instructors and evaluators assign scores to a student based on specific grading standards. To ensure the best possible quality of training and the highest level of safety, it is vital for different instructors and evaluators to grade students based on the same standard. Therefore, inter-rater and referent-rater agreement are paramount in calibrating the performance evaluation among different instructors and evaluators. This study was designed to test whether a focused workshop could increase the level of inter-rater and referent-rater agreement. A pre-test post-test control group experiment was conducted on a total of 29 Certified Flight Instructors (CFIs) at Purdue University. Participants were asked to watch several pre-scripted video flight scenarios recorded in an Embraer Phenom 100 FTD and give grades to the student pilots in the videos. After a rater training workshop that consisted of Behavior-Observation Training, Performance-Dimension Training, and Frame-of-Reference Training, participants in the treatment group were able to achieve a significantly higher level of inter-rater and referent-rater agreement.

Sustainability in the Thailand newspaper supply chain is currently affected by ineffective freight distribution practices. Ineffective newspaper distribution yields negative effects due to issues such as half-loaded vehicles, suboptimal routing problems and substantial fuel consumption. Logisticians in the field of freight movement and transportation have argued for ‘sustainable freight distribution’ through a triple bottom line approach. Among the potential solutions, most notable are co-opetition strategy, freight consolidation and collaborative freight distribution. However, neither has received sufficient interest among academic researchers, as the studies on their joint influence on sustainability are limited. Thus, a question arises as to whether sustainability in freight distribution in the newspaper industry can be achieved through co-opetitive relationship, freight consolidation and collaborative freight distribution approaches. This study, therefore, aims to explore whether co-opetition, freight consolidation and collaborative freight distribution have positive impact on sustainable freight distribution.

The major purpose of this thesis is to offer a detailed look at the development of two models used to assist in the detailed study of Australian two lane two way highways with particular reference to heavy vehicles. The first model governs the acceleration behaviour of vehicles on upgrades and downgrades. The second model controls overtaking manoeuvres on two lane two way highways where movement into the lane of oncoming traffic is required. Both models are implemented through a suite of transport simulation modelling software called Paramics.

The place of women in transport planning and development has been marginal if not invisible. This has resulted in a lack of recognition of their needs and of the distributional impacts that current transport policy and directions have on women. It has also led to limited attention being paid to women and women's experiences in their use of both cars and public transport: their travel patterns and mobility issues remain largely unexplored. In addition, the current policy environment of privatisation and competition in the transport arena contributes to the exacerbation of women's disadvantaged status, and does little to encourage gender sensitivity in transport policies and practice. The thesis explores these issues with particular reference to the travel experiences of fifteen different w o m e n living in various parts of Melbourne and Victoria. It also uses material collected from a number of transport policy makers and service providers to ascertain the dimensions of the new competitive environment.

While the general public may be familiar with commercial airports, there are thousands of small General Aviation (GA) airports serving communities across the United States. Many of these airports are under pressure to survive and to bring in more revenue without impinging on the community and environment. Many organizations and governmental agencies such as the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), now recognize the value of sustainable development and importance of operation to airport sustainability. Achieving operational sustainability is a means that may help airports on sustainable development and has positive impacts on airports’ economic viability, natural resource conservation, and social responsibility. However, airport operational sustainability is rarely defined in a consistent, measurable manner (Johnson & Gu, 2017).

This study explored the understanding of airport operational sustainability among five GA Regional and Local airports. Based on the findings, a new definition of airport operational sustainability for U.S Regional and Local GA airports was proposed. A set of performance metrics for airport operational sustainability was developed. The outcomes of the study may help airport shareholders contribute to airport sustainability planning through a better understanding of sustainability principles. A set of performance metrics for airport operational sustainability may be used to quantify the sustainability achievements of airports and help airports measure their performance.

Safety is the top priority for the aviation industry and a safe airport environment is essential to aviation safety. However, due to the increasing prevalence of UAS in recent years, UAS sightings have become a potential threat to airports. When UAS appear in the vicinity of airports, they bring safety concerns and result in negative operational and economic impacts on airports. Since the FAA’s mission is to provide the safest and most efficient aerospace system in the world, further research regarding the threat of UAS sightings to airports is needed. The purpose of this study is to investigate the threat of UAS to airports and in the national airspace system (NAS). This study includes three primary components: the analysis of 6,551 Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) UAS sighting reports, a case study of the impacts of the UAS sighting at Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) on January 22, 2019, and a synthesis of airport operator perspectives based on interviews with airport personnel at five airports. The analysis of UAS sighting reports shows the characteristics of UAS sightings, the case study on EWR UAS illustrates the impact of the UAS sighting at the airport, and interview results illustrate the current perspective of airport operators regarding the risk of UAS. Along with the results, the scientific methods of identifying and analyzing the characteristics of UAS sightings in controlled airspace close to airports could be used by researchers to study UAS sightings in the future. Findings from this study may be beneficial to multiple stakeholders, including airport personnel, regulators, entrepreneurs, and vendors in the aviation industry.

Connected and autonomous vehicle (CAV) technologies provide disruptive and transformational opportunities for innovations toward intelligent transportation systems. Compared with human driven vehicles (HDVs), the CAVs can reduce reaction time and human errors, increase traffic mobility and will be more knowledgeable due to vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communication. CAVs’ potential to reduce traffic accidents, improve vehicular mobility and promote eco-driving is immense. However, the new characteristics and capabilities of CAVs will significantly transform the future of transportation, including the dissemination of traffic information, traffic flow dynamics and network equilibrium flow. This dissertation seeks to realize and enhance the application of CAVs by specifically advancing the research in three connected topics: (1) modeling and controlling information flow propagation within a V2V communication environment, (2) designing a real-time deployable cooperative control mechanism for CAV platoons, and (3) modeling network equilibrium flow with a mix of CAVs and HDVs.

Vehicular traffic congestion in a V2V communication environment can lead to congestion effects for information flow propagation due to full occupation of the communication channel. Such congestion effects can impact not only whether a specific information packet of interest is able to reach a desired location, but also the timeliness needed to influence traffic system performance. This dissertation begins with exploring spatiotemporal information flow propagation under information congestion effects, by introducing a two-layer macroscopic model and an information packet relay control strategy. The upper layer models the information dissemination in the information flow regime, and the lower layer model captures the impacts of traffic flow dynamics on information propagation. Analytical and numerical solutions of the information flow propagation wave (IFPW) speed are provided, and the density of informed vehicles is derived under different traffic conditions. Hence, the proposed model can be leveraged to develop a new generation of information dissemination strategies focused on enabling specific V2V information to reach specific locations at specific points in time.

In a V2V-based system, multiclass information (e.g., safety information, routing information, work zone information) needs to be disseminated simultaneously. The application needs of different classes of information related to vehicular reception ratio, the time delay and spatial coverage (i.e., distance it can be propagated) are different. To meet the application needs of multiclass information under different traffic and communication environments, a queuing strategy is proposed for each equipped vehicle to disseminate the received information. It enables control of multiclass information flow propagation through two parameters: 1) the number of communication servers and 2) the communication service rate. A two-layer model is derived to characterize the IFPW under the designed queuing strategy. Analytical and numerical solutions are derived to investigate the effects of the two control parameters on information propagation performance in different information classes.

Third, this dissertation also develops a real-time implementable cooperative control mechanism for CAV platoons. Recently, model predictive control (MPC)-based platooning strategies have been developed for CAVs to enhance traffic performance by enabling cooperation among vehicles in the platoon. However, they are not deployable in practice as they require anembedded optimal control problem to be solved instantaneously, with platoon size and prediction horizon duration compounding the intractability. Ignoring the computational requirements leads to control delays that can deteriorate platoon performance and cause collisions between vehicles. To address this critical gap, this dissertation first proposes an idealized MPC-based cooperative control strategy for CAV platooning based on the strong assumption that the problem can be solved instantaneously. It then develops a deployable model predictive control with first-order approximation (DMPC-FOA) that can accurately estimate the optimal control decisions of the idealized MPC strategy without entailing control delay. Application of the DMPC-FOA approach for a CAV platoon using real-world leading vehicle trajectory data shows that it can dampen the traffic oscillation effectively, and can lead to smooth deceleration and acceleration behavior of all following vehicles.

Finally, this dissertation also develops a multiclass traffic assignment model for mixed traffic flow of CAVs and HDVs. Due to the advantages of CAVs over HDVs, such as reduced value of time, enhanced quality of travel experience, and seamless situational awareness and connectivity, CAV users can differ in their route choice behavior compared to HDV users, leading to mixed traffic flows that can significantly deviate from the single-class HDV traffic pattern. However, due to a lack of quantitative models, there is limited knowledge on the evolution of mixed traffic flows in a traffic network. To partly bridge this gap, this dissertation proposes a multiclass traffic assignment model. The multiclass model captures the effect of knowledge level of traffic conditions on route choice of both CAVs and HDVs. In addition, it captures the characteristics of mixed traffic flow such as the difference in value of time between HDVs and CAVs and the asymmetry in their driving interactions, thereby enhancing behavioral realism in the modeling. New solution algorithms will be developed to solve the multiclass traffic assignment model. The study results can assist transportation decision-makers to design effective planning and operational strategies to leverage the advantages of CAVs and manage traffic congestion under mixed traffic flows.

This dissertation deepens our understanding of the characteristics and phenomena in domains of traffic information dissemination, traffic flow dynamics and network equilibrium flow in the age of connected and autonomous transportation. The findings of this dissertation can assist transportation managers in designing effective traffic operation and planning strategies to fully exploit the potential of CAVs to improve system performance related to traffic safety, mobility and energy consumption.

The broad objective of the thesis is to estimate the demand for port services at Calcutta which can be visualised as a queuing system. The fall in the operational efficiency, aggravated by the riverine nature of the port of Calcutta is widely held responsible for the decline in the port's performance and the sagging demand for its services. The survival of the Calcutta-Haldia port complex is particularly critical as it serves as a lifeline to a vast hinterland with a rich industrial and resource base, comprising of the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent and also including the neighbouring landlocked countries of Nepal and Bhutan. This study is directed specifically at: (a) estimating and identifying the principal determinants of turnaround time of ships calling at the port with the help of a simulation model; (b) estimating improvements in turnaround time which may be expected by varying the values of the principal determinants; (c) tackling the aspect of demand estimation by making use of the simulation model to estimate the queue technology; and (d) discussing the optimality of prices given the resources.

Macroeconomic competition between regions and countries has intensified dramatically in recent years, and as a result, selection of a favourable location and organisation of a logistics node plays an important role in determining a region’s ability to participate in emergent globalisation opportunities. Global connectivity of an area and its related industries, together with their ability to retain and further develop a ‘competitive advantage’, requires a significant review of the way in which a region interfaces with the rest of the world. The Logistics City-Cluster concept, which is one of the latest manifestations of a logistics node, is believed to be a suitable strategy to address these changes. However, whilst the Logistics City-Cluster is accepted by industry as a viable and unique concept, the nature of composition, characteristics and impact is still fragmented and very limited. The continued growth of this new strategy has made it imperative to develop a coherent knowledge base, ensuring future orderly development. Hence, this research was twofold: first, it sought to contribute to the theoretical knowledge of the common enabling elements of a Logistics City-Cluster and of their core influential factors; and secondly to explore the underlying assumptions that sustainable regional growth can be provided by such a concept.

Кваліфікаційна робота на здобуття освітнього ступеня магістра зі спеціальності «Міжнародні економічні відносини» за магістерською програмою професійного за спрямування «Зовнішньоекономічна діяльність підприємств(організацій)». Одеський національний економічний університет. – Одеса, 2018. У роботі розглядаються теоретичні основи транспортно-експедиторських операцій зовнішньоторговельних перевезень, а саме їх сутність, значення і особливості в сучасному світі. Крім того вивчається методика оцінки ефективності підприємства даної галузі. Проведено аналіз транспортно-експедиторського обслуговування зовнішньоекономічних операцій на прикладі транспортно-експедиторського підприємства ТОВ «ОЛЕНИЧ ГРУП ЛТД». Виявлено основні особливості експедиторської діяльності підприємства, проведено аналіз організації перевезення вантажу змішаними видами транспорту та контейнерних перевезень, а також проведено аналіз фінансово-економічного стану підприємства. В роботі запропоновано ряд основних напрямків вдосконалення транспортно-експедиторської діяльності, розробка заходів щодо зменшення витрат на організацію діяльності підприємства в даній галузі та підвищення якості послуг.
Qualifying work for obtaining an educational master's degree in the specialty "International economic relations" according to the master's program of professional orientation "Foreign economic activity of enterprises (organizations)». Odessa National Economics University. – Odessa, 2018 The theoretical bases of transport-forwarding operations of foreign trade transportations, especially their essence, significance and features in the modern world are considered in the work. In addition, the methodology for assessing the efficiency of an enterprise in this sphere is being studied. An in-depth analysis of the transport and forwarding services of foreign economic operations was made using the example of the freight forwarding company LLC “OLENICH GROUP LLC”. The main features of this enterprise in the market are revealed, the analysis of the organization of cargo transportation by mixed modes of transport is carried out, and also the analysis of the financial and economic state of the enterprise is carried out. In this work was suggested a number of basic directions for improving transport and forwarding activities, and, as a result, the development of strategies to reduce the costs of organization of the enterprise in this industry.

Les trains qui transportent des conteneurs empilés (en deux niveaux) sont un élément important du reseau de transport nord-americain. Le probleme de chargement des wagons correspond un probleme operationnel d'utilisation rencontre dans les terminaux ferroviaires. Elle consiste optimiser l’affectation des conteneurs des emplacements spécifiques sur les wagons. Ce mémoire est centré sur un article scientifique traitant le chargement optimal publié dans le Journal Européen de Recherche Opérationnelle (Volume 267, Numéro 1, Pages 107-119, 2018). Nous avons formule un modele lineaire en nombres entiers (ILP) et apporte un certain nombre de contributions. Premierement, nous avons proposé une méthodologie générale qui peut traiter des wagons double ou simple empilement avec des «patrons» de chargement arbitraires. Les les patrons tiennent un compte des dépendances de chargement entre les plateformes sur un wagon donne. Deuxiemement, nous avons modéliser les restrictions du centre de gravité (COG), les regles d’empilement et un nombre de restrictions techniques de chargement associees certains types de conteneurs et / ou de marchandises. Les resultats montrent que nous pouvons resoudre des instances de taille realiste dans un d´elai raisonnable en utilisant un solveur ILP commercial et nous illustrons que le fait de ne pas tenir compte de la correspondance conteneurs-wagons ainsi que des restrictions COG peut conduire une surestimation de la capacité disponible.
Double-stack trains are an important component of the railroad transport network for containerized cargo in specific markets such as North America. The load planning problem embodies an operational problem commonly faced in rail terminals by operators. It consists in optimizing the assignment of containers to specific locations on the train. The work in this thesis is centered around a scientific paper on the optimization on load planning problem for double stack-trains, published in the European Journal of Operation Research (Volume 267, Issue 1, Pages 1-398) on 16 May 2018. In the paper, we formulated an ILP model and made a number of contributions. First, we proposed a general methodology that can deal with double- or single-stack railcars with arbitrary loading patterns. The patterns account for loading dependencies between the platforms on a given railcar. Second, we modeled Center of gravity (COG) restrictions, stacking rules and a number of technical loading restrictions associated with certain types of containers and/or goods. Results show that we can solve realistic size instances in reasonable time using a commercial ILP solver and we illustrate that failing to account for containers-to-cars matching as well as COG restrictions may lead to an overestimation of the available train capacity.

Proactive evaluation of road safety is one of the most important objectives of transportation engineers. While current practice typically relies on crash-based analysis after the fact to diagnose safety problems and provide corrective countermeasures on roads, surrogate measures of safety are emerging as a complementary evaluation that can allow engineers to proactively respond to safety issues. These surrogate measures attempt to address the primary limitations of crash data, which include underreporting, lack of reliable insight into the events leading to the crash, and long data collection times.

Traffic conflicts are one of the most widely adopted surrogate measures of safety because they meet the following two conditions for crash surrogacy: (1) they are non-crash events that can be physically related in a predictable and reliable way to crashes, and (2) there is a potential for bridging crash frequency and severity with traffic conflicts. However, three primary issues were identified in the literature that need to be resolved for the practical application of conflicts: (1) the lack of consistency in the definition of traffic conflict, (2) the predictive validity from such events, and (3) the adequacy of traffic conflict observations.

Tarko (2018) developed a theoretical framework in response to the first two issues and defined traffic conflicts using counterfactual theory as events where the lack of timely responses from drivers or road users can produce crashes if there is no evasive action. The author further introduced a failure-based definition to emphasize conflicts as an undesirable condition that needs to be corrected to avoid a crash. In this case, the probability of a crash, given failure, depends on the response delay. The distribution of this delay is adjusted, and the probability is estimated using the fitted distribution. As this formal theory addresses the first two issues, a complete framework for the proper identification of conflicts needs to be investigated in line with the failure mechanism proposed in this theory.

The objective of this dissertation, in response to the third issue, is to provide a generalized framework for proper identification of traffic conflicts by considering the failure-based definition of traffic conflicts. The framework introduced in this dissertation is built upon an empirical evaluation of the methods applied to identify traffic conflicts from naturalistic driving studies and video-based tracking systems. This dissertation aimed to prove the practicality of the framework for proactive safety evaluation using emerging technologies from in-vehicle and roadside instrumentation.

Two conditions must be met to properly claim observed traffic events as traffic conflicts: (1) analysis of longitudinal and lateral acceleration profiles for identification of response due to failure and (2) estimation of the time-to-collision as the period between the end of the evasion and the hypothetical collision. Extrapolating user behavior in the counterfactual scenario of no evasion is applied for identifying the hypothetical collision point.

The results from the SHRP2 study were particularly encouraging, where the appropriate identification of traffic conflicts resulted in the estimation of an expected number of crashes similar to the number reported in the study. The results also met the theoretical postulates including stabilization of the estimated crashes at lower proximity values and Lomax-distributed response delays. In terms of area-wide tracking systems, the framework was successful in identifying and removing failure-free encounters from the In-Depth understanding of accident causation for Vulnerable road users (InDeV) program.

This dissertation also extended the application of traffic conflicts technique by considering estimation of the severity of a hypothetical crash given that a conflict occurs. This component is important in order for conflicts to resemble the practical applications of crashes, including the diagnostics of hazardous locations and evaluating the effectiveness of the countermeasures. Countermeasures should not only reduce the number of conflicts but also the risk of crash given the conflict. Severity analysis identifies the environmental, road, driver, and pre-crash conditions that increase the likelihood of severe impacts. Using dynamic characterization of crash events, this dissertation structured a probability model to evaluate crash reporting and its associated severity. Multinomial logistic models were applied in the estimation; and quasi-complete separation in logistic regression was addressed by providing a Bayesian estimation of these models.

Traffic is inevitably a major source of air pollution, particularly in urban areas. Efforts are made towards reducing emissions by improving vehicle and fuel technology and promoting alternative, sustainable modes of transportation. Although the emergence of EVs has shown capabilities of decreasing energy use and emissions levels, the EV market is developing slowly mainly due to drivers’ range anxiety and charging time. Electric roadways (ERs) have been proposed as a solution to overcome the concerns related to EVs by converting road segments into powered lanes where vehicles can be charged as they move along the roadway. This technology has the potential to increase driving range, decrease battery size and thus, lower the weight and the cost of EVs. In this context, exploring the challenging concept of ERs comes natural.

Since data on the market acceptance and the environmental implications on this technology are limited to non-existent, this thesis has the following objectives: 1) identify the factors that affect the short- and long-term intention to use ERs, 2) estimate the level of adoption of the ER technology and identify characteristics of the market segments and 3) assess the impact of ERs on criteria pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions based on the market adoption results.

To achieve these objectives, a survey of the general population in Los Angeles, California was conducted, gathering 600 responses representative of gender and age in the area. Los Angeles is considered a leader in electro-mobility and thus, a natural choice for the implementation of ERs. The short-or long-term intentions to drive on ERs and purchase an EV knowing about the availability of ERs were found to be correlated and thus, were modeled simultaneously using a bivariate ordered probit model. The compatibility of the ER technology with respondents’ lifestyle and needs, respondents’ tendency towards using sustainable forms of transportation, respondents’ innovativeness and perceived environmental benefits were among the most significant variables found to affect the short-term and long-term intention to use ERs.

The level of adoption of the ER technology and corresponding market segments were identified using a combination of Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Cluster Analysis. Three clusters emerged from the analysis: early adopters (48.5%), mid-adopters (27.67%) and late adopters (23.83%) that differed in terms of demographics and socioeconomic characteristics, travel and EV charging characteristics and level of awareness.

The adoption levels found were then used to estimate the emissions change due to the implementation of the ERs by 2050. Using the California Air Resources Board’s (CARB) 2017 EMissions FACtor model (EMFAC). Two scenarios were examined considering light-duty vehicles (LDVs) in a specific corridor: “with” and “without electrification” scenarios. The results suggested that the ER technology for light-duty vehicles has the potential to provide emission reductions of 4 to 24%. A sensitivity analysis was also conducted to examine the effect of speed on the results.

Turning to the practical implications, this thesis can provide a foundational framework for the evaluation of the ER technology in terms of environmental and economic viability and set the groundwork for future research. Ultimately, the short-term and long-term intention analysis can be used as a draft guide by state and local agencies and inform their strategic short- or long- range plans for mobility. By segmenting potential users, policy makers and transport operators can be informed about the main challenges regarding the promotion of the ER technology to distinct market segments and devise ways to accelerate its adoption. The findings from the impact analysis of ERs on criteria pollutants and greenhouse gases can also inform long-range transportation plans and existing regulations and policies in California and beyond.

Air travel has contributed significantly to economic growth, tourism, world trade and international investment over the years. In addition, airlines have played an important part in bringing families together, growing friendships, allowing businesses to go over and across borders and transport goods in a timely manner. The landmark changes in the economic environment have led to ever-stronger competition in the airline industry. Low-cost carriers (LCCs) have entered the market and established themselves by penetrating significant parts of that market. This has led to dramatic changes in the competitive landscape and, in this new setting, it is imperative to take a market-oriented approach. However, little research has been conducted on factors associated with achieving competitiveness in full service carriers (FSCs) and low cost carriers (LCCs), particularly in the context of Australian domestic airlines. The aims of this study therefore were to gain a better understanding of passenger travel preferences, travel patterns and the demographic characteristics of FSC and LCC passengers in Australia, and the impacts of their experience quality, brand image and perceived values on behavioural intention. Comparisons were made between the two groups of airlines (FSCs and LCCs) in regard to these aspects. In addition, this study examined the factors influencing passengers’ behavioural intention, as perceived by both airline management and passengers in the context of Australia’s domestic airline industry. A research framework was developed based on an extensive and critical review of the relevant literature. This conceptual framework aimed to investigate the relationships between key constructs. In order to test the conceptual framework, a mixed methods approach involving a sequential design was used, comprised of a qualitative (Part 1) and a quantitative study (Part 2). Part 1 included semi-structured interviews with eight informants to seek deeper insights into airline management perceptions of the factors contributing positively to airline passengers’ future behaviour. Part 2 involved a questionnaire-based survey of 316 passengers who had travelled domestically within Australia in the previous 12 months. This was designed to examine and compare the extent to which the factors of experience quality, brand image and perceived value had an impact on the behavioural intention of FSC and LCC customers. The findings from the qualitative stage identified cost/price, products, innovation, technology, service and brand image as the main factors that airline management considered important in terms of getting future patronage from customers. Findings from the quantitative stage showed that there were statistically significant differences in passengers’ demographics between the two groups (FSCs and LCCs) on their travel preferences and travel choices. It was also found that there were statistically significant differences of experience quality, brand image and perceived value between FSC and LCC passengers. The findings also indicated that experience quality, brand image and perceived value had a positive effect on customers’ behavioural intentions for both FSCs and LCCs. Based on the findings, suggestions for refined strategies have been made. It is recommended that airline marketers focus on achieving the goals that make customers purchase, by being distinctive. In addition, in order to ensure that consumers keep buying a particular brand, airlines need to stand out from their competitors so that buyers can easily identify them. The next strategy recommendation for airline marketers is to adopt a passenger-centric approach, putting passengers at the centre of future solutions, so that their evolving needs, desires, and values are used to guide enhancements to existing core service/product functionality. It is also advised that offering low fares only is not sufficient, low cost needs to be augmented by good service levels. Lastly, it was recommended that airlines keep in mind what made them successful in the first place (service for FSCs and low fares for a LCCs) and that they continue building on this in the long-term. FSC customers voiced their willingness to repurchase and recommend airlines for the following reasons: peace of mind, positive experiences, sharing experiences with others, trust, safety, helpful staff, a smooth check in process, good image, and peer influence. LCC customers were willing to repurchase and recommend airlines to others based on such factors as: enjoyment, relaxation, sharing experiences with others, a colourful logo, kind and knowledgeable staff, a smooth check in process, and value for money. Several limitations were identified and acknowledged in this study. The data collected from an online platform for Part 2 may not represent the vast geographical region of Australia. The interviews were conducted only with the managers of Jetstar/Qantas and their views may not represent the management of other airlines. Further research could be conducted with more representative data using random stratified sampling techniques for the survey, and input from Virgin and Tiger management. A longitudinal research design could be conducted to verify behavioural intentions against actual future behaviours.