Freight and Distribution

Reddaway, a subsidiary of YRC Worldwide Inc. has been named 2009 Regional Carrier of the Year by GlobalTranz, a logistics management firm specializing in carrier, supply chain, and warehouse management.

To determine rankings, GlobalTranz agents and representatives nationwide rated its suppliers based on six key criteria: on-time pickup, on-time delivery, driver courtesy, claims and damages, billing accuracy and customer service and freight quote.

“An award of this caliber is the highest compliment,” said T.J. O’Connor, president - Reddaway. “GlobalTranz is a valued partner and this honor is a direct reflection of our continued commitment to exceptional customer service each and every day.”

Founded in 2003, GlobalTranz is a leading provider of supply chain management technology, which optimizes the flow and storage of merchandise as goods and materials move within the supply chain.

This is the second time this quarter that Reddaway has received an award for exceptional performance and quality. In April, the company was honored for its outstanding safety record at the California Trucking Association.

About Reddaway
Reddaway, a YRC Worldwide subsidiary based in Clackamas, Ore., provides standard and expedited regional transportation services throughout the Western United States and British Columbia. Reddaway is a leader in next-day delivery, on-time performance and quality handling within its region. Please visit www.reddawayregional.com for more information.

About YRC Worldwide
YRC Worldwide Inc., a Fortune 500 company headquartered in Overland Park, Kan., is one of the largest transportation and logistics service providers in the world and the holding company for a portfolio of brands including Yellow Transportation, YRC Reimer, YRC Glen Moore, New Penn, Holland and Reddaway. YRC Worldwide has the largest, most comprehensive network in North America with local, regional, national and international capabilities. Through its team of experienced service professionals, YRC Worldwide offers industry-leading expertise in heavyweight shipments and flexible supply chain solutions, ensuring customers can ship industrial, commercial and retail goods with confidence.

Cheap freight shipping for a satisfied shoe retailer headquartered in Kansas: With more than 400 stores, we’re the biggest specialty family footwear retailer in the Western Hemisphere. We’ve been working with YRC Logistics for a long time now. We have faith in their ability to keep our shipments moving–and we’re talking about nearly 6,500 deliveries every week.

Recently, we changed our processes. To save time and money, we consolidated two distribution centers into one. We didn’t change our requirements–we still needed to maintain window-day-delivery accuracy and keep the metrics up.

Our YRC Logistics team came through with a solution that’s flexible enough to work during our peak season and other times. They adjusted their staffing at the YRC Logistics cross-dock distribution centers to meet our changing volume and the frequency of deliveries. They worked with us every step of the way to make sure they hit our delivery metrics. They understand: Our reputation is riding on these deliveries. The shoes have to be in the stores as needed. And they are.

Holland, part of YRC,  continues to optimize its operations to help customers shave time from their supply chains, respond faster to market demands, and mitigate the risks associated with lean operations, just-in-time processes and outsourcing activities.

To help customers become more nimble, this week Holland announced the availability of:

• Next-day service from Worthington, MN to the St. Louis, MO area, and
• Two-day service from Worthington to service centers in Atlanta and Decatur, GA; Chattanooga, TN; and Birmingham, AL

The new accelerated transit times represent a reduction of one day on more than 496,000 ZIP code origin/destination points out of Worthington.

This is the second time this calendar quarter that the company has announced improved transit times.

In October, Holland introduced next-day service between Chicagoland and Springfield, MO, representing faster deliveries for more than 124,000 ZIP code lane pairs.

Customers can check service availability, transit times and schedule pickups online by visiting hollandregional.com. Holland interlines with Yellow Trucking.

OVERLAND PARK, Kan., Sept 15, 2009 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX News Network/ — YRC Worldwide Inc. (Nasdaq: YRCW) announced today that the company has ranked 62 on the 2009 InformationWeek 500, an annual listing of the nation’s most innovative users of business technology. The 2009 InformationWeek 500 companies were revealed on September 14, 2009 at an awards ceremony held during the InformationWeek 500 Conference at the St. Regis Monarch Beach Resort in Dana Point, California.

“This award is an affirmation of our continued steps to develop and advance technology that enables our employees to excel and better service our customers,” said Mike Naatz, Chief Information Officer, YRC Worldwide. “It is a pleasure and honor to be acknowledged by InformationWeek again this year for our continual innovation in providing technology solutions for the transportation and supply chain industries.”

YRC Worldwide Technologies was recognized by InformationWeek for its new application, the Pricing and Activity Management System (PAMS). YRC Worldwide IT, Pricing and Sales teams collaborated to develop this ground-breaking new application. YRC Worldwide was determined to cut the waiting time for customers requesting a pricing bid. YRC Worldwide wanted to retire the legacy systems used by Roadway and Yellow (now YRC). With PAMS, YRC has the ability to respond to bid requests promptly, with customized pricing agreements. In its first four months of full deployment, PAMS drove a reduction of 25% in the closure rate of pricing requests. YRC now completes most simple pricing requests in a day.

“For over 20 years, the InformationWeek 500 has honored the most innovative users of business technology,” said InformationWeek Editor-in-Chief Rob Preston. “Year after year, InformationWeek 500 companies harness technology to improve efficiency, boost productivity, drive revenue, and establish a competitive advantage. We applaud this year’s winners, and the CIOs and other executives whose ingenuity and risk taking are at the center of business technology innovation.”

InformationWeek identifies and honors the nation’s most innovative users of information technology with its annual 500 listing, now in its 21st year, and also tracks the technology, strategies, investments and administrative practices of America’s best-known companies. The InformationWeek 500 rankings are unique among corporate rankings as it spotlights the power of innovation in information technology, rather than simply identifying the biggest IT spenders.

Additional details on the InformationWeek 500 can be found online at www.informationweek.com/iw500/.

Getting a freight shipping quote

YRC Worldwide Inc., a Fortune 500 company and one of the largest transportation service providers in the world, is the holding company for a portfolio of successful brands including YRC, YRC Reimer, YRC Glen Moore, YRC Logistics, New Penn, Holland and Reddaway. YRC Worldwide has the largest, most comprehensive network in North America with local, regional, national and international capabilities. Through its team of experienced service professionals, YRC Worldwide offers industry-leading expertise in heavyweight shipments and flexible supply chain solutions, ensuring customers can ship industrial, commercial and retail goods with confidence. The company is headquartered in Overland Park, Kan.

The Reuters and the University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers said its preliminary index of sentiment for October fell to 69.4, from September’s 73.5.

LTL freight quotes:

For the most part, the stock market has ignored some of the underlying fundamentals of the marketplace. Consumer spending accounts for more than 70% of the U.S. economy, and is truly the primary engine for sustaining economic recovery. This figure should provide a signal to analysts that the consumer is still under intense pressure. A wave of bad news from housing prices, unemployment, worsening credit conditions which tighten lending, and now slightly increasing gas prices have all worked together to affect consumer sentiment.

At the National Transportation Defense Association, we’ve relied on the brands of YRC Worldwide for years. The company’s ongoing support for our association is appreciated around the year. It really comes center stage with their annual sponsorship of the NDTA Scholarship Dinner, a fund raising event that this year attracted more than 400 registrants at our 63^rd Annual Forum and Exposition.

As part of the Forum events, it was our honor to recognize YRC Worldwide with the Distinguished Service Award for outstanding service to NDTA and our members. The award acknowledges the confidence we have in all the brands of YRC Worldwide.

“This year marks the first time we’ve been able to offer government customers our entire portfolio through a single point of contact,” said Dave Johnson, vice president of Enterprise Solutions Group and leader of the YRC Worldwide Government Solutions team. “Now that the regional companies have obtained the necessary certifications, all it takes is one call to access all our services.”

Dave and our other resources at YRC Worldwide talk about Confidence Delivered, and, after years of working together, we know it’s not just talk. The dedicated Government Solutions team at YRC Worldwide is always willing to work with us, no matter what the need, reaching across operating brands to create customized solutions with great freight shipping rates. It’s a flexible approach that benefits us, and also helps non-military government agencies.

Given the type of work we do, it’s vital that we have partners we can trust no matter how dire the circumstances. YRC Worldwide has established the industry-leading Immediate Response Center to provide critically needed transportation services–anywhere in the world–at times of crises, such as a hurricane. The IRC is capable of dispatching massive resources under intense time restraints.

We greatly appreciate all that YRC Worldwide has done for us, from supporting the next generation of transportation leaders through our NDTA Scholarship Dinner, to creating the single-contact approach that simplifies our daily work. YRC Worldwide is truly a partner we can trust.

When the last thing you need is for shipments to freeze during transit, the first place to call is one of our operating companies.

We have decades of experience and a significant investment in the equipment necessary to safely ship freezable goods, chemicals, and hazardous materials during the frigid days of winter. Shipment protection services are available through our following brands: YRC, YRC Reimer, Holland, Reddaway, Yellow Freight and New Penn.

We offer two levels of service:

• Freezable Protection utilizes special handling procedures, weather monitoring and indicators in our tracking system to handle freezable shipments.
• Insulated Cover service takes our Freezable Protection service and adds a blanket of protection with technically engineered and environmentally friendly covers for drums, pallets and totes which ensure products won’t freeze at or below 32° F/1.5° C.

Our drivers can pick up your Freezable Protection and Insulated Cover shipments Monday through Friday for all direct service points in the continental U.S. and Canada. Freezable Protection pickups also are available Monday through Friday for direct shipments to Mexico.

In addition to protecting your freezable shipments while in transit, warm rooms are available for weekend usage when needed.

YRC said today that union employees at its regional carrier, New Penn, have joined the more than 90% of its employees represented by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters in voting “yes” to ratify a previously announced modified labor agreement.

“As employee owners and stakeholders, our union workforce has made difficult decisions and demonstrated their commitment to achieving long-term success for YRC Worldwide. Revisions to the contract enable the company to strengthen its financial position,” said Mike Smid, President of YRC Inc. and Chief Operations Officer of YRC Worldwide.

The modified agreement includes a 5% incremental wage reduction and an 18 month cessation of union pension fund contributions, which will not require repayment. Related savings from the pension and wage reduction are approximately $45 million per month, and primarily began in August. Savings increase to an estimated $50 million per month in 2010.

The company and the Teamsters are addressing employee concerns in the remaining smaller bargaining units who have yet to ratify the contract changes. This represents a small percentage of the company’s unionized workforce.

YRC Worldwide Inc., a Fortune 500 company and one of the largest transportation service providers in the world, is the holding company for a portfolio of successful brands including YRC, Yellow Freight, YRC Reimer, YRC Glen Moore, YRC Logistics, New Penn, Holland and Reddaway. YRC Worldwide has the largest, most comprehensive network in North America with local, regional, national and international capabilities. Through its team of experienced service professionals, YRC Worldwide offers industry-leading expertise in heavyweight shipments and flexible supply chain solutions, ensuring customers can ship industrial, commercial and retail goods with confidence. The company is headquartered in Overland Park, Kan.

YRC Worldwide Inc. announced today significant progress on its previously announced comprehensive plan to realize efficiencies from the YRC integration, restore financial strength, and position its operating companies for future success. The company’s progress report includes updates on two key areas of its plan.

Teamsters to vote on contract modifications

YRC Worldwide announced today that its employees represented by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters will soon vote on modifying the company’s current labor agreement. In addition to a 5% incremental wage reduction, the proposed modified agreement includes an 18 month cessation of union pension fund contributions, which will not require repayment at a later date.

The modifications would create an approximate $45 million per month savings, which begins immediately upon ratification, and grows to an approximate $50 million per month savings in 2010. In exchange, the Teamsters employees would receive options for 20 percent of the outstanding shares of YRC Worldwide stock, pending shareholder approval. This will allow them to further share in future company performance through stock price appreciation. YRC Worldwide also will appoint an additional member to its board of directors who is mutually agreed upon by the company and the negotiating committee. Additional details regarding the terms of the proposed contract modifications can be found in the current report filed today with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Today the company announced that it finalized an amendment to its revolving credit facility with its lenders to extend the revolver reserve through July 31, 2009. During this extension, YRC Worldwide and its lenders will work collaboratively to reach agreement on options for longer-term modifications to its existing credit facilities. The revolver reserve was initially established in February 2009 to serve as a temporary reserve against the revolver capacity as the company sold real estate collateralized to the lenders.

Second quarter earnings scheduled

YRC Worldwide plans to release second quarter 2009 earnings after market close on Thursday, July 30, 2009.

Certain statements in this news release include forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (each a “forward-looking statement”). Forward-looking statements include those preceded by, followed by or include the words “will,” “would” or similar expressions. The company’s actual future results could differ materially from those projected in such forward-looking statements because of a number of factors, including (among others) whether the employees covered by the National Master Freight Agreement ratify the modification to that agreement, inflation, inclement weather, price and availability of fuel, sudden changes in the cost of fuel or the index upon which the company bases its fuel surcharge, competitor pricing activity, expense volatility, including (without limitation) expense volatility due to changes in rail service or pricing for rail service, ability to capture cost reductions, including (without limitation) those cost reduction opportunities arising from the combination of the sales, operations and networks of Yellow Transportation and Roadway, changes in equity and debt markets, a downturn in general or regional economic activity, effects of a terrorist attack, labor relations, including (without limitation), the impact of work rules, work stoppages, strikes or other disruptions, any obligations to multi-employer health, welfare and pension plans, wage requirements and employee satisfaction, and the risk factors that are from time to time included in the company’s reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2008.

The actual savings from the proposed modification to the National Master Freight Agreement would be determined by actual levels of employment. A number of other IBT bargaining units and bargaining units represented by other unions are not subject to the National Master Freight Agreement. The company’s estimates of cost savings also assume that a significant number of these additional bargaining units ratify similar proposals.

YRC Worldwide Inc., a Fortune 500 company and one of the largest transportation service providers in the world, is the holding company for a portfolio of successful brands including YRC, YRC Reimer, YRC Logistics, New Penn, Holland, Reddaway and YRC Glen Moore. Building on the strength of its heritage brands, Yellow Freight and Roadway Shipping, the enterprise provides global transportation services, transportation management solutions and logistics management. The portfolio of brands represents a comprehensive array of services for the shipment of industrial, commercial and retail goods domestically and internationally. Headquartered in Overland Park, Kansas, YRC Worldwide employs approximately 49,000 people.

YRC announced today that it will begin discussions with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (”IBT”) to seek to modify the terms of the current labor agreement for its employees covered by the National Master Freight Agreement. These discussions will address alternatives to help to reduce the company’s cost structure and preserve operating capital going forward.

Bill Zollars, Chairman, President and CEO of YRC Worldwide, said, “Entering into discussions with the Teamsters is another important step in our overall plan to strengthen our financial position during this difficult economic climate. We have made progress with various stakeholders, including our pension plan trustees and our bank lending group, to modify agreements, and we are grateful to the Teamsters for their willingness to consider further adjustments to our contracts to help reduce our cost structure and enable us to be competitive with others in our industry.”

YRC Worldwide recently announced an agreement with Central States, Southeast and Southwest Areas Pension Fund (”Central States”), the largest of the company’s IBT multi-employer defined benefit pension funds, to provide certain of the company’s real estate as collateral in lieu of pension contribution payments during the second quarter. The company also announced an amendment to its bank agreement, which provides for the immediate release of escrow funds generated from the company’s prior real estate transactions to pay down the revolving credit facility without reducing the company’s borrowing availability under the facility.

YRC Worldwide Inc., a Fortune 500 company and one of the largest transportation service providers in the world, is the holding company for a portfolio of successful brands including YRC, YRC Reimer, YRC Logistics, New Penn, Holland, Reddaway and YRC Glen Moore. Building on the strength of its heritage brands, Yellow Transportation or Yellow Trucking and Roadway Express, the enterprise provides global transportation services, transportation management solutions and logistics management. The portfolio of brands represents a comprehensive array of services for the shipment of industrial, commercial and retail goods domestically and internationally. Headquartered in Overland Park, Kansas, YRC Worldwide employs approximately 49,000 people.

On the U.S. side, the Ambassador Bridge is located beside I-75 near its intersection with the eastern terminus of I-96. The bridge crosses only 2 miles south of downtown Detroit. Since space is at a premium as a result of the developed urban and industrial setting, a discounted freight truck approaching the US side must make an abrupt, tight 180 degree turn to enter primary on the U.S. side. Freight trucks on the Canadian side have more room for a straightforward approach. The bridge entrance and exit on the Canadian side is in a less industrial setting next to the University of Windsor. Truck traffic exits onto Highway 3, which after 5-1/2 miles intersects Highway 401, a major route that heads northeast across Ontario.

The bridge and its collateral facilities are privately owned and operated by the entity known as the Ambassador Bridge. The mission of the Ambassador Bridge is to operate and maintain the bridge and collect tolls on both sides of the crossing. The Ambassador Bridge’s US owner is the Detroit International Bridge Company and its Canadian subsidiary is The Canadian Transit Company. Ambassador Bridge owns the facilities that house Canada Customs and Immigration while GSA owns the US Customs facility. Since Ambassador Bridge owns and operates the property that the tollbooths are on, the data collectors who were located by the toll collection booth in either country had to have permission from them, which was verbal.

The US and Canadian Customs mission is to protect their border. They operate the facilities and control the property where their Customs facilities are located. Data collectors who were operating beside the primary Customs checkpoint in either country had to have permission to be on the property operated by the Customs organization of that country. So even though that data collector was only a very short distance from the collector at the tollbooth, the approval to operate at that spot came from a different organization.

Model validation involves testing the model’s capability to predict current travel demand so that it can be used effectively to predict future travel demand. Freight shipping travel models need to be able to replicate observed conditions within a reasonable range before they can be used to produce future year forecasts. As metropolitan areas continue to refine and improve their travel demand forecasting processes, the credibility of the process with decision makers will depend largely on the ability of analysts to properly validate the procedures and models used including discount freight shipping. The travel demand models have become more complex, resulting in complex procedures needed to validate them. Often there are tradeoffs between increasing confidence in the level of accuracy of the models and the cost of data collection and effort required to validate them. Tests used to evaluate the reliability of models can range from a simple assessment of the reasonableness of model outputs to sophisticated statistical techniques.

Key data components include annual productions by economic sector, employment by industry sectors, and in?migration and payroll by the economic sector. Besides economic production and industry employment data, this data also includes these sectors.
Production Allocations and Interactions: The production allocations and interactions module determines the distribution of production activity among zones and the consumption of space by these production activities in each zone. The module also reflects the flows of goods and services and labor from production locations to consumption locations, as well as the exchange prices for goods and services, labor, and space each year.
Household Allocations: Household allocations to zones reflect the same distributions as the allocations from the previous year. The labor flows originating from these households are allocated to the production locations based on the production allocations to zones determined from the production allocations and interactions data. Similarly, distribution of freight companies demand associated with household consumption activity is modeled by allocating the flows of commodities consumed by the households to zones based on zonal production allocations.
Land Development: The land development data estimates the year-to-year changes in available space in each zone in the region. The primary task of the land development data is to adjust the quantity of space over time in the region in response to changes in price. Other data in the model determine a price for each category of space in each zone using a highly dis-aggregate process, based on the fixed supply of space available in each zone for that particular year. The data uses the zoning patterns and does not forecast how the political process can change zoning patterns. This data does not include freight transportation.

An intermodal terminal or port can be defined as a location for the transfer of freight from one transport mode to another.  Such modes as between a ship transferring freight to Yellow Trucking or a truckload carrier transferring freight to an airline. The coordination of resources to achieve intermodal efficiency is a challenging task that involves government, the private sector, and various other groups. Intermodal terminals serve as principal interchange points for both international and domestic freight movements.

The data collection efforts at intermodal terminals are always a challenge owing to the enormous time and costs associated. In addition, these data are specific to each type of intermodal terminal and cannot be transferred or borrowed. Specific models also are built based on the capacity and volume of traffic being handled at these facilities.

The modeling framework of economic activity models (integrated modeling of the economy, land use, and freight demand) is often referred to as a spatial input-output model. A spatial I-O model involves an economic component that defines household and economic activity and industry economic relationships in the region. A land use component that distributes household and economic activity across zones and a spatial transportation component that defines the links and nodes of the network connecting the zones, and finally computes transportation flows on the network. All of these components are integrated together for freight flow forecasting. Next, shipping quote and freight quote data.

This section provides a more in?depth look at the two essential components of economic activity models, namely the economic and land use model and the freight demand model. The economic land use component of the model generates socioeconomic forecasts at the zonal level of detail, based on considerations of the structure of the economy and the locations of industrial and household activities in the region in the future. These socioeconomic forecasts along with industrial activity location and economic interrelationships information are used interactively with the freight travel demand model to develop freight trip generation and distribution estimates. The travel demand model component then performs the mode split and network assignment steps to predict freight flows on the network by each mode of transportation.

Changes in land use may have a negative impact on trucking freight transportation, especially with regard to facilities in densely developed urban areas. The economic land use model should be able to replicate the observed shift of freight facilities to areas distant from urban centers which have cheaper land in the large parcels often required by modern logistical and freight centers.

Next, freight quote data

Logistic nodes are used in supply chain and logistic chain models that use economic input-output characteristics to calculate supply and demand for each economic sector with an assignment of goods to logistics families to determine the spatial patterns of supply and demand. The logistic nodes are used as means to distribute or disseminate the external movements to internal zones. These nodes are places such as major goods yards, multimodal terminals, railway stations, and distribution centers where trip chaining of long-distance flows occurs.

The freight forecasting modeling process involves the representation and modeling of the long-distance logistics system in the Transport Logistics Node model. This model is only applied on the long-distance flows. These are defined as flows from the internal area (for example the greater southern California area) to the external area (the remainder of the United States as well as entry points to/from Mexico and Canada) and flows from the external area to the internal area. Data was collected through a shipper survey conducted for 131 locations in Southern California combined with rail operator data obtained at six intermodal terminals.

The following are some of the critical issues that need to be addressed:

• freight truck discounts
• discount freight rates

The  trucking companies truck tables developed from the data were further processed to evaluate the origin and destination of the commodities with respect to the Puget Sound region. These tables were compared to total volumes of truck trips at the external stations and to total internal volumes from the trip generation model. The truck trips for external trips (both internal-external and through trips) compared favorably to the total truck volumes at external stations for heavy trucks. The internal truck trips represent 32% of the total internal heavy truck trips estimated in the trip generation model, so these were used to estimate trip rates for manufacturing and wholesale trade.

The data identifies freight shipping rates for the origin and destination of commodity flows for 30 geographic markets. These regions were associated with appropriate external stations and internal Puget Sound counties to disaggregate these data into traffic analysis zones. Modifications to the original dataset were made to eliminate those commodities that would not likely travel through Puget Sound. The data provided a direct calculation of external (through) trips. These through trips were subtracted from the total heavy truck counts to provide an estimate of internal-external and external-internal trucks at each station. It was assumed that all commodities were moving on heavy trucks. The internal-external and external-internal trucks were distributed to internal zones using the same allocation by industry as the internal truck trips.

The truck model converted commodity flows into truck trips using data from a combination of surveys and data from the 2002 Census Bureau. First, the tons were allocated to the three truck classes in the model (light-heavy duty freight trucks, medium-heavy duty freight trucks, and heavy-heavy duty freight trucks). Next, the tons in each of the truck classes were converted to truck trips using the payload data from the intercept surveys. Weigh-in-motion data were used to convert annual truck trips to daily truck trips. This disaggregation process converted the annual truck tons in the commodity flow database into a daily zone-level truck trip table.

The internal component of the truck model is being updated based on new truck travel surveys. This component will estimate truck travel for trips where both the origin and the destination are within one of the six counties. The newer internal model will be a three-step shipping rates freight truck model just like the current model.

State-of-the-art metropolitan freight truck discounts models are hybrids that blend commodity flow modeling techniques with freight truck modeling techniques. Commodity flow databases tend to be relatively accurate for inter-county flows, but undercount intra-county flows because commodity flow databases rely partly on economic input-output data that ultimately are based on financial transactions between producers and consumers of goods. However, in an urban area, many freight shipping companies truck moves are not easily traced to such transactions. Moves from warehouses and distribution centers, repositioning of fleets, drayage moves, parcel delivery, and the like are generally short-distance trips in which there may not be an economic exchange of the goods from one party to another. To compensate for the lack of inclusion of the shorter distance trips in commodity flow data, and to account for types of trucks that do not carry freight, local truck trips are generated based on local employment and economic factors using trip generation rates. These trips are usually generated at the zone level and trip distribution uses methods such as gravity models. The trip rates are calibrated so that the truck traffic volumes that are generated from the combined commodity flow and locally generated truck trips match those from available truck counts. Several terms are used to refer to these two trip types, including commodity-flow trips versus locally generated trips, external versus internal truck trips and long-haul versus local truck trips. Taking advantage of the relative strength of the commodity long-haul approach and the truck short-haul approach within the same model has been called a “hybrid approach.” The two modeling frameworks – freight truck models and commodity-flow models – are described briefly in the following sections. These two models form the basis for the freight/truck hybrid forecasting procedures.

Freight traffic flow data has limitations with respect to trucks. The primary coverage of trucking companies traffic is limited for non-manufactured products. Supplemental purchases can provide for agricultural and mining resource extraction shipments from the source to a processing plant that are not ordinarily covered in commodity flow surveys.
Traffic movements originating in warehouses or distribution centers or drayage movements of intermodal rail or air freight are shown as STCC 5010. These are by definition truck movements. Movements to warehousing and distribution centers may be by other STCC codes and by any mode. Details on the types of items being moved are not available as are shipping freight quotes.
The inland or surface movements of import and export traffic volumes to locations outside of North America are included in the data. However, the flow patterns of this freight are based on the movement patterns of domestically sourced goods in the same market areas and are not the actual movements of the import/export freight.

Freight carried by trucks, based on the definitions used by the principal agencies collecting data, also typically excludes shipments to or from retail (excluding mail-order and warehousing), offices, service establishments, and residences. These local freight or goods deliveries are significantly different from those freight shipments that are included in terms of the distances traveled, the type of trucks used, the times of movement, and the routing of the shipment, but their exclusion does not detract from the larger freight-related issues.

The Tennessee Freight Model applied growth rates for industries available from economic development agencies. It applied those factors differently to industries producing freight than to industries consuming freight. Freight shipping rates are not a factor. The relationship between commodities and producing industries. In almost every case 100% of the growth in the outbound shipment of commodities is related to the industry producing that commodity. The relationship of the inbound freight (consumption) shipment of commodities to the employment industry groups used in the model. These will be quite different from the industry producing that commodity. For example, 58% of the agricultural shipments are consumed by manufacturing, 19 percent are consumed by populations, and 14% are consumed by the agricultural industry, with the balance in service and government. The growth in the outbound shipment of commodities is the application of the growth in each of these industries.

This step of the freight carrier modeling process estimates the average total freight trips by mode that would be generated by the planned facility for a specific time period (daily, annual, etc.). The total trips generated by the facility include both production, originating from the facility, and attraction, destined to the facility, trips.

The most common methods used for facility trip generation include trip generation rates, regression equations, and surveys. Using trip generation rates is the simplest approach for trip generation, in which estimates of number of trips per employee are applied to the target facility to estimate the total trips generated. Trip generation rates also can vary based on truck types and the type of facility (land use). The trip generation rates used in this approach can be derived from previous surveys of freight flows associated with similar facilities or from standard sources providing average trip generation rates for facilities, based on facility and truck types.

The use of regression equations for trip generation offers the ability to predict the total trips generated as a function of more than one facility variable, which makes this approach potentially more robust and reliable compared to the use of trip generation rates. For example, a regression equation predicting total daily freight trips as a function of land use category, number of employees, and building/floor area. However, caution should be maintained when developing and using regression equations for trip generation, as equations with statistical inconsistencies will not result in reliable estimates.

Conducting surveys is the most time- and cost-intensive approach for trip generation, but it can provide the most accurate results, compared to trip generation rates and regression equations. This approach is useful in the case of special trip generators such as intermodal terminals, in which trip generation estimates are derived through direct contacts with a limited number of firms (facility operators and users – truck companies, shippers, etc.). This approach is particularly effective if the planning agency has been building contacts with the freight community over a longer period of time.

Freight shipping companies

For statewide freight models, data are needed to develop and specify the equation used in the various steps, and forecast adapt is needed in the same format to create freight flow forecasts. These tables tend to have limitations that must be overcome in using them to survey as freight surveys for model development. The CFS is publicly available only for 114 zones nationally, but the number of zones increases the purchase price. The challenge in the use of both models is to develop zone structures that are detailed within the model study area, the state, and increasing less detailed at distances from the state model area. The commodity table typically has what is referred to as two-digit level of detail. Employment data are needed at an industry detail matching this freight commodity structure. Even the 40-50 commodities available provide data management and computational challenges and commodities carried forward are typically those that are the largest and most important to the study area. The associated employment must be available for those important commodities but may be aggregated to less detail matching the aggregated commodities. For example, printing may be included with all non-durable manufactured goods while food products would be retained as a separate category.

Freight carrier

These commodity-flow surveys also provide information needed to calibrate the trip distribution and mode split steps. Commodity flows will typically need to be converted into units of daily vehicles because this more easily integrates with passenger forecasts and other transportation design, and operations tasks are typically based on daily flows. Data are needed to develop factors that can be used to convert from annual tons to daily trucks. The model needs to be validated to observed counts. This validation data, on highways, is observational, such as truck classification counts and typically will have no information on the commodities being carried. Since observational counts also include no information on truck purpose, those counts probably include trucks carrying local delivery of local freight or trucks used in construction, service, and utility trucks, none of which are included in the freight commodity model. Conversion from annual flows to daily modal vehicle flows is needed only for those modes that will be used in assignment.

The general notion of building a trip table involves assuming that productions equal attractions. Depending on the availability of truck companies travel survey data, trip rates for a given sector or land use are either considered the same for production and attraction or they are estimated separately at each trip end. If the trip rates are assumed to be the same at both ends, then typically these are land use-based trip rates.

If data permits estimating two different rates for production and attraction, then these may be either employment or land use based trip rates. Meaning, the employment at that particular land use will drive the productions and/or attractions for any given sector. For example, “retail employment” in a TAZ can produce and attract trips that belong to the “mail/parcel” sector, if the supported by the data. If there are 200 “mail/parcel” expanded trips that are produced from a “retail” store, and if there are 300 “mail/parcel” expanded trips that are attracted to a “retail” store, then the production rate will be (200 trips/retail employee) and the attraction rate will be (300 trips/retail employee). These rates also can be estimated based on regression techniques where the dependent variables if the number of truck trips for a given sector and the independent variables are different types of employment. The coefficients associated with each employment variable are the trip rates. In other words, every sector (or trip purpose) will have a production rate and attraction rate for every type of land use (or employment) where trucks in that sector make stops at. Discounted freight shipping traffic will have been included.

An intermodal terminal can be defined as a location for the transfer of freight from one transport mode to another such as between water and road (ports), road and rail (rail yards), or air and road (airports). The coordination of resources to achieve intermodal efficiency is a challenging task that involves government, the private sector, and various interest groups. Intermodal terminals, which include seaports, airports, and rail terminals, serve as principal interchange points for both international and domestic freight movements.

The data collection efforts at intermodal terminals are always a challenge owing to the enormous time and costs associated. In addition, these data are specific to each type of intermodal terminal and cannot be transferred or borrowed. Specific models also are built based on the capacity and volume of traffic being handled at these facilities. The Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) HDT model and Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority) LAMTA CubeCargo model are perhaps the only two models that capture the freight carriers truck traffic coming out of and going into each of these three intermodal facilities in the region at the TAZ level.

The most important data that cannot be transferred or borrowed are the classification counts. Every model update includes the collection of this data. These are used to calibrate and validate the traffic assignment process that includes both passenger cars and trucks. Some agencies have a continuous traffic count program on key facilities such as freeways and expressways that are used in regular time intervals to update regional travel models. The level of detail of truck counts by various truck types or classes largely depends upon the truck model structure. Most count programs collect axle-based truck classification counts as these are easily captured by manual and machine counters. Agencies that use truck models based on GVW ratings convert the axle-based truck counts to appropriate GVW classes based on internally developed algorithms. The count locations also are important in the validation process of a truck model. These are usually collected on all the major facilities such freeways, expressways, and arterials. These also are collected at various points on a screenline and many screenlines are defined upfront of the count program. In addition to counts, other observed data that is necessary are truck speeds or travel times on key routes. Data still needed on shipping rates and freight shipping quote.

The trucking companies rates for transporting goods is reflected by a number of factors besides basic transport costs, such as the class of the commodity. Non-breakable and non-perishable items, like truck engines, are carried more cheaply than ping pong balls. The more careful the handling required, the more expensive is the freight rate. Sophisticated manufactured goods can bear high freight rates because of their greater value. Distance and weight are also two key factor. Many freight rates are scaled; that is, it is cheaper per hundred lbs for a 5000 lns shipment than it is for a 200 lbs shipment.

The total number of axles on the trucks are normally categorized into four axle categories – two axles with four tires, two axles with six tires, three axles, and four or more axles. This information on vehicles can be obtained by visual identification or manual counts, or the use of axle sensor-based counters that are often used to collect accurate truck counts. The number and spacing of axles is used to classify trucks into FHWA’s 13-category classification scheme. Most of the vehicle classification count studies across the country classify freight carrier trucks into these 13 categories, as listed below:

• Class 1:  Motorcycles (Optional) – All 2 or 3-wheeled motorized vehicles. Typical vehicles in this category have saddle type seats and are steered by handlebars rather than steering wheels. This category includes motorcycles, motor scooters, mopeds, motor-powered bicycles, and three-wheel motorcycles. This vehicle type may be reported at the option of the state.
• Class 2:  Passenger Cars – All sedans, coupes, and station wagons manufactured primarily for the purpose of carrying passengers and including those passenger cars pulling recreational or other light trailers.
• Class 3:  Other Two-Axle, Four-Tire Single Unit Vehicles – All two-axle, four-tire vehicles, excluding passenger cars. Included in this classification are pickups, panels, vans, and other vehicles such as campers, motor homes, ambulances, hearses, carryalls, and minibuses. Other two-axle, four-tire single-unit vehicles pulling recreational or other light trailers are included in this classification. Because automatic vehicle classifiers have difficulty distinguishing Class 3 from Class 2, these two classes may be combined into Class 2.
• Class 4:  Buses – All vehicles manufactured as traditional passenger-carrying buses with two axles and six tires or three or more axles. This category includes only traditional buses (including school buses) functioning as passenger-carrying vehicles. Modified buses should be considered to be a truck and should be appropriately classified.
• Class 5:  Two-Axle, Six-Tire, Single-Unit Trucks – All vehicles on a single frame, including trucks, camping and recreational vehicles, motor homes, etc., with two axles and dual rear wheels.
• Class 6:  Three-Axle Single-Unit Trucks – All vehicles on a single frame, including trucks, camping and recreational vehicles, motor homes, etc., with three axles.
• Class 7:  Four-or-More-Axle Single-Unit Trucks – All trucks on a single frame with four or more axles.
• Class 8:  Four-or-Fewer-Axle Single-Trailer Trucks – All vehicles with four or fewer axles consisting of two units, one of which is a tractor or straight truck power unit, used by freight shipping companies.
• Class 9:  Five-Axle Single-Trailer Trucks – All five-axle vehicles consisting of two units, one of which is a tractor or straight truck power unit.
• Class 10:  Six-or-More-Axle Single-Trailer Trucks – All vehicles with six or more axles consisting of two units, one of which is a tractor or straight truck power unit.
• Class 11:  Five-or-Fewer-Axle Multitrailer Trucks – All vehicles with five or fewer axles consisting of three or more units, one of which is a tractor or straight truck power unit.
• Class 12:  Six-Axle Multitrailer Trucks – All six-axle vehicles consisting of three or more units, one of which is a tractor or straight truck power unit.
• Class 13:  Seven-or-More-Axle Multitrailer Trucks – All vehicles with seven or more axles consisting of three or more units, one of which is a tractor or straight truck power unit.

These methods are the most comprehensive as they examine the characteristics of each individual shipment and the available modes. The most common type of choice method is the discrete choice logit model. This formulation is very similar to the passenger mode choice modeling, but the variables and data sets used to estimate the parameters are very different. The logit discrete choice model shows the choices for individual shipments as a function of the utility that each mode provides to the shipper. Utility can be a function of any of the factors mentioned earlier in this section.

The logit model actually calculates the probability that each shipment will use a particular mode. Summing the probabilities across all of the shipments provides the overall mode share. Each modal alternative has a utility to the shipper that has a systematic component related to the factors we have described earlier and a random component that has to do with things like personal relationships. The coefficients in the utility function measure the relative importance of each factor in determining mode choice. The greater the utility that any alternative has, the higher the probability that this alternative will be selected.

Logit choice models are the most complete with respect to modeling all of the factors that affect mode choice. Thus, they can be applied to a wide range of policy and investment studies. However, they are complex to build and are very data intensive. Most of the data needed require the use of complex performance or simulation models. The truck surveys are helpful for estimating the choice parameters, but these surveys are expensive and time-consuming to conduct.

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