Potential market of freight demand management

Abstract

The paper's main objective is to quantify the potential market for Freight Demand Management (FDM) in metropolitan areas. To this effect, the authors define FDM and describe the various initiatives that could be undertaken to reduce the externalities produced by freight traffic. These changes involve altering the demand patterns enacted by the receivers of supplies. The literature on freight behavior research is reviewed to identify the industry segments most inclined to participate in FDM. Having identified the industry sectors of interest for FDM programs, the authors use freight trip generation models and publicly available data to quantify the freight trip generation for the industry sectors deemed to be the ideal target of FDM initiatives. These estimates are obtained for five large metropolitan statistical areas and a sample of representative medium to small metropolitan statistical areas of different sizes in the US. The paper concludes with a discussion of policy implications and chief results.