Creating an innovative activity-based freight transportation framework

Abstract

in a growing globalised context and consumption economy freight transport is of crucial importance. Activities of firms are expanding, even across borders. This causes an increase in logistics activities of firms as they become more dynamic. Public and private decision makers need to take these trends into consideration with regard to their decisions and a better projection of freight traffic flows becomes necessary. Being able to understand the drivers of fleight flows makes it possible to forecast freight flows in the future and to calculate the impact of different policies on freight traffic. It will put policymakers in the position to get a better insight in the way the transport of goods comes about. Still, freight demand modelling is lacking behind on the efforts made in passenger transport models. Hence, there is a growing need for models that can predict freight flows more accurately. Here the category of activity-based models comes into play, as they are able to better represent the link with the economy, interactions between different actors and the logistic elements inherent of freight movement. The development of a comprehensive and reliable freight transport model is needed.