Freight Transport And The Modern Economy

Freight Transport and the Modern Economy adapts a well-known textbook by Michel Savy, revising, extending and updating it for British, European and international readers. It deals not only with the technical aspects of transport, logistics and supply chain management, but also the interactions between transport professionals and the public authorities in the modern social, political, economic and environmental context. The transport of freight is presented as a system, mixing empirics and theory, showing how transport itself functions and also its strong influence on the modern economy, with a growing volume of production, turnover and employment. The nature of freight transport, an industrial process widely marketed as a service, is analysed in depth, explaining the main characteristics of the transport operation, its market and the regulatory context. The main actors, the professional actors (carriers, shippers and other agents) and the public authorities are introduced, and their behaviour and interactions are clarified. This comprehensive approach allows the reader to go further and consider in particular the approaches and practices of transport by carriers, customers, logistics managers, political decision makers and citizens, to tackle long range issues such as the ‘decoupling’ of production and transport recommended by some institutions and experts, and to explore the need for more infrastructure, or the capacity of the freight transport industry to reduce its contribution to pollution and climate change. This book treats freight transport as a whole system in its technical, economic, social, political and environmental context, in contrast to existing transport literature focused on individual aspects, such as transportation planning (usually for cars or passengers), logistics (essentially management issues), or individual transport modes. This book is comprehensive in its treatment of freight transport and in its use of multiple disciplinary perspectives.

Freight Transport and the Modern Economy adapts a well-known textbook by Michel Savy, revising, extending and updating it for British, European and international readers. It deals not only with the technical aspects of transport, logistics and supply chain management, but also the interactions between transport professionals and the public authorities in the modern social, political, economic and environmental context. The transport of freight is presented as a system, mixing empirics and theory, showing how transport itself functions and also its strong influence on the modern economy, with a growing volume of production, turnover and employment. The nature of freight transport, an industrial process widely marketed as a service, is analysed in depth, explaining the main characteristics of the transport operation, its market and the regulatory context. The main actors, the professional actors (carriers, shippers and other agents) and the public authorities are introduced, and their behaviour and interactions are clarified. This comprehensive approach allows the reader to go further and consider in particular the approaches and practices of transport by carriers, customers, logistics managers, political decision makers and citizens, to tackle long range issues such as the ‘decoupling’ of production and transport recommended by some institutions and experts, and to explore the need for more infrastructure, or the capacity of the freight transport industry to reduce its contribution to pollution and climate change. This book treats freight transport as a whole system in its technical, economic, social, political and environmental context, in contrast to existing transport literature focused on individual aspects, such as transportation planning (usually for cars or passengers), logistics (essentially management issues), or individual transport modes. This book is comprehensive in its treatment of freight transport and in its use of multiple disciplinary perspectives.

Transportation is the world's largest invisible industry. Modern society is completely dependent on transportation to sustain its way of life, and it is all around us constantly. Yet the economics of transportation is a mystery to most people. Why do air fares rise and fall? Why do urban transit systems struggle to survive and require such large public subsidies? Why does freight transport cost more to move in one direction than an equal distance in another? Why is the government so heavily involved in transportation? Concepts of Transportation Economics provides explanations to these queries and many more, as well-renowned experts in the field, Barry E Prentice and Darren Prokop interpret the unique dynamics underlying transportation through the lens of applied economics, and demonstrate that the operations of transportation are completely logical and obvious once the concepts that underlie business decisions and consumer reactions are explained.

. . . the book will be a valuable resource for students, researchers, policy makers and practitioners. Competition and Regulation in Network Industries The book is well balanced. . . The authors depict the reality of this complex world and identify the right strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Bart Jourquin, European Journal of Transport and Infrastructure Research . . . the editors and the expert contributors provide a timely overview of the present role and challenges of intermodal freight transport. . . the book will not only be appealing to academics and researchers with an interest in the emerging field of intermodal transport research. As the book is largely kept at an executive and policy level, it is also appealing to practitioners and policy makers. . . the book is a valuable contribution to the study of intermodal freight transport as a new transportation research application field. It is an essential reading for all stakeholders in the field of intermodal freight transportation, providing them with insight and tools to address the mounting academic and practical challenges in this segment of the transport and logistics market. Theo Notteboom, Journal of Transport Geography This book explores the great challenge of increasing the scope of intermodal freight transport. In view of the current dominant role of road transport and the increasing difficulties in coping with a growing number of vehicles in an efficient and sustainable way, intermodal freight transport could be considered a viable alternative. However, the book makes recognition of the fact that there is still a need to improve the performance of the intermodal transport system. The expert contributors provide an overview of the present role of intermodal freight transport, address opportunities to significantly improve current performance, and demonstrate design and modelling tools used to analyse and support this performance. Requirements for the implementation of intermodal innovations are also prescribed, and policies needed to improve competitiveness are outlined. Many factors contributing to the performance and competitiveness of intermodal freight transport are explored, from technological and organisational innovations through to institutional settings and policy frameworks. This comprehensive range of topics will attract a broad audience including academics, researchers, policymakers and practitioners involved in the design and development of freight transport systems. It will also strongly appeal to those with an interest in the future of freight transport.

The Routledge Handbook of Transport Economics offers the first state of the art overview of the discipline of transport economics as it stands today, reflective of key research and policy. Transport is an important area of study and one which is problem rich, stimulating a great deal of debate in areas which impact on everyday lives. Much of this focuses on the practicalities of the modern-day phenomenon of mass movement and all of the issues which surround it. The discipline of economics is central to this debate, and consequently the study and application of transport economics has a chief role to play in seeking to address subjects relating to major transport issues. It can be argued that at the very heart of any transport issue or problem lies the underlying economics of the situation – understand that and you alleviate the problem. Featuring contributions from world-leading scholars and practitioners from across the globe, all of the chapters within this book are written from a practical perspective; theory is applied and developed using real-world examples. The book examines concepts, issues, ideas and practicalities of transport provision in five key topic areas: public transport public transport reform economic development and transport modelling transport and the environment freight transport. A real strength of the book is in linking theory to practice, and hence the ‘economics’ that are examined in this text are not the economics of the abstract, but rather the economics of everyday living. Practical and insightful, this volume is an essential reference for any student or researcher working in all areas of transport provision, ranging from planning, appraisal, regulation and freight; and for all practitioners looking to develop their professional knowledge and who are seeking professional accreditation.

Mobility is fundamental to economic and social activities such as commuting, manufacturing, or supplying energy. Each movement has an origin, a potential set of intermediate locations, a destination, and a nature which is linked with geographical attributes. Transport systems composed of infrastructures, modes and terminals are so embedded in the socio-economic life of individuals, institutions and corporations that they are often invisible to the consumer. This is paradoxical as the perceived invisibility of transportation is derived from its efficiency. Understanding how mobility is linked with geography is main the purpose of this book. The third edition of The Geography of Transport Systems has been revised and updated to provide an overview of the spatial aspects of transportation. This text provides greater discussion of security, energy, green logistics, as well as new and updated case studies, a revised content structure, and new figures. Each chapter covers a specific conceptual dimension including networks, modes, terminals, freight transportation, urban transportation and environmental impacts. A final chapter contains core methodologies linked with transport geography such as accessibility, spatial interactions, graph theory and Geographic Information Systems for transportation (GIS-T). This book provides a comprehensive and accessible introduction to the field, with a broad overview of its concepts, methods, and areas of application. The accompanying website for this text contains a useful additional material, including digital maps, PowerPoint slides, databases, and links to further reading and websites. The website can be accessed at: http://people.hofstra.edu/geotrans This text is an essential resource for undergraduates studying transport geography, as well as those interest in economic and urban geography, transport planning and engineering.

"This document synthesizes the discussions of a one-day workshop, "Increasing the Capacity of Freight Transport: Canadian and American Perspectives on the Challenges Ahead," that was held in Santa Monica, California, on February 16, 2006"--Pref.