9: On the Estimation of the Maximum Efficiency of the Trucking Industry: Implications for City Logistics

This paper presents methodologies for estimating the maximum efficiency that the trucking industry could achieve, given a set of time varying commodity flow matrices. The paper establishes that empty trips are the result of the competition between different segments of the vehicular supply and that the probability of either of these segments transporting a shipment is a function of the percentage of empty trips and the probabilities of pick-ups and deliveries. The research showed that the dynamic relations of supply and demand could be made operational in a simulation system. The quantitative estimates produced here provide an upper bound on the benefits attributable to market efficiency enhancers such as Internet based freight clearinghouses.