Chapter 14: Workshop Synthesis: Alternative Approaches to Freight Surveys

Although goods movement has always had an impact on the network infrastructure; air quality, emissions, and logistics planning; primary data collection of shippers and carriers has not historically been at the forefront of survey research efforts compared to passenger travel until recently. Conducting primary data collection of shippers and carriers is highly complex due to the wide variation in the methods of shipment transport, the size, weight and/or volume of shipments, the shipment handling along the logistics chain, shipment scheduling, and shipment timing (as some shipments are preplanned while others are based on real-time scheduling such as those for single parcel shipments).