The influence of railway freight transport on logistics costs

Abstract

The majority of the costs involved in logistics come from freight transport expenses, which are affected by various factors in today's world of economic deregulation. This study seeks to investigate the effectiveness of railway freight as a way of controlling logistics costs under the current conditions faced by major shippers. Models to express the compositive mechanism of truckload freight rates (i.e., transport expenses per ton-kilometer) based on a mileage system are introduced to enable case analysis. The suitability of each model and the availability and explanatory power of each constituent factor are then discussed in details. Finally, the degree of influence on the logistics expenses incurred by shippers using railway freight transport is derived.