Freight vehicle tours and tour-chains are essential elements of state-the-art agent-based urban freight simulations as well as key units to analyse freight vehicle demand. GPS traces are typically used to extract vehicle tours and tour-chains and became available in a large scale to, for example, fleet management firms. While methods to process this data with the objective of analysing and modelling tour-based freight vehicle operations have been proposed, they were not fully explored with regard to the implication of underlying assumptions. In this context, we test different algorithms of stop-to-tour assignment, tour-type and tour-chain identification, aiming to expose their implications. Specifically, we compare the traditional stopto-tour assignment algorithm using the location of a "base" as the start/end point of tours, against other algorithms using stop activities or payload capacity usage. Furthermore, we explore high-resolution tour-type/chain identification algorithms, considering stop types and recurrence of visits. For tour-chain identification, we explore two algorithms: one defines the day-level tour-chain-type based on the predominant tour-type identified for the period of 1 day and another defines the tourchain-type based on the average number of stops per tour by stop type. For a demonstration purpose, we apply the methods to data from a large-scale GPS-based survey conducted during 2017-2019 in Singapore. We compare the algorithms in an assessment of freight vehicle operations day-to-day pattern homogeneity. Our analysis demonstrates that the predictions of tours, tourtypes, and tour-chain-types are highly dependent on the assumptions used, underlining the importance of carefully selecting and disclosing the methods for data processing. Finally, the exploration of day-to-day pattern homogeneity reveals operational differences across vehicle types and industries.
Intercity truck route choices incorporating toll road alternatives using enhanced GPS data This research presents the data collection, specification and estimation of a route choice model for intercity truck trips, with a focus on toll road usage. The data was obtained from driver-validated and enhanced GPS records. A mixed logit model with a path-size factor is specified. It accounts for heterogeneity among drivers using distributed coefficients for travel time and its variability. The estimation results show wide heterogeneity among drivers based on employment type and availability of electronic toll collection tags. Toll value of time and toll value of reliability distributions are derived. The model application is demonstrated on several trip corridors.
Advancements in information and communication technologies (ICT) and the advent of novel mobility solutions have brought about drastic changes in the urban mobility environment. Pervasive ICT devices acquire new sources of data that can inform detailed transportation simulation models, and are useful in analyzing new policies and technologies. In this context, we developed software laboratories that leverage the latest technological developments and enhance freight research. Future mobility sensing (FMS) is a data-collection platform that integrates tracking devices and mobile apps, a backend with machine-learning technologies and user interfaces to deliver highly accurate and detailed mobility data. The second platform, SimMobility, is an open-source, agent-based urban simulation platform which replicates urban passenger and goods movements in a fully disaggregated manner. The two platforms have been used jointly to advance the state of the art in behavioral modeling for passenger and goods movements. In this chapter, we review recent developments in freight-transportation data-collection techniques, including contributions to transportation modeling, and state-of-the-art transportation models. We then introduce FMS and SimMobility and demonstrate a coordinated application using three examples. Lastly, we highlight potential innovations and future challenges in these research domains.
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