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A b s t ra c t This research article examines the Australian domestic freight transport market, focusing on the decision-making process by which cargo interests and their agents make mode choice allocation decisions between land-based transport and coastal shipping. It evaluates the willingness to pay (WTP) for various attributes of modal options on specific transport corridors. Such understanding lays the groundwork for being able to assess the likely impact of changes to transport prices arising from the introduction of carbon pricing or other regulatory factors. Reporting the results of a stated choice experiment, this article identifies and quantifies freight shippers' preferences for components of services offered by freight transport providers across modes with distinct characteristics (that is, mixes of speed (transit time), frequency of departure, reliability (two measures) and cost) in three corridors. There are seven variables examined: frequency, transit time, freight distance, direction (headhaul/backhaul), reliability as measured by delivery window, reliability as measured by delay and price offered by the operator. The article concludes by providing guidance on what trade-offs are relevant in shippers' choice of mode on the specific corridors under investigation in a more complex mode choice model than explored in previous research. It also examines what will likely happen if price rises as a result of carbon pricing regulation.

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The distribution of freight is a major contributor to the levels of traffic congestion in cities. However it is much neglected in the research and planning activities of government, where the focus is disproportionately on passenger vehicle movements. Despite the recent recognition of the contribution of freight transportation to the performance of urban areas under the rubric of city logistics, we see a void in the study of how the stakeholders in the supply chain might cooperate through participation in distribution networks, to reduce the costs associated with traffic congestion. Given that transport costs are typically over 45% of all distribution costs, with congestion a major contributor in the urban setting, the importance of establishing ways in which supply chain partnerships might cooperate to reduce levels of freight vehicle movements has much merit. This paper sets out a framework to investigate how agents in a retail supply chain might interact more effectively to reduce the costs of urban freight distribution. We propose an interactive agency choice method as a way of formalising a framework for studying the preferences of participants in the supply chain to support specific policy initiatives. Such a framework is a powerful way of investigating the behavioural response of each agent to many policies, including congestion pricing, as a way of improving the efficient flow of traffic in cities.

Stated choice experiments have proven to be a powerful tool in eliciting preferences across a broad range of choice settings. This paper outlines the elements of a group-based experiment designed for interdependent urban freight stakeholders, along with the procedure to administer the questionnaire sequentially. The focus is on the design of a computer-assisted personal survey instrument and the value in disseminating the details of a new approach to design and collect stated choice data for interacting agents. The paper also discusses how to specify a reference alternative, and then how to recruit appropriate real-market or representative decision-making group members to participate in a subsequent phase of the survey, which incorporates the reference alternative and contextual information from an initial phase. The empirical strategy, set out in some detail, provides a new framework within which to understand more fully the role that specific attributes, such as variable user charges, influencing freight distribution chains might play, and who in the supply chain is affected by specific attributes in terms of willingness to pay for the gains in distribution efficiency. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2007Stated choice experiments, D-optimality, Urban freight, Variable user charging, Group decision making, Distribution chains,

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