The Economic Effects of Surface Freight Deregulation

The Economic Effects of Surface Freight Deregulation
Author: Clifford Winston
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
Total Pages: 92
Release: 2010-12-01
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780815714385

For close to 100 years, America's surface freight industries, primarily rail and trucking, operated under the protective wing of the U.S. government. In 1980 Congress, finding vast inefficiencies in the two industries, substantially deregulated both, opening them at last to market competition. Deregulation has brought with it many changes—for firms within the industries, for their labor force, and for shippers and their customers. Clifford Winston, Thomas M. Corsi, Curtis M. Grimm, and Carol A Evans provide a comprehensive evaluation of the effect of the deregulation legislation on the rail and trucking industries. According to the authors, deregulation has made substantial progress in solving the two most vexing problems of the surface freight transportation industry—excessive rates in the trucking industry and insufficient returns on investment in the rail industry. Competition and efficiency have returned to both industries, and although the labor force in each has suffered wage and job losses, shippers and their customers have gained roughly $20 billion a year in benefits. The authors recommend policies that would continue to promote competition and the efficient use of highway and railway infrastructure.

Transportation Logistics and Economic Decline - Politics, Infrastructure and the Recession

Transportation Logistics and Economic Decline - Politics, Infrastructure and the Recession
Author: Ricky Dartez
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
Total Pages: 26
Release: 2013-03-06
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 3656384258

Project Report from the year 2012 in the subject Business economics - Supply, Production, Logistics, grade: 100.00, , course: Transportation Logistics, language: English, abstract: This paper attempts to explain the cyclical relationship between the transportation industry and the U.S. economy. It begins by exploring the scope of logistics activities and their impact upon the economy, and then attempts to show how the economy in turn determines the state of the transportation industry and its ability to contribute to the economy. The paper will then reveal the impacts upon the transportation sector because of the recessionary conditions beginning in 2007 and continuing until 2010. Finally, we will reveal how political partisanship has the ability to depress the health of the transportation industry by withholding needed infrastructure funds and the effect that has upon the economy.

Potential Impacts of Climate Change on U.S. Transportation

Potential Impacts of Climate Change on U.S. Transportation
Author: Division on Earth and Life Studies
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 199
Release: 2008-07-16
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0309185408

The Transportation Research Board (TRB) and the Division on Earth and Life Studies (DELS) have released the pre-publication version of TRB Special Report 290, The Potential Impacts of Climate Change on U.S. Transportation, which explores the consequences of climate change for U.S. transportation infrastructure and operations. The report provides an overview of the scientific consensus on the current and future climate changes of particular relevance to U.S. transportation, including the limits of present scientific understanding as to their precise timing, magnitude, and geographic location; identifies potential impacts on U.S. transportation and adaptation options; and offers recommendations for both research and actions that can be taken to prepare for climate change. The book also summarizes previous work on strategies for reducing transportation-related emissions of carbon dioxide--the primary greenhouse gas--that contribute to climate change. Five commissioned papers used by the committee to help develop the report, a summary of the report, and a National Academies press release associated with the report are available online. DELS, like TRB, is a division of the National Academies, which include the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine, and National Research Council.

Economic Analysis Primer

Economic Analysis Primer
Author:
Publisher:
Total Pages: 40
Release: 2003
Genre: Economic impact analysis
ISBN:

This primer provides a foundation for understanding the role of economic analysis in highway decision making. It is oriented toward state and local officials who have responsibility for assuring that limited resources get targeted to their best uses and who must publicly account for their decisions. Economic analysis is presented as an integral component of a comprehensive infrastructure management methodology that takes a long-term view of infrastructure performance and cost. The primer encompasses a full range of economic issues, including economic fundamentals, life-cycle cost analysis, benefit-cost analysis, forecasting traffic for benefit calculations, risk analysis and economic impact analysis.