Over the past several decades, the transportation of raw materials (logs) has increasingly shifted from the railway to trucks. However, the long-term sustainability of this shift is being questioned due to the shortage of truck drivers, fluctuation of fuel prices, and changes in hours of service laws. The industry is interested in the possibility to shift more logs back to the railway but the impact of such a shift on truckers has not been investigated. This study attempted to quantify the impact of such a change on the operations of log truckers by calculating time efficiency (percentage of daily hours of service for revenue activities) and value efficiency (average loaded versus total ton-kilometers per day) between a truck only and multimodal (truck/rail) alternatives. We used actual data from the forest products industry companies and truck performance data from an earlier study to investigate the impact through case studies in four different locations of the upper Midwest, US. The results of our analysis revealed that in three out of our four case studies, re-routing log movements through rail yard/siding improved the time efficiency and value efficiency. Finally, our sensitivity analysis found that increases in average truck speed and maximum hours or service had higher impact on multimodal transportation than in truck-only system.

中文翻译：

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通过增加铁路使用量来记录卡车价值分析

在过去的几十年中，原材料（原木）的运输已从铁路转向卡车。然而，由于卡车司机的短缺，燃油价格的波动以及服务时间的变化，这种转变的长期可持续性受到了质疑。业界对将更多的原木运回铁路的可能性很感兴趣，但尚未研究这种转移对卡车司机的影响。这项研究试图通过计算仅卡车之间的时间效率（收入活动的每日服务时间百分比）和价值效率（平均负载与每天总吨公里的相对效率）来量化这种变化对原木卡车司机的操作的影响。和多式联运（卡车/铁路）替代品。我们使用了林产工业公司的实际数据和早期研究的卡车性能数据，通过案例研究在美国中西部的四个不同地点进行了调查，以研究其影响。我们的分析结果表明，在我们的四个案例研究中，有三个案例通过铁路货场/围墙重新路由原木移动，从而提高了时间效率和价值效率。最后，我们的敏感性分析发现，与仅卡车系统相比，卡车平均速度和最大时数或服务时间的增加对多式联运的影响更大。通过铁路货场/围墙重新路由原木移动，提高了时间效率和价值效率。最后，我们的敏感性分析发现，与仅卡车系统相比，卡车平均速度和最大时数或服务时间的增加对多式联运的影响更大。通过铁路货场/围墙重新路由原木移动，提高了时间效率和价值效率。最后，我们的敏感性分析发现，与仅卡车系统相比，卡车平均速度和最大时数或服务时间的增加对多式联运的影响更大。