This paper develops a methodology to characterize agriculture-related trucking on low-volumerural roads. The methodology considers truck trips from the field to intermediate storagefacilities (field-to-storage) and from these facilities to market (storage-to-market). Themethodology, which applies the transportation systems analysis approach, leverages knowledgefrom local producers through in-person interviews to qualitatively and quantitatively characterizethe transportation supply and demand that generate truck flows. Flow characterization in terms oftruck volumes and trip-making characteristics supports asset management decisions, such asmaintenance timing and upgrade investments, in addition to providing information forforecasting future demand and infrastructure impacts.The development and application of the methodology contributes in three ways. First, itcharacterizes truck flows from field-to-storage, a segment of the agricultural supply chainseldom considered by previous research. Second, it demonstrates the extent of informationconcerning road usage and impacts available from producers. Third, results from the applicationof the methodology to a study region in Manitoba reveal that: (a) smaller truck types are morecommonly used for the shorter field-to-storage trips than storage-to-market trips; (b) actualdistance traveled exceeds desired distance traveled, owing mainly to infrastructure-relatedregulatory constraints; and (c) trip length distributions for the storage-to-market segment exhibita relationship between trip length and type of truck and commodity. The methodology istransferrable across jurisdictions and scalable for different geographic and temporal scopes. Thespecific results presented in this paper, however, may not be representative of conditions in otherregions.
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