Estimating Cost Savings from Advanced Vehicle Monitoring and Telecommunications Systems in Intercity Irregular Route Trucking.

摘要

The paper presents a methodology by which the cost benefits or cost savings of advanced vehicle monitoring and communication (AVMC) systems in long distance or intercity trucking can be quantified. The approach is that of an engineering or unit cost model, in which first the physical resources such as truck and drivers required to perform a given amount of transportation service are estimated and then various capital and operating costs are determined on both a before-tax and after-tax basis. Influencing the resource requirements is the technology of the system, which is for the introduction of the AVMC system. The model is intended to be used in two ways. One is for initial feasibility studies of AVMC systems, and for evaluation of systems that are in place, where estimates of actual traffic and vehicle utilization and performance are inputs and cost impacts of an AVMC system on a truck line using hypothetical traffic and other data, but realistic cost levels are given. For this particular example as well as a substantial range of variations in changes in productivity in the example results are calculated, and these indicate that the introduction of AVMC systems are beneficial over a wide range of circumstances. Of course, each application is unique and thus these results are simply indicative of possible gains. An example analysis is given using operational improvements reported by carriers already using this technology either experimentally or in regular operations.