Evaluating sustainability of truck weight regulations: A system dynamics view
Abstract: Targeting the
problem of overload trucking in Highway Transportation of iron ore from
Caofeidian to Tangshan (HTCT), this paper aims to assess long-term effects of
alternative Truck Weight Regulation (TWR) policies on sustainability of HTCT.
Design/methodology/approach: A system dynamics model was established for
policy evaluation. The model, composed of six interrelating modules, is able to
simulate policies effects on trucking issues such as freight flow, truck
traffic flow, pavement performance, highway transport capacity and trucking
time, and further on the Cumulative Economic Cost (CEC) including transport
cost and time cost of freight owners and the Cumulative Social Cost (CSC)
including pavement maintenance cost, green house gas emission cost, air
pollutants emission cost and traffic accidents cost, so the effects of TWR
policies on sustainability of HTCT could be evaluated.
Findings: According to different values of overload ratio which a TWR
policy allows, alternative TWR policies are classified into three types, which
are The Rigid Policy (TRP), The Moderate Policy (TMP) and The Tolerant Policy
(TTP). Results show that the best policy for sustainability of HTCT depends on
the importance of CSC which is expected by the local government. To be
specific, (1) if CSC is considered much less important than CEC, the local
government should continue implementing the current TTP with the maximum
overload ratio; (2) if CSC is considered much more important than CEC, then TRP
is recommended; and (3) if CSC is considered slightly more important than CES,
TMP with overload ratio of 80% is the best.
Practical implications: Conclusions of this paper may help the local
government design appropriate TWR policies to achieve sustainability of HTCT.
Originality/value: To the best of our knowledge, this is the first effort
to evaluate TWR policies on sustainability of regional freight transportation
based on system dynamics modeling.
Author: Pei Liu, Dong Mu
Journal Code: jptindustrigg150104
