Freight Route Decision Making in the Presence of Tolling: Evidence from Texas

As Texas and several states consider large scale tolling and the possibility of exclusive truck lanes, it is quite surprising to see that the trucking sector remains understudied. It is not clear how toll roads are viewed in the context of rising operating costs relating to fuel nor is it clear what the trade offs are and how those trade offs might manifest into a route making decision. Of even greater interest is how those decisions and trade offs might vary across a broad spectrum of truckers in the transportation of cargo. This paper presents evidence from focus groups and surveys conducted with various representatives from the trucking industry in Texas. Several implications are also drawn from the preliminary research for toll road diversions and for future research