Development of an Improved Decision Support Tool for Freight Transport Planning in Norway

Since 2005 a logistics model has been developed for freight transport in Norway. The last years this model has been improved, where the main improvements are related to the following elements: (1) A method for better commodity flow representation in the model. (2) Differentiated terminal costs, representing different services and technologies offered by the terminals, as well as regional variations. The last years, freight models have attracted substantial attention at an international level. As far as the authors know there are very few examples of national freight models at detailed zone level where mode choice is based on logistics elements, such as the determination of shipment size and the use of consolidation and distribution centres. One of the first applications of a logistics chain freight model was the SMILE model (Tavasszy et al., 1998). A study done by Rand Europe and Transek (deJong et al., 2002) summarized the frontiers of knowledge of how transport modelling structure from passenger transport models fruitfully can be applied to freight transport models. Based on this, SAMGODS in Sweden and the NTP-group in Norway engaged Rand Europe (now Significance) and national research companies to establish new national freight models for the two countries, The Logistics models in Norway and Sweden (deJong et al., 2005 & 2008). The models can be described as aggregate-disaggregate-aggregate (ADA) model systems. In the ADA model system, the production to consumption (PC) flows and the network model are specified at an aggregate municipality level for reasons of data availability. Between these two aggregate components there is a logistics model that explains the choice of shipment size and transport chain, including mode choice for each leg of the transport chain. This logistics model is a disaggregate model at company level, which is the decision making unit in freight transport.