Determining the monetary value of quality attributes in freight transportation using a stated preference approach

It is commonly accepted that the modal choice of a shipper is influenced not only by the pure economic attributes of transportation-time and cost-but also by more qualitative factors. These quality attributes relate to frequency, reliability, flexibility, transport duration and risk of loss or damage; they are usually difficult to quantify in monetary terms. Different techniques exist that help to understand better how these different quality attributes of freight transportation influence modal choice. In this paper we apply a stated preference design. Using real business data, the aim is then to derive partial utility functions that allow us to calculate monetary values for these different quality attributes.