Encouraging intermodality: A stated preference analysis of freight mode choice in Rio Grande do Sul

Brazil's freight modal split is mainly focused on road transport. The imbalance between different transport modes suggests a need to promote alternative modalities to strengthen the competitiveness and provide a more sustainable economic development. The goal of this paper is to identify logistics managers' preferences for freight transport service attributes for the case of Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil, and discuss which transport policies could encourage multimodality and more sustainable uses of available transport infrastructure. In this paper we used the stated preference (SP) technique for collecting data on respondents' choices among hypothetical options. The experimental design was structured using an Efficient design. Discrete choice models were used to identify the preferences of respondents and discuss some possible sustainable policies that could increase the competitiveness of the region. The model structures studied were: multinomial logit; mixed logit as a special case of random coefficients; mixed logit error components-considering panel effect and mixed logit error components - including possible correlations between attributes of intermodal alternatives. Parameters estimated from the models were used to compute subjective value of time savings, which was Euro/t.h 0.34 (R$/t. h 1.088) for the selected model. The direct and cross elasticity values of the probability of choosing a transport mode for the different attributes studied show that the shippers significantly value the fulfilment of delivery time and cost, suggesting that those attributes are the most important ones in the choice of transport mode in this State of Brazil. Simulation results suggest investments for increasing the reliability of intermodal alternatives are more effective to encourage intermodality than cost reductions. Policies and investments to encourage multimodality should prioritize the increase of intermodal alternatives reliability and combined policies of cost reduction and reliability. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.