Willingness to pay for freight travel time savings: contrasting random utility versus random valuation

There is a considerable gap between the existing knowledge used to estimate the value of time in passenger transport when compared with the framework of analysis developed for freight transport. In this paper, we applied a model that is gaining recognition in the context of passenger values of time estimation known as random valuation (RV) to a context in which there is little evidence of its application: freight value of time estimation (FVOT). Secondly, we compared this model to the commonly used methodology, random utility (RU). We analysed several levels of model specification to estimate the FVOT using data from a stated choice experiment applied in five of the main cargo transport road corridors of Colombia. The analysis accounts for the value of time differentiated by vehicle type. Results suggest that the RV models performed better for the same dataset than its counterpart RU in all cases. Another aspect to highlight is that the FVOT value obtained with the RU approach was pretty similar to those obtained with the RV in most cases. Also, the estimates FVOT for empty trips are closer, and in some cases higher, than those of loaded trips.