Policy Options for Intermodal Freight Transportation Special Report 252 (1998) / Chapter Skim
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4 Regulatory and Operations Issues
4 Regulatory and Operations Issues
Pages 65-76
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From page 65... ...
Improved operation can increase the effective capacity of a facility, so better management is a substitute for capital spending. Federal policy recognizes that efficient management complements infrastructure investment.
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From page 66... ...
Information bottlenecks -- for example, incomplete implementation of electronic data interchange and lack of standard information requirements among parties in intermodal freight transactions -- hinder freight efficiency. Government, as an operator of transportation facilities as well as through its regulatory functions, must be a party to the solution of these information problems.
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From page 67... ...
It can take a more active lead in ensuring that its systems are interoperable with evolving industry systems and can provide research support for the development of solutions to problems in existing systems. Government can reduce regulatory compliance costs and at the same time provide an impetus for adoption of information technology by making its regulatory information reporting requirements consistent with industry practice.
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From page 68... ...
A pilot project involving the Environmental Protection Agency and two state governments tested a system to perform the filing of manifests of hazardous waste shipments, required under state laws, via electronic data interchange. State departments of transportation and trucking companies have tested application of automatic electronic identification systems to simplify enforcement activities by reducing the frequency with which trucks are stopped for safety inspections, weighings, and permit checks at border crossings (TRB 1993b, 119, 192193)
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From page 69... ...
FMC also enforces tariffs and common carriage obligations. These activities are governed by the Shipping Act of 1916, amended most recently by the Shipping Act of 1984, which reaffirmed antitrust immunity for conference ratesetting while giving carriers more flexibility on rates (for example, by allowing carriers and shippers to enter into contracts for rates outside the conference tariff)
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From page 70... ...
. Shipper conference rate-setting and FMC economic regulation have some effect on shippers' transportation costs, competition among ports, and patterns of freight flows in the United States.
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From page 71... ...
should examine how economic regulation of ocean shipping and restrictions on coastal shipping affect intermodal freight performance in the United States and U.S. foreign trade.
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From page 72... ...
DOT's National Freight Transportation Policy Statement declares: The prices charged for public sector transportation facilities and ser vices determine whether they are used efficiently. Public facilities costs that are not included in the transportation rates paid by ship pers may lead to inefficient use of the Nation's limited transportation resources.
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From page 73... ...
An analysis of federal highway, airway, and waterway user charges by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and a TRB study of costs of freight transportation have identified opportunities for changes in user fees to improve efficiency.
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From page 74... ...
Road projects are to a great extent user-funded through highway user excise taxes, so some of the benefits of efficient pricing are attained. Existing highway excise taxes function imperfectly as prices because the amount of excise tax a user pays is only weakly related to the costs that the user generates.
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From page 75... ...
In contrast with user fees in the form of excise taxes, tolls provide an income source for financing particular road projects. Reliance on toll finance imposes a project-level budget constraint that discourages construction of economically unjustifiable projects.
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From page 76... ...
1996. Special Report 246: Paying Our Way: Estimating Marginal Social Costs of Freight Transportation.
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