National Academies Press: OpenBook

Performance Measures for Freight Transportation (2011)

Chapter: Chapter 7 - Findings and Recommendations

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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 7 - Findings and Recommendations." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2011. Performance Measures for Freight Transportation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14520.
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Page 64
Suggested Citation:"Chapter 7 - Findings and Recommendations." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2011. Performance Measures for Freight Transportation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14520.
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Page 64
Page 65
Suggested Citation:"Chapter 7 - Findings and Recommendations." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2011. Performance Measures for Freight Transportation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14520.
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Page 65

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61 c h a p t e r 7 Findings and Recommendations A Reporting Framework Is Possible Interest in measuring freight system performance will only increase as Congress, USDOT, and the state transportation agencies refine their efforts to enhance freight efficiency, safety, and convenience. Concurrently, private-sector freight professionals will continue to enhance their already sophisti- cated metrics for managing supply chains in highly competi- tive markets. This research demonstrates that considerable freight sys- tem performance information exists today that could be consolidated into a Freight System Report Card that would benefit both public and private stakeholders. Such a report card could become a frequently used hub for performance information of major aspects of the nation’s freight system. As proposed, the Freight System Report Card would provide users with a synopsis of performance in key areas of freight system performance, as well as insight into freight system externalities. With the proposed structure of the report card, it could be replicated at the state and metropolitan levels. Such replication would allow comparable analysis of freight system performance for comparative analysis of states and metropolitan regions. The value added from such a report card could be signifi- cant. Because it emphasizes trend line metrics, it provides insight into the long-term performance of the transportation system. Its use of leading indicators is intended to focus deci- sion makers on the likely outcomes of current freight policies. As such, it could be an important barometer for policy makers and one that prompts their attention to looming problems. The report card is designed to serve a broad array of stake- holders, from those who need only the highest-level sum- mary information to those who desire links to in-depth anal- ysis. The report card is intended to allow quick, at-a-glance assessment of trends but also allow expansion of analysis for understanding the underlying trends that are at work. The linkage to performance summaries and to larger, source documents would allow a user to pursue easy links to reach detailed reports for context and interpretation. The report card is assumed to be evolutionary and catalytic. The initial proposed report card reflects “the art of the pos- sible.” It is the type of reporting system that is possible in the existing environment of disparate agencies reporting results to address their individual areas of responsibility. At this prelimi- nary stage of freight performance reporting, the report card is proposed to be a first-generation framework that would be expected to expand and evolve over time. The creation of such a report card is likely to be catalytic and lead to greater inter- est in freight metrics, requests for additional metrics, and the catalyzing of an expanded and more comprehensive reporting process over a number of years, if not decades. Overcoming Impediments The impediments to creating a Freight System Report Card are numerous, but the framework proposed here was devised specifically to overcome as many of the impediments as possible. First, as there is no multimodal freight entity with a span of control over all modes, all governments, and the private sector, there is no one organization that could produce a com- prehensive Freight System Report Card on its own. Therefore the collaboration of many organizations is assumed in this framework. The framework proposed here was based on the premise that entities would be likely to cooperate if they are asked to provide existing reports that they already have demonstrated a long-standing commitment to produce. This report card is a synthesis undertaking that proposes to assem- ble in one virtual location the accumulated efforts of many public- and private-sector organizations. Examples of such cooperation exist. AAR and Austroads in Australia have pro- duced such websites for more than a decade. This report card proposal is based, in part, on the long-standing success of those reporting frameworks.

62 Second, because the public-sector respondents demon- strate considerably more interest in a performance measure- ment report for publicly operated freight, the proposed report card is largely focused upon public-sector users. The private- sector users indicated a desire for highly detailed, often pro- prietary, data regarding their vendors, customers, and inter- nal operations. The volume, frequency, and granularity of the performance measures that private-sector freight system users wanted appears to be orders of magnitude beyond what the public sector reasonably could be expected to provide. Third, although the proposed report card may not meet many day-to-day needs of freight system users, it does address many of their long-term and more policy-related needs. Private-sector freight stakeholder trade groups such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the American Truck- ing Associations, the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals, and the Association of American Railroads all express significant interest in government policies to promote freight efficiency, safety, and competitiveness. At the higher, trade-organization level, the metrics in the proposed report card are very relevant to the private sector and germane to the interests they expressed. Fourth, the framework is proposed to be evolutionary. “Beginning with what we have” allows a freight reporting pro- cess to begin. Expecting it to evolve allows it to expand and adapt to the many stakeholder interests that are not possible to address in its initial iteration. Eventually, there may need to be many freight performance reports, one for each major area of concern. Those could include the six major areas included in this recommended report card: Freight Demand, Freight Efficiency, System Conditions, Environmental Impacts, Safety, and Investment. Each could encompass a much more detailed set of metrics while still being linked though a com- mon Web-based portal. Fifth, related to the concept of an evolving reporting pro- cess is the recognition that emerging technologies will even- tually allow economical performance reporting that currently is only experimental and undeveloped. This report discusses the use of GPS-enabled tracking of truck travel speeds. Capi- talizing on GPS and other technologies will become increas- ingly possible. It will allow reporting of travel times, origins, destinations, and other metrics that today are not available. Therefore, it would be logical to expect the reporting frame- work to become more robust as technology reduces the costs and increases the availability of performance data. Creating a Coalition These recommendations acknowledge the most obvi- ous and substantial obstacle—that is there is no entity and no budget to develop a Freight System Report Card. How- ever, this research documents that a reporting framework is possible and that such frameworks are deployed elsewhere through collaborative efforts. Therefore such collaboration among many interested stakeholders could be possible in the United States as well. A coalition of interested parties will need to coalesce around the concept of producing a Freight System Report Card. The coalition for the Freight System Report Card would need to extend to various federal agencies, including USDOT and its modal agencies, BTS, the U.S. Department of Commerce, the EPA, and USACE. These agencies’ contribution would be to provide to the Web-based report card the reports that they already produce. Also, the private-sector associations, such as the CSCMP, ATRI, AAR, and others, would need to cooperate to provide their metrics. One complexity would be the contractual arrangements and cost for the private-sector-produced measures and related reports, such as the CSCMP report, and the data produced by ATRI and AAR. These entities incur costs to produce these reports, and those costs are passed on to mem- bers. Contractual and financial considerations would need to be addressed. States and metropolitan regions’ participation would be voluntary. Therefore, the degree of coverage across states and metropolitan regions would depend upon the degree to which state and local participation is engendered. The report card, however, provides state and metropolitan transporta- tion agencies a template to follow for freight system reporting. Keys to success of report card The success of the report card is closely tied to its use. If the stakeholders use the report card and provide feedback for improvement, it will remain viable and relevant. It is important when developing a Freight System Report Card to address the key issues identified in the study. establish it as a central information source A Web-based Freight System Report Card could include links to the one-page summaries and links to the more extensive source reports. As a Web-based tool, it could pro- vide additional links to an unlimited number of freight per- formance sources. As such a comprehensive portal, it could become the definitive central hub for freight system perfor- mance information, domestically and internationally, with the report card as its central feature. The application can be deployed on either the USDOT or the TRB website. Information about the web application and the report card should be disseminated through TRB, FHWA, and other freight newsletters websites. Additional

63 links could be solicited. Links could also be provided for users to download the data in Excel and Access formats as well as to download the pdf version of the report card. plan for iterative improvement A link on the website could be provided to obtain feedback from users of the Web applications. Feedback from the first iteration of the deployed Web-based report card as well as a survey of users should be used to refine the report card. The feedback should address (1) the user friendliness and enhancements that will be helpful and (2) the list of addi- tional measures that would be useful. The list of suggested measures should be prioritized and an analysis should be done to identify the availability of the additional data and the cost to collect them. The first itera- tion of the report card should then be revised to incorporate selected additional measures and improve its convenience. This process of continuous review and enhancement should be done annually to systematically enhance the framework. As new performance measures are adopted nationally, the freight report card can be systematically enhanced. These new mea- sures will also mean additional data will be collected nationally, leading to more availability of the data at lower cost. Similarly, measures that become irrelevant with time can be eliminated. Develop Common Definitions Prior to deploying the report card, it is important to have a workshop that helps develop a glossary of terms and com- mon data definitions The glossary can then be used to ensure that there is a common understanding and interpretation of the measures. The common definition can also be used to guide organizations providing data to a national set of freight performance measures. Data Quality and Accuracy Standards A process needs to be put in place to do a check of the qual- ity and accuracy of the data before the data are populated in the database to feed the report card. Integration of Data from Multiple Sources Where data to feed the framework come from multiple sources, an analysis needs to be done and a mechanism needs to be put in place to integrate consistently the multisource data prior to populating the report card. Fortunately there are many products, tools, and techniques available today to complete this task successfully. Data Gaps As new measures are expected to be included in the framework over time, there will be data gaps. A systematic approach to addressing these data gaps should be developed, and data collection should be initiated in a planned manner to address the gaps. The prioritization of new measures will also help to develop a systematic strategy for collection of important data. Data Availability Service-level agreements need to be developed to ensure that data availability does not become an issue. Where pos- sible, data should be obtained from state, local, and federal agencies. The assumption is also being made that if man- datory performance measures are passed by Congress, that action will cause states and local government to develop strategies to collect additional data. Ensuring that a consis- tent national strategy is developed ahead of the data collec- tion effort will be important in collecting data consistently and economically in the long term. Real-Time Data Versus Archived Data The first iteration of the report card being proposed does not require any real-time data. As the report card is refined, if it becomes necessary to have real-time data to populate the report card, then particular attention needs to be paid to the application and database architecture to ensure that the users see the real-time data. Stale data in a real-time measure can lead to users relying less and less on the application and the report card. The timeliness of the data will be particularly important if measures are expanded for real-time operational decision making or performance measurement. The applica- tion will need to be significantly more robust to handle the much greater volume of data required for real-time, versus archived, performance reporting. Sustainability of Report Card Institutional support will be essential. Staff will be needed to sustain the report, answer users’ questions, and maintain the technology. If the data become stale, if users’ questions are not addressed, if technical problems are not resolved, the effort will atrophy. The case studies of the TSI and the FAF illustrate the significant level of effort that is required to sus- tain a reporting process. A level of institutional support simi- lar to those two products will be required to sustain a Freight System Report Card.

Next: Appendix A - Summaries of Freight Performance Information for National Report Card Performance Summaries »
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TRB’s National Cooperative Freight Research Program (NCFRP) Report 10: Performance Measures for Freight Transportation explores a set of measures to gauge the performance of the freight transportation system.

The measures are presented in the form of a freight system report card, which reports information in three formats, each increasingly detailed, to serve the needs of a wide variety of users from decision makers at all levels to anyone interested in assessing the performance of the nation’s freight transportation system.

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