Modeling the Clustering of Distribution Centers around Amsterdam Airport Schiphol: location endowments, economies of agglomeration, locked-in logistics and policy implications

This thesis deals with the explanation of why European Distribution Centers (EDCs) cluster around Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. We present and test a new model of the clustering of EDCs around the airport. The Netherlands is an attractive location for EDCs. Approximately one-half of all EDCs in Europe are located in The Netherlands. Schiphol represents an important concentration of EDCs. The amount and nature of distribution centers located in the surrounding areas of Schiphol is a prime concern for Dutch policymakers because of two reasons. First, attracting EDCs means attracting all kinds of international goods flows, investments and employment. Second, EDCs are space demanding while the amount of open space available outside the airport is limited and earmarked for airport-dependent (or airport-related) firms. However, it is unknown whether the right locations are allocated to the right distribution centers and whether a bad location policy has long-lasting bad effects. The explanation of why economic activities cluster around airports is important for location theory and location policy regarding airport regions. The traditional answer to the question why distribution centers cluster around Schiphol is that they are attracted to the airport due to the importance of having air transport services at their disposal. However, we show that this is only a partial answer. The main message of our study is that the clustering of EDCs near Schiphol needs to be accompanied by new insights concerning location policy

New values of time and reliability in passenger transport in The Netherlands

We have established new values of time (VOTs) and values of travel time reliability (VORs) for use in cost-benefit analysis (CBA) of transport projects in The Netherlands. This was the first national study in The Netherlands (and one of the first world-wide) to investigate these topics empirically in a joint framework. Stated preference (SP) questionnaires were designed for interviewing travellers, where the hypothetical alternatives were described in terms of travel time, travel costs and travel time reliability, the latter being presented to the respondents in the form of five possible travel times having equal probability. For passenger transport, we first collected interviews using an existing internet panel. Additional data collection recruitment was done by asking travellers at petrol stations/service areas, parking garages, stations, bus stops, airports and ports to participate in the survey. One important conclusion is that the SP survey using members of this internet panel leads to substantially lower VOTs than the SP survey with en-route recruitment, probably because of self-selection bias in the internet panel. We estimated discrete choice models in which the values of time differ between trips with different time and costs levels, different time and costs changes offered in the SP, and different observed characteristics of the respondents (e.g. education, income, age, household composition). By using a panel latent class model, we also account for unobserved differences between respondents in the value of time and for repeated measurements/panel effects. The reference values of time and the reference reliability ratios were estimated on the 2011 sample only, but the effect of time and cost level, time and cost changes offered and socio-economic attributes was estimated on both the 2009 and 2011 samples

Forecasting travel-time reliability in road transport: A new model for the Netherlands

In this paper we describe how we included travel time variability in the national Dutch transport forecasting model and what the policy impacts of this new forecasting tool are. Until now, travel time reliability improvements for road projects were included in Dutch cost-benefit analysis (CBA) by multiplying the travel time benefits from reduced congestion by a factor 1.25. This proportionality is based on the linkage between congestion reduction and reliability improvements. However, this treatment of reliability is not useful to evaluate policies that especially affect travel time variability. From the start, this method was provisional and meant to be replaced by a better method capturing travel time variability. For this, we derived an empirical relation between the standard deviation of travel time, mean delay of travel time and length of route. This has been implemented in the national Dutch model as a post processing module. The new travel time reliability forecasting model will be incorporated in the Dutch guidelines for CBA. Document type: Part of book or chapter of boo

Forecasting Travel Time Reliability in Road Transport

In this paper we describe how we included travel time variability in the national Dutch transport forecasting model and what the policy impacts of this new forecasting tool are. Until now, travel time reliability improvements for road projects were included in Dutch cost-benefit analysis (CBA) by multiplying the travel time benefits from reduced congestion by a factor 1.25. This proportionality is based on the linkage between congestion reduction and reliability improvements. However, this treatment of reliability is not useful to evaluate policies that especially affect travel time variability. From the start, this method was provisional and meant to be replaced by a better method capturing travel time variability. For this, we derived an empirical relation between the standard deviation of travel time, mean delay of travel time and length of route. This has been implemented in the national Dutch model as a post processing module. The new travel time reliability forecasting model will be incorporated in the Dutch guidelines for CBA

Does conducting activities while traveling reduce the value of time? Evidence from a within-subjects choice experiment

Many studies about conducting activities while traveling start from the hypothesis that conducting onboard activities reduces the value of time (VoT). However, surprisingly limited empirical evidence is provided for this hypothesis. The few studies that aim at providing this evidence face methodological problems in the sense that effects attributed to conducting onboard activities are confounded with differences between groups. This paper further develops and applies a solution for this problem proposed by Wardman and Lyons (2016). In essence, this method includes constructing a within-person choice experiment, which involves that the same respondents make choices in a context that enables conducting activities, as well as in a context that does not enable conducting activities. This method is applied in a study that collected data from 820 train travelers in the Netherlands. The results show that as expected, the VoT in the activity context is significantly lower than the VoT in the non-activity context, which thus supports the hypothesis. Reduction in VoT due to conducting onboard activities is around 30% for commuters, while leisure travelers who prefer to read lose almost half their VoT value. In addition, this paper discusses how the estimated VoT reduction values can be interpreted as the Value of Activity (VoA), which can be used for appraising investments aimed at reducing the disutility of travel other than by means of reducing travel time, such as improving Internet connections.Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.Transport and LogisticsTransport and Plannin

Synchromodal transport: From theory to practice: Case study port of Rotterdam: Identifying the success/fail factors

Container port competitiveness is generally conceptualized as being driven by straightforward criteria, such as port costs, handling efficiency, hinterland connectivity, and the quality of infrastructure and services. Synchromodal freight transport service is an emerging and developing concept of freight transport operations, as shippers and carriers consider hinterland, short-sea, and deep-sea connectivity as major port choice criteria to run these port operations smoothly. Although scientists claim that synchromodality is a promising concept with a lot of potential advantages synchromodal transport is currently implemented at limited scale.In this study a survey is carried out among 30 different small/medium enterprises (SMEs) in the field of port logistics to identify the success/fail factors of using synchromodal transport in practice. Companies are classified as experienced or inexperienced users of synchromodal transport. The experienced users have a stronger attention to the operational factors of synchromodal transport. Their experiences with flexibility, availability of infrastructure, damage-control and specific data sharing seems to be determining factors in their usage of synchromodal transport. The non-experienced companies are hindered by ignorance of synchromodality and focus on issues such as lack of knowledge, how to start knowledge, lack of transparency and complexity of synchromodal transport. Our findings suggest that to increase the share of synchromodal transport it is necessary that companies and policy makers who want to encourage the use of synchromodal transport should make different action plans considering the level of experience of the enterprises.Transport and Logistic

Sharing concepten in stadslogistiek: The Big Five

Het delen van ongebruikte en/of onderbenutte middelen kan nieuwe verbeteringen opleveren in de logistieke waardeketen. In vijf sectoren van het stedelijk goederenvervoer, te weten stadslogistiek, bouwlogistiek, transport & warehousing (retaillogistiek), zorglogistiek en servicelogistiek, worden concepten voor het delen van diensten bestudeerd voor de hele stad Rotterdam. Op basis van onze belangrijkste case study-bevindingen kan worden vastgesteld dat er binnen de sectoren van het stedelijk goederenvervoer nogal wat verschillen bestaan met betrekking tot de maturiteit van delen. In deze paper is per sector weergegeven wat de volgende implementatie stappen zijn.Transport and Logistic