Behavioral investigation on the factors that determine adoption of an electronic toll collection system: Freight carriers

The objective of this paper is to discuss the insight gained into the attitudinal factors that explain freight carriers’ decisions to use electronic toll collection (ETC). The paper uses the freight carrier survey data collected for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ). The qualitative analysis of the data identifies the potential reasons and factors that determined users’ and nonusers’ different responses towards ETC. In addition, a discrete choice modeling process was undertaken to quantify the relationship between the decision to use ETC and the explanatory variables. The modeling results indicate that freight carriers’ ETC choice depends on: the frequency of passing through the PANYNJ facilities, awareness of the ETC features, and business attributes such as company size, origins and destinations of deliveries, the business type, and the commodity types transported. Several important interaction terms were also explored. The paper also undertakes a comparative analysis to identify commonalities and differences between the behavior of freight users, and the behavior of passenger car users identified in a companion paper. This analysis reveals: (1) the importance of awareness campaigns to let potential facility users know the key features of the ETC system; (2) that the intensity of the potential use is a major motivating factor to embrace ETC; (3) that different users seek/value different aspects of ETC; and (4) that there are important user segments that, for reasons not entirely understood, are reluctant to embrace ETC. Since the intensity of use is not a variable that could be influenced by policy measures–as it is determined by the market dominance of the carrier–the best way to increase the market share of ETC is with the use of awareness campaigns aimed at the industry segments, e.g., independent owner operators, that are reluctant to use this important technology.

Research highlights
► Freight carriers’ decision to use electronic toll collection (ETC) is modeled.
► Awareness of the ETC features affects the usage.
► The intensity of the potential use is another major factor.
► Some industry segments are naturally disinclined to use ETC.
► Different users seek/value different aspects of ETC.