Quantitative Evaluation of Characteristics of RORO shipping Service by Use of a Modal Choice Model Comparing Toll Expressway and Railway Transportation

Freight transportation is under the effects of 24 hours work-life cycle, and shipping times of some kinds of goods are significantly affected by the cycle. Some of the authors of this paper had proposed a model to predict the shipping time decision considering the effects of 24 hours work-life cycle. The model takes account of the effects by assuming disutilities due to the earliness in the morning and the lateness in the night and other requirements from the daily cycle of wor king. It also considers the competitive decision making between shippers and carriers in a simple way. The model was expanded to describe the choices of routes modes considering additional LOS variables.This paper applies the model to the RORO shipping service in order to find the quantitative evaluation of RORO marine transportation.The RORO service provide distinctive features of toll expressway and railway service from the view of truck drivers’ employment and monetary payment, but the drivers are free from driving on RORO shipping while the drivers have to keep driving on the toll roads. In this study, we evaluated the RORO shipping service compared with toll expressway and railway transportation.