Q2 Z2,(Q2) Z2(Q2) - Institute for Water Resources - U.S. Army

CRAFTER III
METHOD OF ANALYSIS
Introduction
The purpose of the research reported in this dissertation is to
develop process functions for the linehaul, or point-to-point, opera-
tions of freight transport vehicles. Loading and unloading activities
are excluded from the production process although these terminal oper-
ations could easily be incorpprated into the model as well be indicated
later. Another quasi-terminal activity--assembly and disassembly of
the transport vehicle or train of vehicles--is analyzed and included
as a linehaul function, for the case of barge tows.
The "output" of transportation is the physical movement of.a
commodity from one place to another in a given time. Such an output
will differ as commodity, time required for shipment, and distance be-
tween origin and destination differ. Therefore, the customary outpdt
measure for freight transport--the,ton-mile per unit time--is inade-
quate in several respects. While the ton .-mile per hour will be used
as the output measure in the following analysis, implicit in the for-
mulation is the trip time, the route characteristics, and the equip-
ment utilized. The inputs to the productive process may of course
be any factor that even remotely affects the output. However, it is
desired to restrict the, number of _inputs to manageable proportions
while including those over which someone has control. In the case -
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