MPC
Project Details

Title:	Truck Costing Model for Transportation Managers
Principal Investigators:	Mark Berwick and Douglas Benson
University:	North Dakota State University
Status:	Completed
Year:	2000
Project #:	MPC-202

Abstract

The motor carrier industry has been a recurrent subject for cost studies. All of the referenced studies use an economic-engineering approach to estimate trucking costs. The economic-engineering model estimates the production function with a given set of factor prices. Most studies use survey as a data collecting tool to arrive at costs by averaging information received from the survey. Cost components are easily identified in the economic-engineering approach and thus cost estimates of a new startup firm are readily available. A weakness of the economic-engineering approach is that the results are based on average values of input prices and resource usage. Thus, the results are accurate for a limited population. Furthermore, a new study must be under taken to update the results.

An Owner/Operator Spreadsheet Costing Model developed in 1996 has been useful however it is based on a spreadsheet and is not a stand-alone model or software product. The model will be a stand-alone product that may be employed by transportation managers and researchers. The model will be expanded to include many truck configurations and also capture terminal and line haul costs.

Project Deliverables

• [Final Report] Truck Costing Model for Transportation Managers — MPC-03-152