# Presentation: 940837

## Crystal JonesOffice of Freight Managementand Operations

- USDOT
- Federal Highway Administration
- November 2007

## Purpose and Desired Outcomes

**Purpose:**
- Provide an informational presentation on FHWA’s  initiatives to measure freight mobility
**Desired Outcomes:**
- Familiarization with the FHWA efforts to measure travel time on freight significant corridors and border crossing and delay
- Audience input and feedback on future research

## Topical Outline

- FHWA – Office of Freight Management and Operations
- Initiative Background
- Methodology
- Current Measures
- Future Measures
- Other Data Applications
- Challenges and Opportunities
- Future Research
- Summary and Conclusions

## FHWA - Office of Freight Management and Operations – Objectives

- Understand the  magnitude and geography of freight moving on the nation’s transportation system, including international freight
- Develop strategies, analytical tools, institutional arrangements, and professional capacities for all levels of government to address freight movement
- Understand and promote the economic benefits of freight transportation
- Encourage innovative freight technology & operations
- Enforce commercial vehicle size and weight requirements

## Strategic Objective  - Global Connectivity“Facilitate a more efficient domestic and global transportation system that enables economic growth and development”

**Desired Outcomes**
- Reduce/Remove transportation-related barriers to trade
- More efficient movement of cargo throughout the supply chain
**Goals**
- To reduce travel time in key highway freight corridors
- To reduce delays of commercial vehicles processed at National Highway System border crossings
**Outcome Measures ****	**
- Travel Time and Reliability on Freight Significant Highways
- Border Crossing Time

**Notes:**
-US DOT DESIRED OUTCOMES FOR Global Connectivity
1)      Reduced barriers to trade in transportation goods and services
1)      More efficient movement of cargo throughout the supply chain
2)      Enhanced international competitiveness of U.S. transport providers and manufacturers
3)      Harmonized and standardized regulatory and facilitation requirements
4)      The most competitive, cost effective and efficient environment for passenger travel
5)      Expanded opportunities for all businesses, especially small, women-owned and disadvantaged businesses 

Mention other related work we have on-going to address transportation-related barriers (e.g. electronic freight management, CTIP, E-permitting)

## What are Freight Performance Indicators?

*Point-to-point travel times on selected freight-significant highways *
*Crossing times at international borders*
*Condition of connectors between NHS and intermodal terminals*
- Cost of highway freight per ton-mile
- Cargo insurance rates
- Customer satisfaction.
- Hours of delay per 1,000 vehicle miles on selected freight-significant highways

- http://www.ops.fhwa.dot.gov/freight/freight_analysis/perform_meas/fpmtraveltime/index.htm

**Notes:**
Focus of the research was to determine what indicators may be available for use by FHWA to detect and assess, on an annual basis, productivity and efficiency in the movement of commercial goods by motor vehicles.

 These measures were selected in an evaluation process that balanced the inherent value of an indicator as a measure of performance against the difficulty and cost of obtaining the necessary data. No rigid scoring methodology was used for the selection of recommended indicators. In general, the measures that were recommended are those that ranked highest in terms of descriptive value and technical appropriateness. Data availability and costs are important considerations for FHWA as it considers the use of these measures. However, this does not mean that measures with relatively high data costs should not be pursued. Customer satisfaction, for example, would require considerable effort to design a survey, obtain the cooperation of private firms, and carry out the survey on an annual basis. Nonetheless, it was recommended because of the high value of the information it could provide to FHWA. 

## Why Speed and Reliability?

- _Improve customer service, transit __speed and reliability_		-_*L&M Transportation Services, Inc*__.__ _
- _Improve Freight Delivery __Speed and Reliability_		-_*Georgia Regional Transportation Authority*__* *_
- _“__help you move freight across borders and through ports of entry with greater __speed and reliability...”_
-                              - _*Schneider National Inc.*_
- _“__FedEx Freight is known for exceptional service, __reliability __and on-time performance”_
*	**	**                           *_*- FEDEX Freight*_
- _BAX Global specializes in transporting cargo for customers who value __speed, reliability__ and high levels of cost-efficient service. _
*           **- *_*BAX  Global*_

## What?  
Use trucks as probes.
Why?
Provides a quantifiable basis to engage public and private sector and investigate and explore causes of delay.
How?
Partnership with American Transportation Research Institute, data providers, and motor carriers.
Where?
25 major US interstates.
Land border crossings.
5 US/Canada crossings.
US/Mexico under development.

- Use trucks as probes.
**Why?**
- Provides a quantifiable basis to engage public and private sector and investigate and explore causes of delay.
**How?**
- Partnership with American Transportation Research Institute, data providers, and motor carriers.
**Where?**
- 25 major US interstates.
- Land border crossings.
- 5 US/Canada crossings.
- US/Mexico under development.

**Background and Methodology**

**Notes:**
What?

Automatic Vehicle Location(AVL)/Satellite Technology
GPS Coordinates (Date and Time Stamped)
Unique Carrier ID

Why?

One of several analytical tools that helps get us to solutions – target resources where greatest needs exists

How?
Data Cleansing techniques allows collection of collection data from all/most of the vendor’s carrier subscribers (~250,000 vehicles)

## Original 5 Study Corridors

## 25 Corridors

## Data Collection and Analysis 

| ID | TIME | Latitude | Longitude | Interstate |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| POLXGXB | 4/2/2004  04:06:00 | -122.185 | 48.1022 | I5 |
| LLBLPXE | 4/2/2004  04:10:00 | -123.384 | 42.6044 | I5 |
| OP11RE | 4/7/2004  11:40:00 | -122.333 | 48.4175 | I5 |
| BXLESXB | 4/8/2004  20:41:00 | -118.469 | 34.2925 | I5 |
| X1OBLPE | 4/8/2004  20:41:00 | -119.259 | 35.2992 | I5 |

- Data Characteristics
- ID, Time Stamp, Lat, Long, Interstate Identifier

## Data Processing Procedures

- Import raw vehicle location data into a database
- Project data to route references and remove outliers
-  Generate trips by sorting data using a unique truck ID and time
- Calculate average speed for each trip and remove speed outliers
- Perform segmentation per specified, or pre-defined, segment size

## Freight Significant Corridors
Average Operating Speeds (entire Corridor)
Travel Time Reliability (Buffer Index) 
Borders (US/Canada)
Total Crossing Time
Crossing Time Reliability (Buffer Index)

- Average Operating Speeds (entire Corridor)
- Travel Time Reliability (Buffer Index)
- Borders (US/Canada)
- Total Crossing Time
- Crossing Time Reliability (Buffer Index)

**Current Measures**** - **

## What is travel time reliability?

- Consistency or dependability in travel times measured from:
- Day-to-day; and/or
- Across different times of day
- For Freight (for a trade lane, origin-destination pair, across the border)
- Not focused on typical delay (capacity-demand) so much as unexpected delay

- Averages don’t tell the full story

## Reliability Measures

- FPM Buffer Index
- Extra % of Time Needed to Travel a segment of a highway and arrive On-Time, 95% of the Time

## Measures for different uses/users

|  | Measure X | Measure Y | Measure Z, Etc. |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Pickup and delivery |  |  |  |
| Detour/diversion |  |  |  |
| HAZMAT routing |  |  |  |
| Weigh stations |  |  |  |
| Refueling |  |  |  |
| Road closures |  |  |  |

## Commercial Vehicle Average Speeds I-95

## Slide 18

## Other Travel Time Measures

- Measures of average travel time
- Average travel time in peak period in major metro areas
- city-to-city travel time
- shipper point-to-point travel time
- Measures of delay (or added travel time)
- hours of delay per 1000 vehicle-mile
- percent of corridor experiencing AM/PM peak delay
- Reliability Measures
- Annual hours of incident-based delay
- Annual hours of work-zone based delay
- Annual hours of weather-based delay

## FPM Border Component (US/CN)

- Data Available from 05/01/06 to present for 5 Crossings
- Blaine (Pacific Highway): Blaine, WA
- Pembina: Pembina, ND
- Ambassador Bridge: Detroit, MI
- Peace Bridge: Buffalo, NY
- Champlain: Champlain, NY
- Effort looks at crossings as well as transportation network that supports the crossings

## Data Collection at Ambassador

- 4 US Approaches

- Michigan Route 3
- Interstate 75
- Interstate 94
- Interstate 96

- Provincial 401
- ON Provincial 3
- E.C. Row EXPY

- 3 CN Approaches

**Notes:**
Blaine (Pacific Highway): Blaine, WA
Pembina: Pembina, ND
Ambassador Bridge: Detroit, MI
Peace Bridge: Buffalo, NY
Champlain: Champlain, NY
Effort looks at crossings as well as  transportation network that supports the crossingsOur intent is not to use the data to point out any one agencies performance at the border, but rather use the data as a way of determining how the border is performing as a system.  From a transportation perspective we can use the data to determine where improvements can be made – 
 -  Data is available for  approximately 100 miles on each side of the border
 - Data for each of the crossings can be  “Zoned”  to focus on a particular area for any given crossing
  - Intent is to use the data to derive travel time, border crossing times and delay measures. any of the zones
Sample Measures
Baseline– the minutes required to cross during optimal conditions Average Crossing Time – the mean crossing time in minutes for sampled vehicles crossCrossing Time Delay  --  the difference in minutes between the average travel time measured and the baseline time for the crossing.95 Percentile Time – the minutes required for 95 percent of the sampled vehicles to cross between monitoring sites.  (this can be varied)
Travel Time Reliability
The “extra” time that must built into planned travel time/crossing, (1) based on average travel time, but (2) recognizing that greater crossing times are a real possibility.
Focus is more on unexpected delay – not recurring delay
Aligned with industry trend toward just-in time
Predictability-reliability are as important as speed
Plan for the worse, hope for the best
	-In addition we can do Time of Day, Time of Week, Day of Week, analysis, etc., 
- We can also analysis the data and relate the results to changes in the border operating environment  - (e.g. changes in threat levels, before and after analysis (major infrastructure improvement, major facility upgrade, major regulatory-procedural change)

**Notes:**
  - To processing the data each of the crossings is “Zoned” similar to this example shown here for Ambassador
  - We can derive travel time and border crossing and delay measures any of the zones
	- In addition we can do TOD analysis
	- TOY analysis
	- Day of Week
- We can also analysis the data and relate the results to changes in the border operating environment  - (e.g. changes in threat levels, before and after analysis (major infrastructure improvement, major facility upgrade, major regulatory-procedural change)
-
  - We have a few examples of results for the Ambassador crossing -- but first I’ll provide more background of the measures being derived in the slide that follows) 

1)   Time is in minutes.														
2)   Results measure time between a U.S. ping and a Canada ping for an individual truck.														
3)  U.S. data falls within 2 "roadway" miles of border crossing.														
4)   Canadian data falls within 2 "roadway" miles of border crossing. 														
5)   Data falling outside of one standard deviation of the mean is removed prior to calculation of the reported average. 														
6)   Median calculations include all data; no removal of 1 standard deviation														
7)   Sample sizes are for numbers that are used in the calculation of the average (ie numbers within one standard deviation).  														

## Blaine (May 06 to Mar 07)

- SOURCE: FHWA/ATRI FREIGHT PEFORMANCE MEASUREMENT PROGRAM.  THIS INFORMATION IS PRELIMINARY.

- Average Crossing Time

- 36

- 32

- 37

- 34

- 39

- 35

- 31

- 33

- 25

- 22

- 23

- 40

- 31

- 32

- 31

- 39

- 35

- 36

- 38

- 40

- 39

- 38

- 0

- 5

- 10

- 15

- 20

- 25

- 30

- 35

- 40

- 45

- May-

- 06

- Jun-

- 06

- Jul-06

- Aug-

- 06

- Sep-

- 06

- Oct-

- 06

- Nov-

- 06

- Dec-

- 06

- Jan-

- 07

- Feb-

- 07

- Mar-

- 07

- Month

- Time(Minutes)

- Into Canada

- Into US

**Notes:**
3)  U.S. data falls within 2 "roadway" miles of border crossing.														
4)   Canadian data falls within 2 "roadway" miles of border crossing. 														
5)   Data falling outside of one standard deviation of the mean is removed prior to calculation of the reported average. 														
6)   Median calculations include all data; no removal of 1 standard deviation														
7)   Sample sizes are for numbers that are used in the calculation of the average (ie numbers within one standard deviation of the mean).  														

## Data Applications

- State/MPO Performance Measurement
- Recurring Congestion and Delay
- Non-Recurring Congestionand Delay
- Weather
- Work Zone
- Incidents
- Other
- Trucking Parking Analysis
- Travel Demand Analysis

## Freight Measures 

- Freight tonnage by mode
- Average travel speeds for trucks on selected roadway sections
- Percent of trucks using advanced technology at Missouri weigh stations
- Interstate motor carrier mileage
- Percent of satisfied motor carriers
- Customer satisfaction with timeliness of Motor Carrier Services’ response

## Supplement breaks down measures for internal use
Districts and divisions have their own Trackers
Individual performance plans

- Supplement breaks down measures for internal use
- Districts and divisions have their own Trackers
- Individual performance plans

**Notes:**
The effects of Tracker are felt throughout the organization.  Many measures in Tracker have supplemental information that illustrates individual districts’ performance.  

Districts and divisions produce their own Trackers to better manage their operations.  The measures found in these Tracker reports focus on district and division performance results.  The cascading effect continues on down to individual performance plans by linking employee expectations to Tracker measure results and, ultimately, to the Tangible Results.

Our updated MAPS that we will all follow, now links each performance expectation to tangible results and MoDOT values.  
In this sense we are beyond where most organization make it in combining performance throughout the organization.  The Tracker, and its underlying purpose, is truly integrated into everything we do.

## Focused Strategies

**Average Travel Speeds for Trucks on Selected Roadway Sections**
**2006 Calendar Year Comparison for Interstate 70**

## Recurring Congestion

## Weather Example

**Weather Example**

## Slide 30

## Slide 31

## Truck Parking

**Notes:**
 This is Wilmington Delaware near an intermodal facility.  Inside the red circle are 2000+ parked truck reads during the month of October 2006.  Truck reads are for vehicles parked for more than 1 hour, and that are within 1/4 mile of the interstate.

## Truck Travel Demand

## Truck Travel Demand

## Benefits and Issues of Probe Vehicle Systems

- Benefits
- Accurate data collection that directly measures traffic conditions (freight)
- Data collection that covers a wide area (not just urban/metropolitan areas)
- Issues
- Data Processing and Management
- Privacy/Data Sharing
- Data Quality

## Perfect data does not exist

- _Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good_
- What quality is good enough?
- Start using what you have and plan for improvements

## What quality is good enough?

- 1674

## What quality is good enough?

- 1788

## What quality is good enough?

- 1849

## What quality is good enough?

- 2007

## What quality is good enough?

- 2003-2004

## What quality is good enough?

- 2005

## What quality is good enough?

- 2006-
- 2007

## What quality is good enough?

- Beyond
- 2007

## Key Next Steps

- Develop a Web-based tool to disseminate data –primary audiences are public transportation agencies (e.g. State DOTs) and Academia
- Directional
- Time of Day
- City Pairs
- Expanding beyond the interstate system
- Enhance data by adding additional vendors/fleets
- Partner with public agencies and universities to apply the results
- Decision Support Tools
- Trend Analysis
- Demand Modeling
- Forecasting Models
- Cost Benefit/Analysis
- Before and After Assessments
- Expand US/Cda  Data Collection by up to 10 crossings
- Expand to US/Mexico Border

## Additional information

- January 2006 report:
*Travel Time Reliability: Making It There On Time, All The Time*
- http://www.ops.fhwa.dot.gov
- Contacts:
- Crystal Jones, FHWA, 202-366-2976