Research Needs for Agriculture Freight

PacTrans Region 10 Transportation Conference

October 6, 2017

Seattle, WA

Jesse Gastelle

Economist

Transportation Services Division
Transportation Services Division (TSD)

• Analysis and market reports:

 U.S. grain

 Brazil & Mexico grain analysis 

 Modal share analysis

 Commodity and port profiles

 Rail studies

 Study of Rural Transportation 

Issues

• STB filings

• Cooperative research agreements

• Data

www.ams.usda.gov/agtransportation
Agriculture and Infrastructure

• Efficient transportation is critical to US 

agriculture’s world competitiveness

• Agricultural shippers are significant users of the 

US transportation system

• Agriculture’s use of the transportation system 

encompasses all modes, from rural highways to 

coastal ports.

• Agriculture’s and other freight’s transportation 

volume is expected to increase over coming 

decades
Truck Flows: Agriculture vs. Total Freight

Source: U.S. DOT, Bureau of Transportation Statistics and Federal Highway Administration, FAF version 4.2.
Barge Flows: Agriculture vs. Total Freight 

Source: U.S. Department of Transportation. The map uses U.S. Army Corps of Engineers 2012 Waterborne Commerce data.
Rail Flows: Agriculture vs. Total Freight 

Source: U.S. Department of Transportation. The map uses data from the 2013 Carload Waybill Sample.
Federal Agencies are Recognizing Need 

to Invest in Infrastructure

• DOT’s “2015 Status of the Nation's Highways, Bridges 

and Transit: Conditions and Performance” identifies an 

$836 billion backlog of unmet capital investment needs 

for highways and bridges

• USACE’s 2016 Capital Investment Strategy identified 

$4.9 billion needed to maintain Inland Waterways over 

the next 20 years

• American Association of Port Authorities 2015 “State of 

Freight” identified $29 billion in baseline investment 

needs over the next decade
MAP-21 and Fast Act

• Multimodal Freight Policy designed to improve 

infrastructure investments and policies to

o Strengthen U.S. competitiveness

o Reduce congestion and bottlenecks

• DOT National Multimodal Freight Plan

o Freight tonnage expected to double over next 30 years

o Recognized underinvestment in infrastructure

o Plans to:

 Direct funding/incentives to reduce congestion/bottlenecks

 Facilitate intermodal connectivity

 Identify major gateways/corridors
AMS Cooperative Agreements

• Research is policy and industry driven, aiming to

o Improve understanding of infrastructure needs for 

agriculture

o Better understand agricultural transportation 

economics

o Increase understanding of agricultural freight flows

• Recent cooperative agreements fit into the MAP21 and FAST Act framework
Examples of Recent Cooperative 

Agreements (1/3)

• Agricultural Supply Chains and Infrastructure 

Needs on the U.S.-Mexico Border

o Luis Ribera and Flynn Adcock at TAMU

o Conducted research into potential cross-border 

infrastructure and institutional improvements to 

enhance ag trade efficiency

o Conducting workshops in cross-border states to 

present research to stakeholders and decision makers
Examples of Recent Cooperative 

Agreements (2/3)

• Agriculture Infrastructure Prioritization

o Eric Jessup and Ken Casavant

o Developed model for evaluating infrastructure 

investments for different types of agricultural supply 

chains

o Conducting workshops to present this research to 

state, regional, and local decision makers, in order to 

improve investment prioritization and to refine the 

model to incorporate more local needs
Examples of Recent Cooperative 

Agreements (3/3)

• Agricultural Freight Corridors, Railroad Capacity, and 

the Implications of Railroad Rates

o Mark Burton and Larry Bray at University of Texas

o Studying the competitive interactions between barge 

and rail in areas that are served by both railroads and 

the inland navigation system.

• Commodity Competition for Rail: Measuring Effects of 

Rail Traffic on Rates and Carloadings of Grain

o Wesley Wilson at University of Oregon

o Estimating the effects of changes in the distribution 

and level of railroad traffic on rates and carloadings for 

grain and other agricultural commodities
Ideas for Potential Future Research (1/2)

• Trucking

o Quantify the independent owner-operator drivers, 

other small trucking companies serving the 

agricultural, forest products, and food industry

o Quantify truckloads of such products in NAFTA trade

• Barge

o Evaluate how barge benefits U.S. agriculture and the 

wider economy 

o How to fund Inland Waterways in the future?

o How resilient are inland waterways to disruptions?
Ideas for Potential Future Research (2/2)

• Rail

o Evaluating effects of and potential for shortline 

railroads investment

o Evaluating effects of decline of coal and changing 

traffic mix on agricultural service and rates

• Ocean

o The impact of the new ocean carrier alliance structure

o Container availability

o Effects of new technology systems to improve supply 

chain efficiencies. 
Data Needs

• Additional data

o Timely truck volumes, rates, and availability for grain and other 

commodities

o Multimodal data of higher fidelity

o Port performance measures to include vessel queues, berth 

activities, terminal yard activities, and truck gate operations

o Lock performance measures to include vessel type

• Better “Open Data” Experiences

o Under development internally

o Data visualizations - Create a better “open data” experience for 

AMS’ public ag. transportation data

o On behalf of stakeholders, “unlock” data from AMS and other 

agencies
Contact Information

Jesse Gastelle

Economist

Transportation Services Division

Agricultural Marketing Service

U.S. Department of Agriculture 

Phone: (202) 690-1144

Email: jesse.gastelle@ams.usda.gov

Website: www.ams.usda.gov/agtransportation