Integration of Freight

This paper written for IMPRINT [IMPRINT, 2001] addresses the concerns of the freight transport with respect to urban pricing schemes. The viewpoints of the transport stakeholders, the limited reaction possibilities within the goods collection and distribution processes as well as the cities interests are presented for the different pricing motivations: the fair charging of infrastructure cost, the charging of external cost, the reduction of negative transport impacts and the influencing of the demand. City administrations would need to pay more attention to freight transport thereby having a model in mind or at hand about the freight transport processes and its influencing parameters. The important role of the urban goods supply is not enough recognised by the European citizens. Urban pricing schemas might impose additional problems to transport operators beside the fee itself: there are additional cost for the access equipment, the access procedures and the accounting processes; the transport equipment renewal cycles have to be taken into account; vehicle type or operation restrictions change the transport planning optima and can increase the environmental impact; new and probably more complex private freight transport pricing schemes are needed and finally there might occur strange situations at pricing boundaries or with respect to the distinguishing between freight and passenger transport. Justifying the objectives of potential new pricing schemas especially for the freight transport, harmonising the freight transport taxation and pricing in Europe and making the overall public freight transport taxes and cost (sources as well as expenditures) transparent are important steps towards a fair and efficient transport pricing.