Portland Metro Freight Data Collection and Integrated Supply Chain and Truck Touring Models
Corresponding Author: Maren Outwater, RSG
Presented By: Chris Johnson, Portland Metro
Abstract
Metro has recognized the need for coordinated freight planning and freight’s role as an economic engine for the region, leading to the collection of freight data and the development of a new freight model. This integrated modeling system includes a supply chain model, integrated with a regional truck touring model, which is a sequence of models that takes shipments from their final transfer point to their final delivery point. The final transfer point is the last point at which the shipment is handled before delivery (i.e., a warehouse, distribution center, or consolidation center for shipments with a more complex supply chain or the supplier for a direct shipment). It performs the same function in reverse for shipments at the pick-up end, where shipments are taken from the supplier to distances as far as the first transfer point. For shipments that include transfers, the tour-based truck model accounts for the arrangement of delivery and pick-up activity of shipments into truck tours. The freight model will be developed as a metropolitan truck tour model and model parameters will be estimated using data collected in a locally-funded establishment survey, combined with GPS data provided by local establishments. Observed data on origin-destination movements of trucks in the region will also provide a validation data source. The model utilizes simulated commodity flows between industrial sectors to validate external flows into and out of the region for local producer and consumer entities, consistent with state and regional economic forecasts.