For a long time, freight transport demand models have been inspired by, and transferred from, the models for passenger demand. However, in recent years specific methods have been developed to address the modelling of the freight transportation system along various strategies which led to a handful of models, each of which being targeted at a specific aspect of freight demand. The paper has a twofold objective: first, to review the models and approaches; second, to discuss which specificities of the freight transportation system are correctly accounted for. The models for freight demand have been classified into three categories, depending on whether they are focused on representation of the supply side of the freight transport system, or the demand one, or the relationship between them. Such categories do not intend to be well-delineated, but rather to highlight the objective chosen by the modellers; moreover, there are composite models which link together components taken from two or more of the categories. After introducing the models that are currently available (at least for research purposes), an assessment is performed along the following set of issues: the representation and its level of disaggregation; the segmentation of the demand; the modelling of modal choices; the representation of times and costs throughout the logistic processing of a shipment; the representation of the relationships between the economic agents; the appraisal of the social costs; and the ability to test policies. For the covering abstract see ITRD E137145.
Abstract