For a given environmental or social impact from road freight, there is a question of how much can be regarded as an external cost, as opposed to some costs being internalised by either by the road freight industry, or road users as a whole. There is also a similar question as to the use of external benefits, which have long been used in the evaluation of benefit-cost ratios for major road projects. External benefits are also discussed in the Austroads 1996 Benefit Cost Manual. Favourable travel time savings can result in a high Benefit Cost Ratio (BCR) for a road project. Further work is required in the area of land freight external costs. However, this should not stop government now incorporating into road user pricing and rail pricing conservative values for external land freight costs, so that the operators of diesel powered road vehicles and trains pay a basic externalities charge. This charge could be a adjusted following refinement of the initial estimates. It is also recommended that the additional revenue generated be applied to long overdue land transport infrastructure upgrades. (a) For the covering entry of this conference, please see ITRD abstract no. E213716.
Samenvatting