This chapter describes some special features of the transport market, and discusses how it operates. Transport usually operates in a market system far removed from the ideal market. There are many markets, but they are linked on the demand side by the possibility of substitution between modes, and on the supply side by the ability of inputs to switch between markets. The system by which transport prices are formed and published is rather impure and not very transparent. In considering how the transport market operates, the chapter addresses the following questions: (1) How far is the transport market from perfect competition ? (2) What is the transport market's economic efficiency ? (3) Is the transport market a monopoly or an oligopoly ? (4) Can competition exist in a monopolistic or oligopolistic situation ? and (5) How stable is the transport market ?
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