Commercial Vehicle Value of Time and Perceived Benefit of Congestion Pricing

This study investigated the value of time for commercial vehicles in urban areas and its implications for perceived benefits created by congestion pricing projects. Central questions explored were (1) Do values of time differ among commercial vehicle operators? If so, what explains the differences? (2) Will congestion pricing make particular segments of the commercial vehicle industry better-off than others due to differences in values of time? In the first part of the study, stated preference data for measuring commercial vehicle value of time were collected by interviewing 70 truck operators in California. The value of time was estimated based on the point of diversion at which the switch of facility occurred in the stated preference questions, and also using a modified logit model in which the coefficients to be estimated were assumed to be distributed lognormally across the population. The former approach revealed that the value of time can be well replicated with a lognormal distribution. The latter approach, of the random coefficient logit model, indicated that the mean and standard deviation of the value of tie were $23.4/hr. and $32/hr., respectively. Comparisons between data sets that were segmented according to business type, shipment size, and the method of driver compensation indicated that for-hire trucks tend to have higher value of time than those who pay by commission or fixed salary. Using the SR91 congestion pricing project in Southern California as a case study, perceived benefits for commercial vehicles were calculated based on the value of time estimated by the logit model. The analyses revealed that trucks with high values of time receive a disproportional amount of benefit, especially if the toll is expensive. The comparison between for-hire and private trucks indicated that the former, due to their considerably higher mean value of time, tend to receive much greater benefit individually and collect slightly ore aggregate benefit than the latter despite smaller numbers. However, the share of the benefit received by each sector is relatively unaffected by the level of the toll charged.