The Direct Benefits of Road Improvements to Commercial Vehicle Operators – A Review.

This paper reviews the existing theoretical and empirical literature on the direct benefits to commercial vehicle operators of road improvements. The exercise resulted from a need to estimate operating cost and time savings generated by the Humber Bridge. Although there is significant inter- and intrasectional variation, transport and distribution costs average 10-12% of total costs. In assessing the value of time savings, it is argued that several normally serious problems in business travel time analyses are irrelevant for lorry dirvers, whose work is travel. The crucial issues are the usability (and additivity) of time savings and nature of constraints on utilization of time savings, while a set of firms' operating characteristics determines the extent of such utilization.