Transport Benchmarking

This conference proceedings defines transport benchmarking, analyzes its usefulness to policy makers and discusses what lessons can be drawn at the national and international level for policy makers.

This report analyses illustrative benchmarking exercises to provide insights into such questions as what is efficient intermodal freight transport and what opportunities exist to improve complex intermodal chains.

"NCFRP Report 21: Handbook on Applying Environmental Benchmarking in Freight Transportation identifies and evaluates approaches that can be used by public and private entities to estimate, monitor, and reduce freight emissions and impacts across the supply chain by examining how benchmarking can be used as a management tool in the freight and logistics industry to promote environmental performance. The handbook provides a step-by-step overview of the benchmarking process and describes a framework for applying this process to freight carriers, shippers, and freight hubs"--Foreword.

This insightful book provides readers with an in-depth discussion of the use of benchmarking in regulation in the European transport sector. It argues that benchmarking is invaluable to regulators, particularly in the transport sector where the pressures of competition in – or for – the market are often absent.

This insightful book provides readers with an in-depth discussion of the use of benchmarking in regulation in the European transport sector. It argues that benchmarking is invaluable to regulators, particularly in the transport sector where the pressures of competition in - or for - the market are often absent. Written by a range of expert contributors, chapters offer an analysis of methodology, data requirements as well as practical examples of the use of benchmarking in the main transport modes (such as road, rail, seaports, airports and local public transport). Utilising illuminating case studies, the book also reviews the importance of benchmarking in the application of European competition law and considers the issue of obtaining appropriate and reliable data to achieve this. Benchmarking and Regulation in Transport will be an essential read for researchers, scholars and students in the fields of economic regulation, governance, transport economics and transport law. It will also be useful for policymakers and regulators who wish to further their understanding of the benefits of benchmarking in an efficiency-enhancing public policy strategy, especially within transport infrastructure.

TRB's Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) Report 141: A Methodology for Performance Measurement and Peer Comparison in the Public Transportation Industry explores the use of performance measurement and benchmarking as tools to help identify the strengths and weaknesses of a transit organization, set goals or performance targets, and identify best practices to improve performance.

The paper provides a first, systematic benchmarking of infrastructure performance in the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) countries (South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, and Swaziland) in four major sectors-electricity, water and sanitation, information and communication technology, and transportation-against the relevant group of comparator countries using a new World Bank international data base with objective and perception-based indicators of infrastructure performance from over 200 countries. The analysis suggests important comparative gaps in all major infrastructure sectors, although performance varies widely across the SACU region. Performance shortfalls are particularly acute in rural areas where most of the poor live. The benchmarking is envisaged as a comparative input into deeper analyses of infrastructure performance, especially in the context of the ongoing scaling-up efforts (for example, South Africa, Lesotho, and Botswana).

Accompanying CD-ROM contains full text of the manual, Microsoft Excel spreadsheets, and a library of related documents.