Transport costs are a monetary measure of what the transport provider must pay to produce transportation services.
1. Transport Costs and Rates
Transport systems face requirements to increase their capacity and to reduce the costs of mobility. All users (e.g. individuals, corporations, institutions, governments, etc.) must negotiate or bid for the mobility of passengers and freight because supplies, distribution systems, tariffs, salaries, locations, marketing techniques as well as fuel costs are constantly changing. There are also costs involved in gathering information, negotiating, and enforcing contracts and transactions, which are often referred as the cost of doing business. Trade also involves transactions costs that all agents attempt to reduce since transaction costs account for a growing share of the resources consumed by the economy.
Frequently, corporations and individuals must take decisions about how to route passengers or freight through the transport system. For passengers, this choice has been considerably expanded in the context of rising incomes and the availability of modes. For freight, the production of light and high value consuming goods, such as electronics, and less bulky production techniques has expanded the locational choice of production and distribution. It is not uncommon for transport costs to account for 10% of the total cost of a product. This share also roughly applies to personal mobility where households spend about 10% of their income for transportation, including automobile ownership which has a complex cost structure. Thus, the choice of a transportation mode to route passengers and freight between origins and destinations becomes important and depends on several factors such as the nature of the goods, the available infrastructures, origins and destinations, technology, and particularly their respective distances. Jointly, they define transportation costs.
Transport costs are the costs internally assumed by the providers of transport services. They come as fixed (infrastructure) and variable (operating) costs, depending on a variety of conditions related to geography, infrastructure, administrative barriers, energy, and on how passengers and freight are carried. Three major components, related to transactions, shipments and the friction of distance, impact on transport costs.
Household Expenditures on Transport, United States, 2005
Components of Transport Cost
Average Fares Disbursed for JFK–LAX Route, 2009 (April to July)
Transport costs have significant impacts on the structure of economic activities as well as on international trade. Empirical evidence underlines that raising transport costs by 10% reduces trade volumes by more than 20% and that the general quality of transport infrastructure can account for half of the variation in transport costs. In a competitive environment where transportation is a service that can be bid on, transport costs are influenced by the respective rates of transport companies, the portion of the transport costs charged to users.
Rates are the price of transportation services paid by their users. They are the negotiated monetary cost of moving a passenger or a unit of freight between a specific origin and destination. Rates are often visible to the consumers since transport service providers must provide this information to secure transactions. They may not necessarily express the real transport costs.
The difference between costs and rates either results in a loss or a profit from the service provider. Considering the components of transport costs previously discussed, rate setting is a complex undertaking subject to constant change. For public transit, rates are often fixed and the result of a political decision where a share of the total costs is subsidized by the society. The goal is to provide an affordable mobility to the largest possible segment of the population even if this implies a recurring deficit (public transit systems rarely make any profit). It is thus common for public transit systems to have rates that are lower than costs and targeted at subsidizing the mobility of social groups such as students, the elderly or people on welfare.
For freight transportation and many forms of passenger transportation (e.g. air transportation) rates are subject to a competitive pressure. This means that the rate will be adjusted according to the complex interactions between supply and demand. They either reflect costs directly involved with shipping (cost-of-service) or are determined by the value of the commodity (value-of-service). Since many actors involved in freight transportation are private, rates tend to vary, often significantly, but profitability is paramount.
2. Costs and Time Components
Transportation offers a spectrum of costs and level of services, which results in substantial differences across the world. The price of a transport service does not only include the direct out-of-the-pocket money costs to the user but also includes time costs and costs related to possible inefficiencies, discomfort and risk (e.g. unexpected delays). However, economic actors often base their choice of a transport mode or route on only part of the total transport price. For example, motorists are biased by short run marginal costs. They might narrow down the price of a specific trip by car to fuel costs only, thereby excluding fixed costs such as depreciation, insurance and vehicle tax.
Many shippers or freight forwarders are primarily guided by direct money costs when considering the price factor in modal choice. The narrow focus on direct money costs is to some extent attributable to the fact that time costs and costs related to possible inefficiencies are harder to calculate and often can only be fully assessed after the cargo has arrived. There are significant conditions affecting transport costs and thus transport rates.
a. Distance and time
The impacts of geography mainly involve distance and accessibility. Distance is commonly the most basic condition affecting transport costs. The more it is difficult to trade space for a cost, the more the friction of distance is important. It can be expressed in terms of length, time, economic costs or the amount of energy used. It varies greatly according to the type of transportation mode involved and the efficiency of specific transport routes. Landlocked countries tend to have higher transport costs, often twice as much, as they do not have direct access to maritime transportation. The impact of geography on the cost structure can be expanded to include several rate zones, such as one for local, another for the nation and another for exports.
The transport time component is also an important consideration as it is associated with the service factor of transportation. They include the transport time, the order time, the timing, the punctuality and the frequency. For instance, a maritime shipping company may offer a container transport service between several North American and Pacific Asian ports. It may take 12 days to service two ports across the Pacific (transport time) and a port call is done every two days (frequency). In order to secure a slot on a ship, a freight forwarder must call at least five days in advance (order time). For a specific port terminal, a ship arrives at 8AM and leaves at 5PM (timing) with the average delay being six hours (punctuality).
b. Type of product
Many products require packaging, special handling, are bulky or perishable. Coal is obviously a commodity that is easier to transport than fruits or fresh flowers as it requires rudimentary storage facilities and can be transshipped using rudimentary equipment. Insurance costs are also to be considered and are commonly a function of the value to weight ratio and the risk associated with the movement. As such, different economic sectors incur different transport costs as they each have their own transport intensity. With containerization the type of product plays little in the transport cost since rates are set per container, but products still need to be loaded or unloaded from the container.
For passengers, comfort and amenities must be provided, especially if long distance travel is involved. These amenities have a cost but can also be a source of revenue such as for retail and restoration.
c. Economies of scale and Energy
The larger the quantities transported, the lower the unit transport cost. Economies of scale or the possibilities to apply them are particularly suitable for bulk commodities such as energy (coal, oil), minerals and grains if they are transported in large quantities. A similar trend also applies to container shipping with larger containerships involving lower unit costs. For the transportation of passengers economies of scale are salient for public transit systems. They are however limited by the demand as the maximum sized transport unit that can be assigned on a route cannot exceed the available demand without impairing its profitability.
Transport activities are large consumers of energy, especially oil. About 60% of all the global oil consumption is attributed to transport activities. Transport typically accounts for about 25% of all the energy consumption of an economy. The costs of several energy intensive transport modes, such as maritime and air transport, are particularly susceptible to fluctuations in energy prices since energy accounts to close to half their operating costs.
d. Empty backhauls
Many transport interactions involve empty backhauls since it is uncommon to have a perfect match between an inbound and a return trip. Commuting patterns involve imbalanced flows and empty return trips. For international trade, imbalances between imports and exports have impacts on transport costs. This is especially the case for container transportation since trade imbalances imply the repositioning of empty containers that must be taken into account in the total transport costs. Consequently, if a trade balance is strongly negative (more imports than exports), transport costs for imports tend to be higher than for exports. Significant transport rate imbalances have emerged along major trade routes. The same condition applies at the national and local levels where freight flows are often unidirectional, implying empty backhaul movements.
e. Infrastructures and modes
The efficiency and capacity of transport modes and terminals has a direct impact on transport costs. Poor infrastructures imply higher transport costs, delays and negative economic consequences. More developed transport systems tend to have lower transport costs since they are more reliable, connected and can handle more movements.
Different modes are characterized by different transport costs, since each has its own capacity limitations and operational conditions. A core aspect concerns the suitability of modes according to the distance involved and the nature of what is being carried. When two or more modes are directly competing for the same market, the outcome often results in lower transport costs and the development of niches. Containerized transportation permitted a significant reduction in freight transport rates around the world by allowing relatively small transport units (containers) to be carried in massified loads.
f. Competition, regulation and subsidies
Concerns the complex competitive and regulatory environment in which transportation takes place. Transport services taking place over highly competitive segments tend to be of lower cost than on segments with limited competition (oligopoly or monopoly). International competition has favored concentration in many segments of the transport industry, namely maritime and air modes. Regulations, such as tariffs, cabotage laws, labor, security and safety impose additional transport costs, particularly in developing economies.
If an infrastructure is expensive to develop and maintain, this cost should be reflected in fares to cover the amortization of the asset. Publicly available roads are a form of cross-subsidy since they offer their users free infrastructure. Still, free can be misleading as sales are fuel taxes are paid by users and these funds are used for infrastructure construction and maintenance. If a government or a corporation uses other sectors of its activities to subsidize the full costs of a transport infrastructure, then this cross-subsidy is having an impact on its costs. Taxes and tolls are commonly used to cross-subsidize public transit.
g. Surcharges, taxes and tolls
Surcharges refer to an array of fees, often set in an arbitrary fashion, to reflect temporary conditions that may impact on the costs assumed by the transporter. They also take place when fares are regulated, leaving the operator to find alternative sources of revenue. The most common are fuel surcharges, security fees, geopolitical risk premiums and additional baggage fees. The passenger transport industry, particularly airlines, has become dependent on a wide array of surcharges as a source of revenue for operators. Yield management is another form of surcharge where a transport service provider changes its rate according to fluctuations in the demand.
Transport activities are often taxed, such as vehicle sales taxes and registration fees. Fuel taxes are the most significant form of taxation levied by governments with revenues often used to cover maintenance and infrastructure investment costs. Tolls are also commonly levied on the usage of transportation assets, particularly at bottlenecks such as bridges and tunnels.
Freight Transportation Service Spectrum
Different Components of Transport Time
Cost to Import a 20 Foot Container, 2015
Friction of Distance Functions
Zonal Transport Rates
Top 10 Commodity Groups Ranked by Value Per Ton, United States, 2002
Jet Fuel Prices, 1990-2019
Daily Operating Expenses for Containerships per TEU
Maritime Transportation Rates for a 40 Foot Container between Selected Ports, 2010
Shipment Size and Inland Transport Costs
3. Types of Transport Costs
Mobility is influenced by transport costs. Empirical evidence for passenger vehicle use underlines the relationship between annual vehicle mileage and fuel costs, implying the higher fuel costs are, the lower the mileage. At the international level, doubling of transport costs can reduce trade flows by more than 80%. The more affordable mobility is, the more frequent the movements and the more likely they will take place over longer distances. Empirical evidence also underlines that transport costs tend to be higher in the early or final stages of a movement, also known as the first and the last mile. A wide variety of transport costs can be considered.
Terminal costs. Costs that are related to the loading, transshipment and unloading. Two major terminal costs can be considered; loading and unloading at the origin and destination, which are unavoidable, and intermediate (transshipment) costs that can be avoided. For complex transport terminals, such as ports and airports, terminal costs can involve a wide array of components, including docking / gate fees, handling charges and pilotage / traffic control fees.
Linehaul costs. Costs that are a function of the distance over which a unit of freight or passenger is carried. Weight is also a cost function when freight is involved. They include labor and fuel and commonly exclude transshipment costs.
Capital costs. Costs applying to the physical assets of transportation mainly infrastructures, terminals and vehicles. They include the purchase or major enhancement of fixed assets, which can often be a one-time event that can be amortized over several decades. Since physical assets tend to depreciate over time, capital investments are required on a regular basis for maintenance.
Transport providers make a variety of decisions based on their cost structure, a function of all the above types of transport costs. To simplify transactions and clearly identify the respective responsibilities specific commercial transportation terms have been set. While the transport rate plays an important role in modal choice, firms using freight transport services are not always motivated by notions of cost minimization. They often show “satisfying behavior” whereby the transport costs need to be below a certain threshold combined with specific requirements regarding reliability, frequency and other service attributes. Such complexities make it more difficult to clearly assess the role of transport rates in the behavior of transport users.
The role of transport companies has sensibly increased in the general context of the global commercial geography. Maritime shipping companies, air carriers and logistics service providers have become multinational corporations. However, the nature of this role is changing as a result of a general reduction of transport costs but growing infrastructure costs, mainly due to greater flows and competition for land. Each transport sector must consider variations in the importance of different transport costs. While operating costs are high for air transport, terminal costs are significant for maritime transport. Several indexes, such as the Baltic Dry Index, have been developed to convey a pricing mechanism useful for planning and decision making. Relations between terminal operators and carriers have thus become crucial notably in containerized traffic. They are needed to overcome the physical and time constraints of transshipment, notably at ports.
Retail Gasoline Prices and Annual Vehicle Mileage, United States, 1960-2017
First and Last Mile Unit Cost Structure
Port Cost Components and Total Port Pricing per TEU, 2012
Selected International Commercial Terms (Incoterms)
The Baltic Dry Index, 1985-2019
Composition of Logistic Costs
Technological changes and their associated decline in transport costs have weakened the links between transport modes, terminals and economic activities. There is less emphasis on heavy industries and more importance given to manufacturing and transport services (e.g. warehousing and distribution). Indeed, new functions are being grafted to transport activities that are henceforward facilitating logistics and manufacturing processes. The standard notion of transportation costs is being expanded towards logistics costs.
The requirements of international trade gave rise to the development of specialized and intermediary firms providing transport services. These are firms that do not physically transport the goods, but are required to facilitate the grouping, storage and handling of freight as well as the complex paperwork and financial and legal transactions involved in international trade. Examples include freight forwarders, customs brokers, warehousing, insurance agents and banking, etc. Recently, there has been a trend to consolidate these different intermediate functions, and a growing proportion of global trade is now being organized by multi-national corporations that are offering door to door logistics services. They are defined as third party logistics providers.