Relationship between price and performance : an analysis of the US trucking market

This thesis focuses on the study of the carrier-shipper relationships in the US trucking market. It uses data provided by a leading third party logistics (3PL) company to explore and determine whether a relationship exists between the prices charged by the carriers and the performance that they provide to the shippers. The performance metrics defined in the thesis are measured in three dimensions: on time pick-up, on time delivery, and acceptance ratio. The research uses ordinary least square (OLS) regression to study the effect of the performance parameters on the cost per load of a shipment. The research demonstrates that there is a mild relationship between on time delivery performance and price. With increase in on-time delivery performance, the price increases till a threshold is reached, beyond which it stabilizes. We found that a relationship exists between on-time pick-up and delivery. Since carriers who pick up late are able to deliver on time 80% of the times, the research could not find a direct relationship between on-time pick-up and price. The research also found that increased lane loyalty from a shipper to a carrier can lead to lower rates.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Engineering Systems Division.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2015

Authors dc:creator

• Amiryan, Nane, M. Eng. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Bhattacharjee, Sharmistha

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Chris Caplice.

• Engineering Systems Division.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/99800

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/99800