One of the immediate objectives of RECORDIT is to define and validate a
methodology for the calculation of the real costs of door-to-door intermodal freight
transport services. Therefore the accounting framework for the analysis of the cost
structure has to be defined and specified. This is the main objective of Work Package 1
(WP1) which will be fulfilled by dealing with four tasks.
Task 1.1
State of the art. Costs, benefits
and sustainability criteria
The main subject of this task is to review the existing concepts of
Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA) and modern CBA and proof their applicability to the objective
of analysing internal and external costs and benefits of door-to-door intermodal freight
transport services. The fundamental principles and methods of valuing social and
environmental goods will be applied to this social cost analysis. Therefore we will follow
a bottom-up approach. New transport-specific sustainability criteria especially concerning
the climate change issue will be included by using techniques of modern CBA such as
cost-effectiveness analysis or multicriteria analysi.
Task 1.2
Classification of intermodal chains and assessment of the corresponding cost structure
The objective of Task 1.2 is to produce a systematic and comprehensive
description of traditional and innovative intermodal chains in Europe, mainly to be drawn
from existing literature, and classify them in main homogeneous categories. Identification
of all cost items corresponding to each of the categories, subdivided into fixed Vs
variable, internal (resource costs) Vs external. The output should be a full description
of the cost structure of each chain. The identified cost items serve as an input for the
following Tasks 1.3, 1.4
and 2.2.
Task 1.3
Internal costs: methodology for data collection
and cost calculation
The objective of Task 1.3 is to define a comprehensive methodology for
data collection for the internal costs analysis and apply the principles of CBA to the
resource cost calculation. Internal costs of intermodal freight transport should be
calculated by using a bottom-up approach. Both categories of internal costs, the direct
costs (e.g. fuel costs, vehicle costs, rail or shipping fares, ...) and the transport time
costs which are mostly included in the transport fares are specifically related to each
intermodal chains. Further internal quality aspects such as flexibility, reliability or
security will also be analysed and specific methodological approaches defined to include
such aspect into the accounting framework.
Task 1.4
External costs: methodology for data collection
and cost calculation
The theory of external costs is based on neo-classical welfare
economics and on the methodology of cost-benefit-analysis as a practical application of
this theory. The objective is to identify and quantify effects of transport systems which
are not included in market prices. Usually externalities of transport are distinguished
between external effects of infrastructure provision and those arising from the use of the
existing infrastructure by the parties involved in the transport process. RECORDIT focuses
on the latter. The main categories of externalities to be considered are: Congestion,
Accidents, Air pollution, Noise, Water pollution, and Climate Change. The methodology
developed in ExternE and QUITS for the calculation of all these categories of external
costs has to be applied and developed further for intermodal freight transport chains. The
evaluation should be based on the impact-pathway-approach which is again a bottom-up
approach.
We will prepare a comprehensive report of WP1 by end of June 2000
illustrating the proposed accounting framework, including the description of the cost
structure and the methodology for data collection.
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