Freight Charge Variations in Truck Transport Markets: Price Discrimination or Competitive Pricing?

It is well known that truck freight rates for different commodities over a given route vary and that rates per unit distance for the same commodity over different routes vary. In previous studies this variation has been attributed to noncompetitive behavior. In this paper a hypothesis that observed variations in truck rates are consistent with competitive behavior is tested using conjoint analysis. Trade-offs between costs or rates and other attributes of transport service are estimated from experiments using panels of truck brokers and carriers. The results are consistent with competitive behavior in the trucking industry. Key words: competitive prices, conjoint measurement, Florida, price discrimination, transportation, trucking. It is a well-known fact that transportation charges per truckload vary from commodity to commodity even from the same origin to the same destination and that transportation charges per truckload vary from the same ori