forthcoming) An adaptive conjoint analysis of freight service alternatives: evaluating the maritime option

The growing interest towards a re-balancing of freight traffic over the different modes has brought renewed focus on the opportunities to enhance the use of short sea shipping and, in particular, on the so-called "Motorways of the sea " (EU Commission, 2001). This expression was first coined in Italy in the seventies and it referred to the maritime routes running parallel to the Tyrrhenian and Adriatic coast of Italy. Since then, the various policy proposals put forward during the last thirty years have had little tangible results, even though it is widely acknowledged that these “special ” motorways could constitute a valid alternative to land transport over medium-long distance, favouring, at the same time, a greater integration among different modes. The potential capacity of this alternative is still highly unexploited. While a number of documents acknowledge the great opportunities offered by the development of maritime ro/ro transport services in re-directing freight flows, little has been done to empirically identify the factors which might induce operators to opt for this alternative. In other words, the determinants of the operators ’ demand have not yet been object of a detailed investigation. In this paper we present the preliminary results of a pilot study aimed a