Logistics chains in freight transport modelling

The research presented in this PhD thesis has been motivated by the fact that the Netherlands, and the Randstad region in particular, are affected by the large transport flows and extensive operations of the logistics sector. These operations create welfare for those people who work in the sector, who own the companies, and for the Dutch and European societies as the whole. The strong transport and logistics sector has also negative impact on the public infrastructure, air pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, causes accidents and other negative effects on the societal welfare. The strength of the Dutch logistics sector, the benefits and negative effects that it brings, require a thorough understanding of the logistics systems at the regional level. A quantitative tool, which is capable of an analysis of freight flows via the logistics and distribution systems in an empirically valid way, would be of substantial help for the decision makers at the national and regional levels. The quantitative tool (or a model) should also be able to study the system in a scenario-wise way, such that the impact of certain changes in the system can be quantified, studied and assessed. The Dutch logistics system is complex, with a large number of various national and international players. Understanding the logistics system in a holistic way requires an appropriate degree of aggregation and abstraction, as it would be unpractical to study each company and each private decision maker in the Netherlands: there are too many for this approach to be feasible. Therefore, this research concentrates on regions, as opposed to the individual companies, and describes the transport demand patterns realized by the logistics systems, as opposed to optimization of those systems, see FIGURE 1.1 for a graphical positioning of the focus of this research. This research is also limited to the transport flows realized by the road transport mode. This thesis looks at the core product of the logistics sector: linking production and consumption together, or how the goods are shipped from the places where the they are produced to the places where they are consume