Freight Transport

Abstract

The frequently noted fact that road transport accounts for some 85 per cent of the tons of freight moved per annum in the United Kingdom may lead one to believe that the dominance of the lorry is so great that it is scarcely worth debating the issue of modal split in freight transport. This would be an unfortunate conclusion; in the first place, the dominance of the lorry is much reduced when length of haul is taken into account, lorries accounting for 61 per cent of freight ton-miles.¹ It must also be remembered that the actual choice of mode provides no evidence on the costs of diverting traffic to an alternative. For instance, it has been suggested that despite the dominance of railways in U.S. transport in 1890, the social cost of diverting all traffic to other modes would have been less than 5 per cent of G.N.P. [105]. If such a possibility existed now with respect to the lorry, many would regard the environmental benefits of the switch as being worth the social costs. So it is necessary to examine the issue more closely.