University of California Transportation Center

The objective of this research is to understand how trucking companies perceive the benefits of traditional and advanced traveler information services. There is considerable interest in identifying the appropriate public sector role for investments in real-time traveler information sources. Managers in charge of the California operations of more than 1,100 private and for-hire trucking companies were asked to evaluate the usefulness of various sources of traffic information. These evaluations were collected on ordinal scales, and nonlinear canonical correlations analysis models were computed to simultaneously link company characteristics and perceptions of the value of information sources for dispatchers and for drivers. In addition, perceptions of the benefits of a set of improved sources of accurate, up-to-the-minute traffic information were examined. The results show how segments of the trucking industry value different sources of traffic information.