us & nafta commercial freight acvity modes of transportation

U.S. & NAFTA COMMERCIAL FREIGHT ACTIVITY MODES OF TRANSPORTATION: ECONOMIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS.

Andrew Pagano, 5/7/15, Transportation & Environment

Agenda

Introduction

Economics of Freight (U.S.)

Environmental Impacts (U.S.)

Benchmarking Policies (U.S.)

NAFTA overview

NAFTA figures

Conclusions

Introduction

United States has the largest transportation sector in the world

Serving over 7 million domestic business establishments and 288 million residents

Employing 1 out of every 7 workers in the nation

Over $1 out of every $10 produced in the GDP of the U.S. is related to transportation activity

Objective of paper:

1. Discuss and analyze the economic and environmental impacts of each different mode used to move commercial freight throughout the U.S.

2. Quantify and measure the total value of goods transported by each mode, amount of tons per mode and efficiencies of each mode in ratio of tons of goods transported by the miles traveled

3. Provide figures of the North American Free trade Agreement (NAFTA) between the U.S., Canada and Mexico through the lenses of U.S goods trade, supply chains and modes of transport with NAFTA Partners

Economics of Freight (U.S)

Value of freight shipments in 2002, including domestic commodity shipments and

domestic transportation of exports and imports, was $11 trillion

Consumption of goods, products and changing needs for changing populations are

closely correlated with the population growth

According to the FHWA and FAF the economic activity correspondence to the trade

network, the freight transportation tonnage is set to increase 72% by 2050.


Dominant Freight transport modes are Rail and Road

Rail accounts for volume in with a value of 3.1 trillion Freight Ton Kilometers

equivalent to 56% of the industry's overall volume

Road freight had a volume of 2.5 trillion Freight Ton Kilometers in 2012, equating

to 44% of the industry total.

Total value for both the modes of transport of $857.6bn was measured in 2012.

The $857.6bn represents an annual growth rate of 1.9% from 2008 to 2012.


Value and revenues are measured differently, these are broken down into industry-

wide revenue and tons-miles

From this measurement, largest share of revenue and tons-miles is trucking both

included in highway and city streets.

Environmental Impacts (U.S)

Freight industry continually being adapted into compliance with new benchmarks

Federal government establishes national ambient air quality standards for

pollutants such as:

1. ground level ozone (O3)

2. carbon monoxide (CO)

3. particulate matter less than 10 (PM10) and 2.5 (PM2.5) microns

4. nitrogen dioxide (NO2)

5. sulfur dioxide (SO2)

6. lead (Pb)


Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) are considered in these standards

1. Reactive organic gases (ROG)

2. Total organic gases (TOG)

3. Hydrocarbons (HC)

4. Total hydrocarbons (THC)

5. Non-methane hydrocarbons (NMHC)

6. Diesel exhaust organic gases (DEOG)


The National emissions inventory categorizes specific mobile source emissions such as

Ozone and measures the highly reactive gas, which is Nitrogen Oxides

Nitrogen oxides include nitrogen dioxide and serves as the measureable component

to map out percentage of NOx emissions by specific modes in the U.S.


Second measure from the National emissions inventory is the Particulate matter of

10 micrometers and below (PM10)

Transportation sector is responsible for the majority of these emissions

Primarily emitted via road dust, covering the extent of 54% of total national PM10

emissions.


Most importantly for the impacts related to climate change and ozone depletion,

are the EPA’s greenhouse gas inventory for the U.S. Carbon dioxide emissions

Remains the primary gas of interest accounting for over 95% of the transportation

sector’s global warming potential-weighted GHG emissions.

Benchmarking Policies (U.S)

Policy implementation and air quality standard benchmarking are not executed

uniformly even in mode-specific areas

There is a limitation and challenge when comparing specific modes collectively

Not all individual modes operate in the same framework for analysis and cannot be

stood side-by-side to standardize across the board of that mode.

Benchmarking Policies (U.S.)

Difficulties for standardizing trucking include:

1. vehicle classes

2. vehicle

3. cargo type

4. vehicle routes.

Weight level, would deem the fleet level environmental performance standards to

be separated by different classes of trucks.

Refrigeration or heavier chassis and should rather be standardized according to the

type of vehicle and cargo unit.

Routes containing steep terrain or warm climates, as these routes naturally produce

more emissions levels than flat or moderate temperatures.

Benchmarking (U.S.)

Rail transport considerations

1. Differences between classes of railroads

2. Equipment

3. Facilities

4. Cargos

5. Geography

6. Rail lines

Rail classes are divided into categories which are operating revenue,

size of rail carrier

infrastructure to improve environmental performance.

1. Switch Cars: 2,000 hp or under

2. Freight line-haul: 2,000hp-3,00hp in older units and 3,000hp to 5,000hp in newer units

Benchmarking

Two categories for benchmarking

1. Ship type: auto carriers, barge carriers, bulk carrier, container ships, general cargo

ships, tugs/tows, reefers, roll-on/roll-off ships, and of course tankers.

2. Vessel characteristics:

Propulsion engines: slow-speed diesel, medium-speed diesel, gas turbines and steam

turbines.

Auxiliary engines: are the engines that generate electricity for on-board operations

and are usually Medium speed diesel technologies.

NAFTA Overview

In 1996 population of North America was 390 million

Population of the United States accounted for 68.2% of North

America’s population,

Mexico accounted for 24.1%

Canada accounted for 7.7%.

With regards to labor force percentage

United States accounted for 72.1%

Mexico accounted for 19.7%

Canada accounted for 8.1%.

NAFTA figures

GDP percentages by industry category

i. United States having 22.6% of its GDP attributed to services

ii. Mexico having 22.4%

iii. Canada having 20.9%

Manufacturing was a very close second for every country’s GDP

i. United States having 18.3% of its economy dedicated to manufacturing,

ii. Mexico leading the pack at 21.5%


To conclude GDP categories, transportation

i. U.S. having 3.4% of its economy based in transportation industry,

ii. Mexico leading the percentage pack with 8.6%


NAFTA Figures

NAFTA Figures

Most important factor relating to NAFTA is its transportation, energy and

environmental analysis. Energy consumption by the transportation sector is measured

in joules, specifically in (Exajoules, 10^18).

The United States’ transportation sector consumes 99.04 (Exajoules, 10^18) or

26.02% of the nation’s total energy consumption.

Mexico consumes 5.9 (Exajoules, 10^18) or 24.45% of the nation’s total

Canada consumes 8.98 (Exajoules, 10^18) or 25.9% of the nation’s total energy

consumption on the transportation sector)

NAFTA Figures

. Domestic freight activities by mode for the United States are measure in millions of metric tons

United States:

i. 3,245 millions of metric tons transported by road

ii. 1,461.4 millions of metric tons transported by rail

iii. 991.9 millions of metric tons transported by water

iv. 9.8 millions of metric tons transported by air.

Mexico:

i. transported 383.3 millions of metric tons by road

ii. 30.2 millions of metric tons by rail

iii. 31.6 millions of metric tons by water

iv. .1 millions of metric tons by air.

Canada:

i. 181.9 millions of metric tons by road

ii. a staggering 200 millions of metric tons by rail

iii. 48.8 millions of metric tons by water

iv. .4 millions of metric tons by air

Conclusions

Environmentally speaking, freight trucks remain by far the most polluting mode of

travel with over 50% of mobile greenhouse gases being generated from this mode.

Air freight is the second most polluting mode of commercial freight travel, with 8%

Maritime freight is the third most polluting, with 2%

Rail freight is not even mentioned as an autonomous category since it is minimally

polluting in terms of greenhouse gases.

Conclusions

Remains to be seen how much of a focus will be fixed on providing more

infrastructure for lesser-polluting transportation modes such as rail or maritime

freight, but

Trucking remains the top contender for both revenue and ton-miles

Rail is far behind in second place for revenue amounts but is most efficient form of

transport by measure of tons-miles

Maritime travel is the third largest revenue stream, although Maritime has low

efficiency in the tons-miles.

Air cargo which is the fourth largest revenue source by far, third most efficient in

terms of tons-miles

Conclusions

NAFTA has not come out with formal studies for its emissions

Import policies to protect the infrastructure, safety and environmental well-being domestically are still being implemented.

Data reveals that an even greater percentage of international transportation within the NAFTA countries is done by trucks

Mexico remains highly reliant on substandard trucks for transport to U.S. depots at the expense of U.S. environment and infrastructure

Canada remains a steady and compliant trading partner for the U.S, but also remains dependent on trucking for mean s of transport, with some supplemental maritime freight venues

Thank You

us & nafta commercial freight acvity modes of transportation

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