Gap Analysis - Understanding Transport Costs and Charges Phase One Summary Report

Last updated on 4/06/2009 9:25 a.m. 

  1. The major conclusion that comes from the consultation process is that a consistent evaluation framework and methodology for estimating costs and charges information would be required before any information is collected. This work is essential for establishing consistent cost estimates for different modes and therefore is of the highest priority. 
     
  2. In addition, the consultation process resulted in specific costs and charges information which is required by transport policy and industry stakeholders. The specific information requirements fall into five broad areas:
    • Transport infrastructure costs.
    • Operator costs and charges.
    • User costs and charges, including time and reliability.
    • Social and environmental costs.
    • Revenue and funding.
       
  3. The evaluation framework and methodology for collection should also align the specific information requirements with the particular area of government policy. This will determine the level of detail and segmentation required to satisfy user requirements. The gap analysis was conducted by mapping costs and charges components with six overlapping areas of government policy strategies and targets:
    • Mitigation and intervention.
    • Modal shift analysis
    • Modal cost comparability
    • Funding policies
    • Cost recovery
    • Charging policies
       
  4. The following criteria have been used for identifying costs and charges information gaps and priorities:
    • Is the information a priority for policy development and evaluation based on stakeholder requirements and government policy documents?
    • Is the information available or soon to be available from other sources? 
    • Is it practicable to collect (taking account of technicality, time and budget issues)?
       
  5. Based on the importance of each information gap to policy development and evaluation and the practicality of collection, this report groups the information gaps into four categories (Figure 1).
     
  6. The upper right quadrant of Figure 1 shows the information gaps that are of high policy importance and high practicality of collection, and therefore should be collected first. Conversely, the information gaps shown in the lower left quadrant are of least priority and low practicality of collection and should be collected last. 
     
  7. The stakeholders engagement process also identified information that is outside the scope of the UTCC project, which include:
    • factors influencing transport demand, including demand elasticity 
    • benefits of transport consumption eg agglomeration benefits and option value benefits
    • costs and charges in the air transport mode.

The Phase 1 report recognises that these information gaps are important components for understanding the impacts of costs and charges on transport demand, modal choice (including aviation) and developing efficient and effective government policy. Therefore, these gaps will be evaluated at the end of the project to ensure that they have been collected elsewhere, to the level of segmentation required.

Figure 1. Prioritising information gaps
Figure 1. Prioritising information gaps

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