Investigating the Demand for Coastal Non-Bulk Freight Shipping in Queensland

As road transport dominates freight transport in Queensland, with consequent externalities in terms of increased road risk, road congestion, and air pollution, this study explores whether coastal shipping could be an option for freight transport in the Brisbane-Townsville corridor. If demand for coastal shipping existed, the current restrictive coastal freight transport regulations could be lifted or at least modified to increase sea transport competitiveness. A discrete choice experiment was administered to a sample of shippers and freight forwarders in Queensland to elicit their preferences for road, rail or sea transport. A stated preferences study was designed and discrete choice models were estimated, revealing that about 30% of the choices of 64 company representatives were for the coastal shipping option. Model estimates revealed a willingness to pay of about 20 AUD/h for saving one hour of transit time in the corridor, a higher direct elasticity for road transport with respect to cost, a higher direct elasticity for sea transport with respect to time, and an effect of road user charge on shifting from road transport. Interestingly, model estimates showed the tendency of half of the sample to ignore either transport or cost (if not both) in their mode choice decisions, and in this case the willingness to pay increased to about 30 to 44 AUD/h for decision-makers not ignoring time and cost in their decisions.