The aim of this paper is to analyze the perceptions of the transport service providers on the barriers in urban freight transport and the restrictions imposed on freight vehicles, identifying which urban freight transport policies can improve this activity in Brazil. Principal component analysis allowed us to identify which are barriers in urban cargo transport and the restrictions imposed on freight vehicles. In addition, we evaluated freight policies that can improve the activity using probabilistic preference. We obtained the database from a web-based survey of transport service providers in Brazil. The results indicate that the urban freight vehicle restriction is related to congestion and availability of loading and unloading areas. The freight vehicle restriction is a result of the lack of information and data. The theft of cargo significantly impacts urban freight transport. Transport service provider company perceptions indicate an urban mobility plan as the most-required freight policy to improve freight mobility. To reduce the barriers to urban freight planning, an understanding of the problem involving the stakeholders is needed. To do so, the challenge is to change the culture in the transportation planning process by integrating various actors to create an urban logistics plan that generates opportunities for the city.

Freight trip generation modelling is important for forecasting freight movements, and understanding freight movements is crucial to enabling sustainable freight transportation planning. The existing literature focuses on model development, and most of the previous models are estimated by ordinary least squares regression. However, few studies have carefully considered the OLS assumptions. The objective of this paper is to estimate freight trip generation models using deliveries to commercial establishments in Brazilian municipalities. A procedure is described to estimate models by ordinary least squares (OLS), and alternative techniques are considered to address the violations of the OLS assumptions. The analysis was conducted with data from 860 commercial establishments in nine Brazilian municipalities, and models were estimated for capital, non-capital, small, medium, and larger municipalities. The findings showed that alternative techniques to OLS regression can provide better-estimated parameters and more accurate results. Not evaluating the OLS assumptions could compromise the quality of the model and, consequently, planning using these models. Moreover, the results showed that the number of employees has a more significant influence in small cities and a lower influence in medium-sized municipalities. Finally, the findings demonstrated the importance of local models that include the municipalities’ characteristics and that can support freight transportation planning. These models can also include sustainable strategies for freight transport.

Resumo: Este trabalho explorou e comparou a eficiência produtiva dos portos brasileiros em um momento específico e de forma intertemporal, a fim de avaliar se a administração portuária influi na eficiência portuária. Para tanto, utilizou-se da técnica DEA e do índice Malmquist. Propôs-se a adoção do modelo DEA baseado em teste de hipótese para determinação de retornos de escala como inovação metodológica. Os portos analisados apresentaram variâncias temporais na eficiência, sem, contudo, apresentar variações tecnológicas. Recomenda-se prosseguir o estudo com um painel de dados com mais variáveis.Palavras-chave: portos; análise de eficiência; economia de transportes. This paper explored and compared the productive efficiency of Brazilian ports at a specific time and in an intertemporal manner in order to assess whether the port administration influences port efficiency. This assessment was carried out using DEA and Malmquist index. The use of an hypothesis-test based DEA model for determining returns to scale was proposed as a methodological innovation for this analysis. The ports analyzed presented temporal variance efficiency, but without technological variances. Further research using a data set with more variable is recommended. (Abstract translation by the editorial team)Keywords: ports; efficiency analysis; transport economy.

Mergers between companies are motivated by synergy effects that can improve profitability. On February 11, 2015, the Administrative Council for Economic Defense (Cade) approved, the merger between America Latina Logística (ALL), the largest railroad transport company in Brazil and Rumo Logistics (RUMO), an operator with national impact with restrictions, and formed a new entity RUMO-ALL. The approval of this merger suggested that there could be an increase in operational efficiency without compromising the competition. In this work, the operational efficiency of RUMO-ALL is evaluated using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) models for the return of adequate scale. Statistical tests of structural break are performed in order to understand if there are an ex-post merger effects on the operational efficiency after the expansion of the service. The results indicate that the rail service after the merger is efficient, but with marginal reduction of production with an increase of input, which is expected according to neoclassical economic theory for monopolies.