Evaluating Global Freight Corridor Performance for Canada

As part of Transport Canada’s Gateways and Trade Corridors Initiative, the Directorate of Economic Analysis was interested in developing freight performance measurements for goods using Canada’s international gateways and traveling along its freight transportation corridors. These performance indicators—termed “fluidity” measures—will assist Transport Canada in painting a clear picture of system efficiency for its freight-significant corridors. The indicators will ultimately aid Transport Canada in identifying to what extent the government of Canada’s policies and investment in infrastructure are being leveraged and operated to support trade and economic prosperity. Transport Canada contracted with the Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) to develop and apply the indicators for measuring freight system performance. Researchers created two “fluidity indicators” using an index approach. One indicator captures average conditions (Fluidity Index), while the other indicator captures daily variation in travel time (Planning Time Index). Because freight moves according to both travel time and delivery requirement schedules, and because travel time varies according to mode, the performance measures use a normalizing concept to allow comparisons within a mode and across an entire supply chain. This paper describes the development and application of the measures. The paper includes two applications. One application demonstrates how the fluidity measures are computed and presented for truck shipments. In the second application, researchers demonstrate the use of the fluidity measures for monitoring freight system performance for an international and multimodal corridor from China to Canada. The measures, application, and findings documented in this paper are valuable for practitioners and freight movement stakeholders interested in monitoring freight system efficiency.