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21st Century Operations Using 21st Century Technologies

United States - European Commission Urban Freight Twinning Initiative: Compendium of Project Summaries, Volume II
Overview of 2018-2019 International Urban Freight Roundtables

Understanding Bangladeshi Freight Movements Through Data and Modeling

The overall goal of this project is to conduct a freight study to better understand freight activity patterns in Bangladesh using a combination of data collection and modeling. A major component of the work is to develop a national freight demand model to enhance the freight transportation in Bangladesh. The process to develop this model is threefold. First, a survey of establishments across the country to collect freight-related data; second, the data is used to develop and estimate freight generation (FG) and freight trip generation (FTG) models to determine regional and intercity flows; and finally, the conduction of freight origin destination synthesis (FODS) using state-of-the-art models. A second component of the study is the analysis of logistic costs to quantify the effects of congestion and to identify inefficiencies in selected supply chains. This involves global positioning systems (GPS) data collection and activity-based costing to characterize typical supply chains, compute distance- and time-related costs, and development of key performance metrics such as operational costs and reliability. The final aim of this component is to quantify the impacts of congestion on logistic costs.

Project Types

Research, Policy.

Period of Performance

September 2016 - March 2018.

Project Site

Bangladesh.

Contact

José Holguín-Veras
William H. Hart Professor
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Troy, New York, USA
JHV@rpi.edu
(518) 276-2098

Topics Addressed

  • Economic competitiveness.
  • Logistics/distribution.
  • Modeling.
  • Supply chains.

Expected Outcome

The final deliverable will be a final report discussing the freight study.

Stakeholder Involvement

The project will seek involvement from private industries, principally receiver and vendor establishments. Private industries will be directly involved in the data collection stages as well as in focus groups and interviews. This is done in collaboration with the World Bank, which commissioned the work.

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