improving roadside surveys for a better knowledge of road freight transport
Résumé
This paper is focused on improving the observation and knowledge of interurban road freight transport. It investigates some directions for the improvement of a classic French road-side survey protocol, usually employed to gather origin-destination data. To do that, new questions are added to the classic roadside survey form, and the enhanced survey form is tested in the frame of two surveys. The new questions concern currently unobserved variables: the volume occupied by the freight in vehicles; the organizations (double crew, relays) set by motor carriers; the existence of specific logistic imperatives; and the breaks drivers have to take. The questions about the volume constraint and the organizations of carriers prove to be the most informative ones; as such, these two questions are two promising directions for improving French roadside surveys. The questions about specific logistic imperatives and about breaks prove less fruitful.