Metodologie di indagine per la calibrazione della funzione di utilità percepita del trasporto merci

The use of modal split models requires knowledge of the usefulness that customers attribute to every transport mode and, to such aim, calibration of the perceived usefullness function, through the assessment of the relevance of every attribute that characterizes the supply. This requirement, that we meet by targeted surveys, is harder to satisfy in freight transport than in passenger transport, due to the strong diversification of products that gives, to the customers of the first one, a specialised sensibility to the characteristics of transport supply. A critical review on international literature about survey techniques and their applications to freight transport allows to focus on the most suitable survey methodologies for the calibration of usefullness function in this field of transport, and also the relevance of supply attributes depending on type of goods and on company organization.