IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/ndtimr/231705.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Transportation as an Imput to the North Dakota Agricultural Marketing Process

Author

Listed:
  • Vachal, Kimberly
  • Bitzan, John
  • Tolliver, Denver

Abstract

Recent elimination of the Interstate Commerce Commission, pending rail mergers of major carriers, and the recent attempts to set maximum reasonable rate guidelines have indicated the concerns of captive shippers over rates and service. This study has shed some light on the grain marketing practices ofN.D. grain elevators and has explained and measured the competitive factors influencing rates, including their role in market dominance determination. The study shows that carriers' rates are constrained by four factors not under the control of the carrier. These factors include intramodal competition, intermodal competition, geographic competition, and product competition. While the concepts of intermodal competition and intramodal competition have been widely accepted by many, this is not necessarily the case for geographic and product competition. Regions which grow relatively unique crops such as the Upper Great Plains and the Pacific Southwest have higher rail rates as carriers are not constrained by geographic competition in those areas. In addition, shipments of durum and other crops which don't have many substitutes have higher rates as carriers don't realize product competition for these movements. Finally, the study highlights the importance of efficient and effective rail service for the future ofN.D. agriculture. The explanations of current N.D. grain marketing practices and of the factors influencing rail rates should allow for more enlightened decisions regarding policies that may affect the future ofN.D. rail service.

Suggested Citation

  • Vachal, Kimberly & Bitzan, John & Tolliver, Denver, 1996. "Transportation as an Imput to the North Dakota Agricultural Marketing Process," MPC Reports 231705, North Dakota State University, Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:ndtimr:231705
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.231705
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/231705/files/agecon-ndsu-378-784-u664-m-96-54.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.231705?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lee, Tenpao & Baumel, C. Phillip, 1987. "The Cost of Structure of the U.S. Railroad Industry Under Deregulation," Staff General Research Papers Archive 11685, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    2. Casavant, Kenneth L. & Griffin, Gene C., 1983. "Structure and Operating Characteristics of the North Dakota Grain Elevator Industry," Agricultural Economics Reports 23375, North Dakota State University, Department of Agribusiness and Applied Economics.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Bitzan, John & Vachal, Kimberly & VanWechel, Tamara & Vinje, Dan, 2003. "The Differential Effects of Rail Rate Deregulation U.S. Corn, Wheat and Soybean Markets," MPC Reports 231695, North Dakota State University, Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute.
    2. Brown, Dennis M. & Flake, Oliver L., 1999. "Rural Transportation: An Annotated Bibliography," Miscellaneous Publications 323881, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. John Bitzan & Wesley Wilson, 2007. "Industry costs and consolidation: efficiency gains and mergers in the U.S. railroad industry," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 30(2), pages 81-105, March.
    2. Bitzan, John D., 1997. "Railroad Cost Considerations and the Benefits/Costs of Mergers," MPC Reports 231799, North Dakota State University, Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute.
    3. Bereskin, C.Gregory, 2007. "Railroad Capital Stock Changes in the Post-Deregulation Period," Journal of the Transportation Research Forum, Transportation Research Forum, vol. 46(1).
    4. German, H. Wade & Babcock, Michael W., 1991. "How Can Railroads Recapture Lost Market Share?," Transportation Research Forum Proceedings 1990s 319055, Transportation Research Forum.
    5. Tolliver, Denver & Bitzan, John & Benson, Doug, 2010. "Railroad Operational Performance in the United States," Journal of the Transportation Research Forum, Transportation Research Forum, vol. 49(3).
    6. Forkenbrock, David J., 2001. "Comparison of external costs of rail and truck freight transportation," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 35(4), pages 321-337, May.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:ndtimr:231705. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.ugpti.org/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.