Rationale

Previous research has highlighted that freight pricing, in isolation of other policies, is of limited effectiveness in moving truck traffic to the off-hours. This is because the price signal reaching receivers is of no significance when compared to the marginal costs of moving to the off-hours. Since receivers are the carriers' customers, it is impossible for the carriers to switch to the off-hours without receivers willing to accept deliveries beyond their regular hours.

The fundamental premises of the project are that:

1. Receivers, by virtue of being the carriers' customers, have a significant power in setting delivery times and, consequently, trucks' time of travel.
2. Carriers cannot switch operations to the off-hours, without receivers willing to accept Off-Hour Deliveries (OHD).
3. In equality of conditions, carriers will prefer to deliver during the off-hours because of the higher productivity and lower costs (even when paying prime wages to the crews).
4. The carriers' cost savings are not large enough to enable shipping cost discounts large enough to attract receivers to OHD.