Estimation of target time distribution for agri-food products by road transport

This paper sets out to estimate the target time of trucks which transport agriculture and food products subject to commercial and production constraints. At the origin, carriers’ departure time is constrained by producer needs: the shipments are prepared through complex production chains, e.g. in the sector of perishable products these constraints are given by the end of the working day. At the destination there are constraints associated with the opening and closing time of markets and factories. In addition, there are some indifference time slices within which the freight transport is not subject to any penalty. Beginning with these considerations, an analysis of target time is developed, characterizing them by transported freight type and proposing models to investigate their time distribution.