ISBN:  Unavailable

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Page count: 17

This paper investigates the role of reputability and public policy on the shipper's willingness to pay for visibility features in an emerging market. In recent years, vehicle visibility has penetrated rapidly into business thanks to geographic positioning systems (GPS) devices, which allow trucking companies (carriers) to enhance their operations while adding value to their customers (shippers). Although this trend is clear for developed nations, the level of visibility penetration and its impact on the procurement of trucking services in emergent markets remains uncertain. This research provides the first approximation towards elucidating these elements by conducting a detailed investigation in Colombia, an emerging market in the Americas where trucking is a concern. The investigation is conducted through focus-group meetings, interviews, a stated preference survey, and a discrete-choice experiment on 129 shippers. The focus-group meetings and interviews reveal high levels of penetration of visibility technologies in Colombia, mostly required due to insurability requirements. The stated preference discrete-choice experiment revealed the high impact of price over truck-service selection as well as high valuations on visibility technologies (GPS and geofencing) and carrier reputation (good/bad). Other features that are significant but provide lower value to shippers include the provision of sensors, driving reports, and security guards (armed, and unarmed). The implication of these results on business and policymaking are thoroughly discussed in the paper.