Both shippers and motor carriers are impacted by travel time variability, but they react differently to it. While carriers focus on the immediate and short-term impact and how to solve the situation, .i.e how to deliver on time if still possible, shippers focus more on the strategic and long-term impact and on how to avoid the situation, i.e. how to prevent this from happening again. This is what Kelly Pitera, Anne Goodchild and Edward McCormack looked at in their recent paper titled Examining the Differential Responses of Shippers and Motor Carriers to Travel Time Variability. Here they describe the disparity in concerns and the strategies shippers and motor carriers are likely to engage in to address time travel variability.

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