ABSTRACT
This chapter examines several kinds of freight taxes for internalizing the external costs. It explores the policy options which include a weight-distance tax reflecting all external costs, a distance-only tax, several types of fees on shipping containers, and a pair of extensions of existing taxes—on diesel fuel and on truck tires—that would be easier to administer than the other options but that would only partially internalize costs. The chapter explains more efficient use of the transport system, reducing the amount of spending that would be needed to achieve a given level of performance for that system. It describes the external costs of freight transport and the policy context in which the simulation is conducted. The chapter presents the simulation model, the data used in the simulations, and the eight policy options to be examined in the simulations.
