LSCM 4560 Exam 2 Online Quizzes

Which of the following does not accurately depict the service and operating characteristics of domestic carriers?

Low loss and damage

The most common type of terminal found in the less-than-truckload network is

pick-up and delivery

Which of the following statements regarding private motor carriers is false?

...Can carry only the company's freight

Driver turn-over represents a major issue for most carriers. The turn-over rate spiked in 2005, 2008, and 2012 hitting levels exceeding

100%

Federal safety regulations limit the hours of service for motor carrier drivers. Following a ten hour rest period, a driver may operate [drive] a truck for up to how many hours?

11

What are the standard lengths for international intermodal containers?

20 and 40 feet

Rail intermodal volumes set a record in which year?

2015

Rail carriers move approximately what percent of the total ton-miles in the US?

33%

What is the total number of railroads (Class 1, regional, shortline, and switching) that operate in the United States?

575

An inland port is a facility

A rail or barge terminal linked to a maritime terminal with regular inland transport services

An intermodal marketing company (IMC):

A third-party logistics provider that assists shippers with intermodal freight movements.

An intermodal chassis refers to

A truck trailer (frame) specially designed to transport containers

A key operating and service disadvantage for air carriers is:

Accessibility

Motor carriers have the greatest advantage in which of the following service and operating characteristics?

Accessibility

Which of the following statements best characterizes the operating ratio for air carriers?

Air carriers have recently had operating ratios in the high 90s and sometimes over 100 percent due to high variable costs

How has the creation of Amtrak promoted US freight railroads?

Amtrak assumed responsibility for passenger service allowing the railroads to shed their unprofitable passenger business

This type of cargo carrier uses "belly" cargo:

Combination

The largest Class I railroad in the US based on freight revenue is:

BNSF

The largest intermodal carrier in North America is:

BNSF.

A unique operating and service characteristic of pipelines is that this mode does not offer:

Backhauls

The most common equipment used by domestic water carriers is:

Barges

Approximately how many for-hire motor carriers are registered with the US Department of Transportation?

Between 400,000 and 600,000

Railroads have an inherent advantage in

Capability

The majority of freight rail cars in the United States are owned by:

Car companies [lease] and private shippers

Which of the following is the basic unit of measurement of freight handling used by railroads?

Carload

The STB classifies railroads into three categories based on revenue and miles of track operated. The three classifications include

Class 1, regional (Class 2), and switching/terminal operators (Class 3)

You have been asked to provide a technique that will allow even Dr Pohlen to quickly route a single vehicle through a network similar to the following. Which of the following heuristics would you use?

Closest next

You would probably select this heuristic when routing a single vehicle through multiple points before returning to the origin [starting point].

Closest next

Which of the following bulk commodities accounts for the largest proportion of ton-miles moved by rail?

Coal

Air carriers can be broadly divided into three categories. Which of the following categories includes air carriers that offer passenger and freight service?

Combination

A disadvantage associated with the use of pipelines is:

Completeness of service—do not provide door-to-door service

Moving a container involves a set of cost and time intensive activities. The most time intensive activity involves:

Containership travel

Which of the following was identified as a key issue confronting the domestic water carrier industry?

Continuation of the Jones Act

This type of motor carrier terminal focuses requires careful synchronizing on inbound and outbound shipments to ensure freight is quickly sorted and moved to its final destination with no storage:

Cross-dock

The tonnage carried by domestic water carriers has:

Decreased due to declines in the US steel industry and petroleum production

Which of the following best explains the reason why only a limited number of pipeline companies exist ?

Duplication or parallel competing lines are uneconomical.

Current hours-of-service (HOS) regulations limit the number of hours a drive can operate a commercial motor vehicle for an interstate carrier during a 24 hour period to:

Eleven

Several factors affected the evolution of intermodal transportation. The deregulation of transportation:

Enabled intermodal to expand by offering integrated services and a single bill of lading

The largest air cargo carrier in the US is:

Fed-Ex

A furniture retailer in the DFW market has scheduled deliveries for Denton on Mondays, Plano on Tuesdays, Grapevine on Wednesdays, and other cities on the other days of the week. This retailer is applying which of the following principles?

Form tight clusters by day

Image showing map. The Friday delivery locations overlap with the Tuesday delivery locations Retailers often confront a delivery scenario similar to the one shown in the graphic below. The routing in this scenario could be improved by:

Forming clusters and delivering to each cluster on different days

This heuristic is frequently used by logistics and transportation managers as a means to determine how transportation costs will vary by combining shipments or by increasing the number of shipments during a time period. In most instances, the carrier offers a lower rate for larger shipments so they can fill their vehicles. This heuristic attempts to take advantage of this situation.

Freight consolidation heuristic

The decline of the US steel industry has had the greatest effect on which segment of the domestic water industry?

Great Lakes

When indexed on 1980 levels, the volume of intercity ton-miles transported by motor carriers has

Grown faster than any other mode except air cargo

Air carriers were deregulated in the late 1970s. Which of the following represents one of the most significant results from deregulation?

Growth and expansion of integrated carriers.

Air carriers have recently had an operating ratio in which of the following ranges:

High 80s-air carriers have high fuel and labor variable expenses

The cost structure for railroads can generally be characterized as:

High fixed, low variable

The federal, state, and local governments highly promote air transportation. As a result, we would expect:

High user fees to recover the costs of government promotion

Motor carriers compete effectively with rail carriers

In distances under 500 miles

Intermodal competition for motor carriers:

Includes air and rail

During the 1980-2017 timeframe, the ton-miles moves by rail carriers:

Increased and has almost achieved the same level of growth as motor carriers

The average tons of freight per trainload has:

Increased due to increased locomotive power, longer trains, and larger capacity per railcar

The proportion of intercity ton-miles transported by each mode has shifted over time. In the case of motor carriers, the percentage has:

Increased due to logistics managers attempting to reduce their total cost by trading off transportation costs to obtain more than off-setting cost reductions in inventory carrying costs

Fuel prices affect air cargo volumes by:

Increasing the cost of air transport and causing shippers to shift to less expensive modes

The segment of domestic water carriers moving the most intercity ton-miles is:

Inland waterways

Which of the following includes the major categories of domestic water carriers?

Inland, coastal, and great lakes

Intermodal competition for water carriers can be characterized as:

Intense competition exists as water carriers primarily compete with pipelines and rail and to a limited degree with motor carriers

Intramodal competition among combination carriers can best be described as:

Intense due to airlines seeking to use pricing to preserve market share and protect key routes and hubs

Water carriers compete vigorously with the other transportation modes. Competition within each segment of the water carrier can be characterized as:

Intense within each segment as carriers compete on rates and service offerings

Competition between carriers for air cargo can be best described as:

Intense. Deregulation opened the doors for air carriers to compete based on price

The intramodal competitive situation for railroads can be characterized as:

Intense—railroads compete directly with motor and water carriers

The freight contributing the largest proportion of revenues to rail carriers is:

Intermodal

The largest source of revenue for the class one railroads is:

Intermodal

The most serious threat to the pipeline industry is from which form of competition?

Intermodal

Which of the following type of shipments generated the most railcar traffic for the Class 1 railroads?

Intermodal

Which of the following is not true regarding competition for air carriers?

Intramodal competition is relatively insensitive to price, and carriers compete primarily on the frequency and timing of flights

Which of the following provides a monopoly for U.S. coastal and intercoastal carriers by prohibiting foreign-registered carriers from hauling domestic coastal and intercoastal traffic?

Jones Act

The highest single cost (expense) for motor carriers is

Labor

The single largest expense for the railroads is:

Labor

Which of the following represents the greatest single expense for the class 1 railroads?

Labor

The intermodal movement of a container from the Port of Los Angeles/Long Beach to the Port of New York/New Jersey for transfer to a ship bound for Europe represents what type of land bridge?

Landbridge

Intramodal competition between pipeline carriers can best be characterized as:

Limited since economies of scale and high fixed costs have led to joint ownership across multiple users

A lighter aboard ship (LASH) is used to transport:

Loaded barges from one port to another

We can characterize intramodal competition for rail carriers as:

Low as most areas are served by only a single railroad

Intramodal competition between pipelines can be characterized as:

Low, competition would result in wasteful duplication

Many transportation managers are considering a shift of some of their domestic freight volumes to intermodal. They are considering an increased usage of intermodal because of:

Lower cost

The individual credited with advancing the use of intermodal shipping containers is:

Malcolm McLean of McLean Trucking

This type of train consists of a mixture of real card types and shipments

Manifest Train

Motor carriers primarily transport:

Manufactured consumer goods

Deregulation of motor carriers resulted in numerous failures of trucking companies. These failures can be most likely explained by

Many companies were unable to adapt to a market involving more competitive pricing and entry/exit

Pipelines have an operating ratio of:

Mid 70's

The domestic water carrier industry consists of three segments. We can characterize the intramodal competition between these three segments as:

Minimal to non-existent since geography physically separates most of the segments.

Which of the following statements best characterizes the regulatory situation of domestic water carriers?

Most water carriers transport bulk commodities and are exempt from economic regulation. Many others are private. As a result, economic regulation has had little effect on the industry.

Railroads confront more intermodal competition than any other mode. Their primary intermodal competitors include

Motor, water, and pipeline carriers

Railroads confront more intermodal competition than any other mode. Their primary intermodal competitors include:

Motor, water, and pipeline carriers

A retailer requires that suppliers shipping to its distribution center must have the shipments arrive within a 15-minute window. Although this practice benefits the retailer, the shipper will violate which of the following routing principles?

Narrow stop time restrictions should be avoided

Which of the following statements best describes government promotion of intermodal transportation?

No government funding has targeted the development of an intermodal system in the United States.

The Surface Transportation Board has responsibility for regulating which type of pipeline carrier?

Non-petroleum pipelines engaged in interstate commerce

The passenger load factor measures:

Number of passengers compared to total number of seats

The market structure for less than truckload motor carriers can be characterized as:

Oligopoly

Almost 50 percent of the air freight in the United States moves as belly cargo on combination carriers. This situation has a significant effect on the growth in the air cargo industry because:

Passengers and freight often do not follow the same path, and combination carriers cannot satisfy some freight demand

The amount of track operated by Class I carriers has

Peaked in 1916 and has declined steadily through the present

Domestic water carriers primarily move bulk commodities. Which commodity accounts for the largest proportion of the tonnage moved by domestic water carriers?

Petroleum products

A key issue confronting water carriers is:

Possible legislative action to end the Jones Act and domestic water's monopoly

Domestic water carriers primarily compete with which of the following modes?

Rail and pipeline

The following vehicle routing solution is an example of which routing heuristic? The figure shows a distribution center node in the center with several wedges formed from rays emanating from the center. Within the wedges formed by the rays, routes have been formed to delivery or pick-up from several customers.

Ray sweep

This approach begins by assigning a vehicle to each location. Routes are built by combining located based on the greatest reduction in total miles.

Savings Approach

Since deregulation, the financial plight of the railroads has:

Significantly improved with the railroads achieving their strongest financial position ever.

Of the carriers registered with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, the majority operate:

Six or fewer trucks

The aging lock and dam system affects the domestic water carrier industry by:

Slowing down their operations—must often make multiple trips due to limited capacity of the locks

Which of the following partially deregulated the railroads?

Staggers Act

Which organization has responsibility for the economic regulation of domestic water carriers between US ports, Alaska, Hawaii, and US territories?

Surface Transportation Board

The interstate pipeline movement of coal slurry would be economically regulated by which of the following independent regulatory commissions?

Surface Transportation Board (STB)

Which of the following independent regulatory commisions regulates interstate rail movements of oil and coal?

Surface Transportation Board (STB)

Which act economically "deregulated" the rail industry?

The Staggers Act of 1980

Congress passed the Staggers Rail Act of 1980. Passage of the Act recognized that the railroads faced intense competition for freight traffic, but prevailing regulation prevented the railroads from competing effectively and earning adequate revenues. Which of the follow statements best describes the current regulatory environment in which railroads operate?

The Staggers Rail Act of 1980 did not completely deregulate the railroads. In addition to retaining authority over a variety of non-rate areas, the Surface Transportation Board retained the authority to set maximum rates or take other actions if a railroad is found to have market dominance.

This organization was responsible for forcing the ocean carriers to adopt 20 and 40 foot containers as the industry standard:

The U.S. Navy.

Required video and reading by Marc Levinson, author of The Box, traces the development intermodal transportation. Mr. Levinson credits which activity as the major contributing to the general, or widespread, acceptance intermodal transportation?

The Vietnam War

Railroads on their own right of way or infrastructure. Which of the following statements is true regarding the trend in the miles of track operated by class I railroads much

The amount of track operated by the class I railroads has continued to decrease over time as the railroads focus on operating longer trains over longer distances.

This routing model considers whether multiple LTL or parcel shipments should occur on a frequent basis or whether these shipments should be combined into larger, LTL or TL shipments occurring less frequently.

The freight consolidation model

What development led to the steady replacement of motor carriers for railroads [trucking being used more often] over the last several decades?

The interstate highway system

Minimum tender refers to:

The minimum quantity required for shipment by pipeline

Lighter aboard ship (LASH) vessels are used for:

The movement of barges aboard the ship between ports along the coastline.

Transloading is widely used in intermodal transportation. We can best describe transloading as:

The unloading of freight from one mode (or container) and transferring the freight into another mode (or container size).

Following graduation at UNT, you have accepted a position with one of the largest retailers in North America. Due to the growth in Internet sales, you have been asked to make a presentation to the executive team regarding your actions to route delivery vehicles. Why do you believe the executive team has such an interest in vehicle routing?

They want to ensure delivery service levels are achieved but at the lowest possible cost

This diagram shows two routes. What actions could be taken to improve these routes? The figure shows two routes. The routes are oval shaped and parallel to each other. The customer locations are weighted at the end of each oval with no customer locations in between.

Tighter clustering to reduce travel time

Many individuals and companies initially considered air cargo to be too expensive and a luxury. What "sold," or was used to justify, the use of air freight?

Total cost and cost trade-off analyses

A 1956 study by the Harvard Business School justified the use of air freight for specific commodities. The justification was based on a cost trade-off analysis that produced a lower total cost for the firm. What cost trade-offs were made?

Total cost was reduced by offsetting the increase in transportation costs by using air with lower inventory carrying costs

Railroads have attempted to offer several service innovations. One of these is a unit train. Which of the following best describes the unit train concept?

Trains move as a single unit and are not re-classified or broken apart until delivered to the final customer.

Which segment of the motor carrier industry experience significant growth in the number of carriers following deregulation?

Truckload

This form of crude oil pipeline acts as a major artery connecting gathering tanks with refineries.

Trunk lines

Although air cargo moves less than 1 percent of the international tonnage, the value of the international air freight represents what percent of the total value of international freight?

Twenty-six percent

The operating ratio is a key measure of how efficiently a transportation company operates. For railroads, the operating ratio is typically

Typically in the 60s to low 70s

This event led to much greater acceptance of shippers to transport oil and refined products by pipeline.

U-boat campaign to sink oil tankers off the US coast during World War II

The use of containers and other standardized unit load devices have existed for a very long time. What was required to permit the widespread use of containers and intermodal transport?

a standardized system to facilitate the transfer of containers across multiple transportation modes

An operating ratio of 92 percent for a motor carrier suggest:

a) 92 percent of every revenue dollar is consumed by operating expenses b) The carrier probably has a relatively low percentage of fixed costs c) 92 percent of revenue is directly spent on the transportation of freight d) All of the above e) None of the above Answer: All of the above

Which of the following was NOT identified as a factor impacting the growth of air cargo?

a) Flight frequency b) Security c) Air passengers having a two-way flow while air cargo moves in one direction d) Belly cargo moving just under 50 percent of the air freight moved e) Passengers not moving along same paths (routes) as air cargo Answer: Flight frequency

We can classify motor carriers by which of the following categories?

a) For hire, contract, and private b) Truckload (TL) and less-than-truckload (LTL) c) Type of commodity carried (e.g., refrigerated, flatbed, household goods, etc.) d) All of the above e) None of the above Answer:All the above

Domestic water transportation consists of three distinct segments or forms. Which of the following is one of the three?

a) Integrated b) Canal c) Inland d) Containerized e) Breakbulk Answer: Inland

Executives at JB Hunt, a truckload motor carrier, made the statement that We are not a trucker anymore. Which of the following best support this statement?

a) Intermodal accounts for over half of JB Hunt's revenue b) JB Hunt now has over 34,000 containers c) Truckload sales are less than 25 percent of JB d) Hunt's total revenue e)All of the above f)None of the above Answer: All of the above

Air cargo specializes in the transport of:

a) perishables. b) high value to density items. c) expensive electronics. d) high priority freight. e) all of the above. Answer: All of the Above

The major elements of air cargo include:

air mail, air freight, scheduled and air express

In addition to alcohol and substance abuse, a key issue confronting the water carrier industry is:

an aging infrastructure.

Transit time via water transportation is the longest of the four primary modes commodities. This modal service disadvantage has to be traded-off against the low inventory carrying cost to the shipper for the transport of commodities. This tradeoff usually makes water transport attractive for which commodities.

basic raw materials

Due to the Champlin Oil Case ruling by the Supreme Court, most oil pipelines in the US operate as:

common carriers

The importance of domestic water in the US transportation system has been declining. The text attributes this decline to:

decline of manufacturing and increased focus on logistics performance

When routing vehicles, several constraints may be encountered such as

delivery time windows

Current forms of public promotion for pipelines primarily consist of:

eminent domain

The cost structure for motor carriers:

has high variable costs resulting in high operating ratios.

The cost structure for railroads can be best described as:

high fixed costs due to infrastructure ownership

A high average load factor for an air carrier indicates:

high utilization of the available space for air cargo.

Domestic watercarriers have a cost structure with:

high variable costs, similar to motor carriers

Air carriers are promoted through

infrastructure--airports

The single highest cost for air carriers is:

labor

Which of the following represented the single largest cost element for combination carriers:

labor

Railroads have been historically promoted through the use of:

land grants

What percent of the total intercity ton-miles is moved by air cargo carriers?

less than one percent

The ability to achieve economies of scale is extremely important to transportation. The on-line text author suggest the ability of motor carriers to achieve economies of scale is:

limited due to the size constraints imposed by government regulations

Water carriers have an operating ratio in the

mid 80s.

Which transportation mode is common to most intermodal shipments?

motor carrier (trucking)

Since deregulation, the trend in US air cargo volumes has been:

on an upward trajectory as FedEx and UPS were allowed to expand, and growth has been further fueled by internet sales.

An operating ratio of .80 (or 80 percent) would suggest:

operating expenses are 80 percent of operating revenue

Following graduation, you accepted a director of logistics operations position. The position has responsibility for managing a small private fleet. While developing a pick-up and delivery route for several trucks serving a region, you notice that one of the delivery points is located considerably distant from the other pick-up and delivery points which are closely clustered together. Based on this observation, you should decide to:

outsource this point to a third party carrier that serves points near that customer

The number of class one railroads operating in the United States is currently:

seven

Air carriers have a cost structure:

similar to motor carriers due to the high proportion of variable costs

Motor carriers employ approximately 3.5 millon drivers. Future projections of the driver workforce indicate:

the industry will experience a major shortfall in drivers by 2014

Although intermodal transportation offers several benefits, many shippers cite disadvantages associated with using intermodal transportation. A key disadvantage cited by many shippers is:

the infrequent service provided by the railroads

Railroads typically have an operating ratio in the high 60s to low 70% range. We would expect railroads to have a low operating ratio because:

they have relatively high fixed costs

Vehicle routing problems may take several forms. This form involves shipping from multiple origins (plants) to multiple destinations (customers):

transshipment

International shipping containers typically are stanardized on two lengths. However, the number of containers is measured in TEUs. A TEU is:

twenty-foot equivalent unit