Pricing Differentiated Expressway Tolls for Freight Trucks Balancing Equity and Efficiency
- DOI
- 10.2991/978-94-6463-980-3_28How to use a DOI?
- Keywords
- Expressway; Differential toll; Equity; Two-layer optimization model; Optimization algorithm
- Abstract
To address the challenge of balancing efficiency improvement and equity assurance in differentiated expressway tolls for freight trucks. This paper develops a bi-level programming model embedding group equity and spatial-temporal indicators into the objective function and constraints of expressway operator. The equity demands transform post-evaluation into upfront optimization design. The upper-level guides operator decisions through setting fairness penalty costs and rate difference constraints, while the lower-level employs elastic-demand stochastic user equilibrium to capture truckers’ route choice to rate variations. The improved particle swarm optimization and Frank-Wolfe algorithm solve this model. Using the Phnom Penh–Sihanoukville–Kampot freight corridor as the study context, a comparative analysis is conducted of systematic impacts under equity-oriented, efficiency-oriented, and neutral policy configurations. The results show that the neutral scenario achieves optimal performance: revenue increases by 13.5%, user costs decrease by 4.3%, group and spatiotemporal equity metrics improve by 43.4% and 40.4%, respectively, and expressway freight-truck volumes rise by 12.1%, with heavy vehicles exhibiting a discount elasticity of 16.8% and off-peak guidance effects of 15.3%. For policymakers and operators, this implies a policy-ready starting point: set moderate peak surcharges for heavy trucks and small off-peak discounts for light trucks, implement simple caps on inter-period rate changes and on cross-group rate differentials, and maintain a revenue floor—together delivering equity gains without undermining financial viability and with clear indicators to monitor in operation. This study provides quantitative decision tools and empirical evidence for developing countries to design differentiated tolling policies balancing economic viability and social acceptability.
- Copyright
- © 2025 The Author(s)
- Open Access
- Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.
Cite this article
TY - CONF AU - Xiaodong Yu AU - Xuebo Wang AU - Fangqing Liao AU - Yawei Zhou AU - Yi Wang AU - Han Wang PY - 2025 DA - 2025/12/26 TI - Pricing Differentiated Expressway Tolls for Freight Trucks Balancing Equity and Efficiency BT - Proceedings of the 2025 5th International Conference on Business Administration and Data Science (BADS 2025) PB - Atlantis Press SP - 301 EP - 311 SN - 2352-538X UR - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6463-980-3_28 DO - 10.2991/978-94-6463-980-3_28 ID - Yu2025 ER -