>> BoxTradeIntelligence has released an analysis of Asia-Europe Westbound trade lane.  It is available here .

>> MDS Transmodal's presentation to Intermodal Europe 2011 conference in Hamburg is available for download.

>> MDS Transmodal's presentation on Port Infrastructure Development to RenewableUK 2011 conference in London is available for download. 

>> The 2011 competition for funding for international sustainable distribution services from the European Commission's Marco Polo Programme has now started and the deadline for submissions is 16 January 2012.   For a description of the main changes to the Programme this year and how MDS Transmodal can help you to develop a successful application, please see the attached White Paper

>> Longer lorries.  On the 30th March, the Department for Transport (DfT) published a consultation on a proposal to allow a 2.05m increase in the length of semi-trailers and a maximum overall length for articulated HGVs of 18.75m.  Read more

>> The UK Government's Comprehensive Spending Review has been very significant for the transport market.  MDS Transmodal produced freight traffic forecasts for the Freight Transport Association's submission.

For FTA's submission click here.

The current and forecast road and rail traffic maps are our work.

>> South America Trade Briefing The third in the series of trade briefings from MDS Transmodal - the South America Trade Briefing -presents analysis of containerised trade data to 4Q 2009 and forecasts for the next two years using the MDS Transmodal World Cargo Database.

>> North America Trade Briefing The second in the series of trade briefings from MDS Transmodal - the North America Trade Briefing -presents analysis of containerised trade data to 4Q 2009 and forecasts for the next two years using the MDS Transmodal World Cargo Database.

>> China Trade Briefing 2010  The latest China Trade Briefing report from MDS Transmodal highlights key trends in China's containerised import and export trades with near term quarterly predictions for 2010 and 2011.  Although the last 18 months have seen the container markets fall in spectacular fashion, still the words "double-digit growth" have not left the shipping industry's parlance as far as China is concerned.  The China Trade Briefing report shows why.  As well as looking at broad trends in imports and exports the report provides specific details on China's container trades with trading partners and particular commodity groups, drilling down to SITC 5 digit level in some cases.

>> Consolidated UK International Passenger database, available for 2010, describing passenger volumes by mode, route, origin/destination, journey purpose, length of stay and purpose, compatible with IPS, ferry operator and CAA sources. More...Italiano...

 

Search Our Website

GBFM – the Great Britain Freight Model

GBFM is an integrated software/database system linking domestic and international GB freight data with simple economic models for explaining freight demand and allowing trend and scenario based forecasting.  The model has been developed independently by MDS Transmodal, originally as an in-house system to make good use of available transport data. 

GBFM has since been expanded, in partnership with various organisations including the UK Department for Transport (ITEA Division), the Freight Transport Association and HM Revenue and Customs.  GFBM has recently undergone a major overhaul.  Version 5.0 was released in early 2008.  See the methodology and user guide. 

GBFM is an evolving system. It represents our attempt to provide a tool for establishing a consensus on the impact of transport policy, the causes of traffic growth, the relationship between trade and inland traffic and the effects of competing transport modes. Outputs from the model include modal forecasts and results that can be assigned to networks and represented graphically. 

We have used the model for many commercial and policy orientated applications including: 

  • National road forecasts
  • National rail forecasts 
  • Port traffic forecasting   
  • Local and regional studies 
  • Lorry road user charging 
  • Impact of higher fuel costs 
  • Justifying the need and modelling the traffic generated for various proposed rail-connected warehousing sites 
  • Testing the viability of proposed ferry routes