National Cooperative Freight Research Program (NCFRP)
/Results Digest (Jan, 2010) extracted 11JAN2011 from http://www.trb.org/NCFRP/Public/NCFRP.aspx
The National Cooperative Freight Research Program (NCFRP) is a cooperative research program sponsored by the Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA) and administered by the Transportation Research Board. The program was authorized in 2005 with the passage of the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act... The NCFRP will carry out applied research on problems facing the freight industry that are not being adequately addressed by existing research programs.
America’s freight transportation system makes critical contributions to the nation’s economy, security, and quality of life. More than $660 billion (about 6.4 percent of the U.S. Gross Domestic Product) is spent annually to move freight, and the cost and volume of goods movement are crucial to the productivity of the entire U.S. economy... U.S. domestic freight, measured by ton mileage, is expected to grow by some 50 percent in the next 20 years.
The NCFRP will produce a series of research reports and other products such as guidebooks for practitioners. Primary emphasis will be placed on disseminating NCFRP results to the intended end-users of the research: freight shippers and carriers, service providers, suppliers, and public officials.