Test a wide variety of policies and infrastructure improvements, from pricing strategies to freight-specific facilities. Cube Cargo is the Cube functional library for freight forecasting, offering specific methodologies for studying freight demand using a commodity-based approach.  Cube Cargo operates seamlessly with all of Cube including Cube Voyager and Cube ME.  Cube Cargo also works with TP+ and TRIPS.  With Cube Cargo you can add freight forecasting by leveraging your existing passenger data and models.

Commodity-based freight forecasting
Many areas are recognizing the need to have a better understanding of existing and future freight movements, and how they can take actions to plan for and to improve the flow of goods while mitigating negative financial, environmental and travel impacts. Key elements in freight planning are matrices of commodity and truck flows.

Cube Cargo forecasts:
• Matrices of tons of goods by commodity type by mode for use in the analysis of goods flows, and
• Matrices of the number of trucks by truck type ready to be assigned to estimate truck vehicle flows.

Long-, short-haul and urban freight
Cube Cargo models three distinct freight segments:
• Long-haul bulk cargo typically moving from logistic node to logistic node (factories, warehouses, packaging centers)
• Short-haul freight trips for the distribution and collection of goods
• Urban freight and truck travel moving small amounts of goods, or workers, delivering services within a town or city.

Unlimited commodity segmentation
Choose your commodity groups according to the level and quality of your data. Accurately model the movement of such diverse goods as milk, oil, grain, paper, and machine tools.

Regional hierarchy
Cube Cargo uses a two-level zoning system:

Regional hierarchy The diagram represents the typical hierarchy of regions for a Cube Cargo model. The study area is the smallest region in the diagram. The inner area is the largest enclosing region for which socio-economic data is available. All the places, not in the inner area, which can serve as the origin or destination of freight trips observed in the inner area, form the outer area.

• The Coarse Zone system: where much of the modeling is conducted reflecting the lack of data at detailed zoning levels. Generation, Distribution, Mode Choice, and the incorporation of Transport Logistics Nodes.

• The Fine Zone System: typically based on the zoning system for the highway network onto which the vehicles will be assigned.  Additional zones are usually added to represent logistic nodes such as ports, railway stations and goods yards, where freight is moved between vehicles.  The trip chaining model within the vehicle model uses the logistics nodes when estmating truck pick-up and drop-off tours. Fine Distribution, Vehicle Model, Urban Service Traffic Model. more