Methods And Application Of Revenue Management In Railway Freight

By analyzing the basic principles and method of revenue management and in combination with the actual situation of china railway freight transportation, the thesis concluded that railway freight industry meet the basic conditions of applying revenue management. The thesis also analyzed the different applying methods of revenue management in railway freight transportation and air passenger transportation. A theoretical framework of railway freight revenue management was described based on the actual situation of china railway freight industry. The framework includes market segmentation, demand forecast, pricing strategy, transport capacity distribution and path optimization. It is important to emphasize that the market segmentation which is based on micro consumer behavior is the key to realize railway freight revenue management and the demand forecast which is based on the market segmentation is basic to apply railway freight revenue management. Only based on comparatively accurate demand forecasting data, railway transport department can supply differentiation of services to different kinds of cargo demand. Thus the railway freight department can sole the appropriate capacity to appropriate customers at the right time. A space-time network model was defined in the thesis to simulating the process of capacity distribution and path optimization in railway freight revenue management. This model divided railway freight demand into three kinds, the mission demand, the important customers demand and the general cargo demand. The system of railway freight revenue management can get a capacity allocation scheme and a vehicle space-time routing with the maximum expected revenue through supplying differentiation of services to different kinds of cargo demand. In addition, the thesis proposed the concept of rail capacity option trading, designed the processes of trading between railway transport department and freight agent where the capacity options contracts market and the spot market coexist, and analyzed pricing strategy which is based on railway capacity option through the stackelberg gambling model analysis.