Evaluation of the Effect of Rural Road Condition on Agricultural Produce Transportation

Abstract

Road condition affects the operations and costs of vehicle using the infrastructure. Various Vehicle Operating Cost (VOC) models provide an indication of road roughness effects on fuel consumption, additional damage to vehicle and tire wear. These models do not include the effect of road conditions on the condition and potential damage of transported freight. These potential damages are mostly limited through the use of improved vehicle technologies or packaging. In the agricultural transportation situation, it is often found that packaging is not a solution to the problem as the use of older vehicle technology operated on mostly rural roads with lower riding quality levels is a main contributor to the problem. This paper evaluates the quantified effects of riding quality on low volume roads on selected damage levels of tomatoes in California. The paper is partly based on a study focusing on Vehicle-Pavement Interaction and its effects on the broader California economy. Vehicle responses to road conditions were measured during operations on a range of rural routes. Laboratory experiments were developed to replicate the dominant vibrations of the trucks, and to measure the stresses that tomatoes typically undergo at these vibration levels. The damage and failure levels for the tomatoes during transportation were determined, and these damage levels used to calculate typical costs to the agricultural suppliers due to road conditions. The problem could thus be quantified, and input data provided for a cost/benefit evaluation of the potential maintenance/improvement of the various routes typically used to transport the tomatoes.Steyn et al.

smAvo and smaTo: A fruity odyssey of smart sensor platforms in Southern Africa

“…Whilst desktop studies are useful for providing as estimate of cost-to-benefit for remedial measures [6], quantification of riding quality -the primary measure of potential damage or induced stress for fresh produce transported by road -ultimately provide the necessary detailed investigation to calibrate and validate new and existing models. New technology, such as vehicle tracking devices [7,8], seek to address the requirement for larger datasets, specifically in rural areas [9] where monitoring transportation systems accurately proves difficult. Acceleration and interfacial stress measurements of tomatoes during transportations have shown a clear influence on both the postharvest quality of the fruit and shelf life [10,11,12].…”

smAvo: Packhouse optimization using smart avocadoes in South Africa

“…Remedial measures which rely on cost-to-benefit estimates cannot accurately consider the complex dynamics encountered to calibrate and validate models dependent on the riding quality of roads (Steyn & Bean, 2013). Vehicle tracking devices have proven effective to acquire larger datasets (Wessels & Steyn, 2015;Wessels & Steyn, 2018), notably in rural regions (Steyn et al, 2015). These are not however representative of the mesoscale behavior associated with discrete particle dynamics in a confined, interlocking matrix arrangements (Broekman & Gräbe, 2021).…”

Accuracy enhancement of roadway anomaly localization using connected vehicles

“…Rough roads cause damage to transported goods (Steyn et al 2015) and increase the cost of operating a vehicle (Robbins and Tran 2015). Transportation agencies rely on the regular and accurate reporting of localised roughness to prioritise maintenance needs (Karamihas and Senn 2012).…”