The past decade has seen a rise in ability to collect, store and manage large amounts of data. With data becoming increasingly available to businesses, organizations are looking to new ways to gain insight into their activities. Acquired information can help transportation companies to cope with industry trends of expanded competition, the increasing pressure for lower transportation costs and higher service levels. The challenge for truckload carrier companies lies in determining which data is of value to the business. Understanding performance indicators and how to measure these is an important aspect of using data. To propose a solution, a framework is developed, in which clear performance indicators are reported, as well as how these can be measured.

Due to a global increase in food consumption and shipping, and regional developments like exploitation of the Vaca Muerta oil field, the port of Bahía Blanca in Argentina sees an opportunity to increase its activities. Therefore, a new container terminal will be constructed in the port of Bahía Blanca that can handle 500,000 TEU per year. This terminal is expected to be competitive to the container terminals in the port of Buenos Aires, which currently are Argentina’s market leaders in container handling. In addition, a shorter entry channel and deeper draft makes the port of Bahía Blanca more attractive than the port of Buenos Aires. Currently, it is unknown whether an increase in container throughput can be attracted from industries in the province of Buenos Aires. This province extends from Buenos Aires to Bahía Blanca, 650 km south of Buenos Aires. Next to that, it followed from qualitative interview sessions that all freight transport in the province is done by truck. As a result, roads are heavily congested during harvest season and for this reason container transport by train is preferred. Other reasons for choosing train as transport modality are the competitive location within the rail network of the port of Bahía Blanca and sustainable character of rail transport.