At this point, the instrument transitions into the central choice task by
describing the context and content of the choice task. Respondents are asked to assume that they must allocate proportions of their shipping activity along the
origin–destination pair specified, for delivery to a warehouse, factory or retail
outlet within 50km of the port. Each of the alternatives (road, rail, short sea
with domestic carrier, short sea with foreign flag) are specified in terms of doorto-
door price of transport (that is, the freight rate), total transit time in days and
hours, frequency of departures (per week), percentage of shipments arriving
within 3 hours of schedule and percentage of shipments arriving more than
24 hours after schedule.