11. Conclusions
Though important to the economy, freight trucking creates certain adverse impacts. These impacts
are referred to as external costs because they are not borne by those who generate these costs.
Placing an appropriate dollar value on external costs is vital to internalizing them; that is, requiring
those who generate these costs to compensate society in an amount equal to the external costs.
Internalizing external costs makes it possible to return to society an amount equal to the costs
one imposes; it also gives a clear signal of the actual full cost of an activity, so that consumption
decisions can be made on the basis of this cost. In the case of transportation, including external
costs generally will lead to some reduction in consumption of transportation services, such as by
locating producing facilities closer to markets. Another impact may be greater use of a competing
mode that has less total cost, once external costs are included.