Rejuvenating Mississippi River’s Post-Harvest Shipping

The Mississippi River plays a vital role in the global competitiveness of U.S. agricultural commodities. The key to the river's effectiveness is how efficiency it can carry bulk loads. However, limited research has investigated how barge-load size affects efficiency. It is hypothesized that increasing the load-size will enhance barge transportation efficiency. As a test, a vector autoregressive model was developed, with results supporting the hypothesis. Barge-rate volatility and magnitude may be reduced by regulating draft depth, which is the main constraint for barge load size.