Construction and Empirical Analysis of Coal Road Freight Price Index Using Big Data

Coal is an important component of China's energy structure, mainly transported by three modes: railway, waterway, and highway. In regional coal transportation, highway transport undertakes numerous collection-distribution tasks and medium-short distance transport, playing a vital and indispensable role. Considering the characteristics of the coal highway transportation market and the demand for price indices, a three-tiered coal highway freight price index system has been established, including individual indices, classified indices, and an overall index. Using order data from the logistics platform of the Coal Big Data Center, the coal highway freight price index is compiled by adopting the internationally Laspeyres chain method. The methodological selection has passed the ADF stationarity test. Economically, the coal highway freight price index is closely correlated with coal prices, with the correlation coefficient reaching over 0.7, which can reflect about the coal highway freight market and fill the gap in market highway freight price monitoring.