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Abstract
This paper describes a large survey to better understand specialized transportation
resources and how they are being used. The survey had two key characteristics. The first
was to question both organizations that provide transportation, and those that do not
provide it but are actively involved in purchasing or arranging it on behalf of their clients.
The second was to be comprehensive; that is, to survey any organization that might be
involved either in providing or arranging transportation.
The results fall into two broad categories. The first is the actual survey findings,
which provide a broad and comprehensive overview of the types of transportation-related
activities that organizations are engaged in. Most significantly, about 45% of the diverse
organizations that were surveyed provide transportation in some form, and another 20%
actively arrange transportation for their clients. This confirms the common belief that the
true size of the specialized transportation “system” is far larger than the formal network
that is known to transportation funders and regulators.
Because the survey was intended to be broad and exploratory rather than focused
and definitive, the findings generally fall short of providing clear answers to specific
questions. However, they are often provide considerable insight into the types of details
that future surveys should address with respect to various issues. Given this, perhaps the
more important results are conclusions about how the findings of this survey, and the
insights that they generate, can be used to develop more focused and definitive surveys of
this type in the future.