Guest Editorial—Focused Issue on Freight Transportation

The transportation of freight embodies exchanges and commerce in human society and, thus, constitutes a major enabling factor for most of our economic and social activities. The importance of this role is continuously increasing, as do the requirements for freight transportation, to be efficient, reliable, flexible, and responsive to our continuously evolving and, sometimes, contradictory needs and expectations. These requirements challenge operations research and transportation science to continuously enhance our methodological capabilities and innovatively apply them to important issues in the analysis, planning, and management of freight transportation and logistics.