The Trucking Sector Optimization Model: A tool for predicting carrier and shipper responses to policies aiming to reduce GHG emissions

•TSO models the dynamics of the trucking sector and its LCA GHGs.•Case study demonstrates usefulness of TSO to evaluate GHG mitigation strategies.•We find there presently exists significant opportunities for improving truck mpg. In response to the growing Climate Change problem, governments around the world are seeking to reduce the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of trucking. The Trucking Sector Optimization (TSO) model is introduced as a tool for studying the decisions that shippers and carriers make throughout time (focusing on investments in Fuel Saving Technologies), and for evaluating their impact on life-cycle GHG emissions. A case study of fuel taxation in California is used to highlight the importance of (1) modeling the trucking sector comprehensively, (2) modeling the dynamics of the stock of vehicles, and (3) modeling different sources of emissions.