Reviewed by David B. Vellenga Iowa State University
The purpose of this bibliography is to present an extensive source of references on transportation costs and costing and appears to be the most exhaustive reference ever compiled on this topic. The following sources were used to develop the bibliography: Applied Science and Technology Index, British Technology Index, Current Literature in Traffic and Transportation, Dissertation Abstracts Inter-national, Engineering Index, Industrial Arts Index, Industrial Aerospace Abstracts and Public Affairs Information Service Bulletin.
The more than five thousand references in the index are cross referenced in several ways and the volume is very easy to use. Entries are generally listed by chronological years (usually decades e.g. 1931-1940), by mode of transport (e.g. air), and by subject headings where applicable. The subject headings include: accounting, competition, costs, fares, finances, insurance, management, operation costs, pricing, rates, securities, statistics, taxation, tolls and wages. In addition the book has a name index (authors arranged alphabetically) and a subject index structured on the chain indexing procedure. Many of these subject index entries are annotated.
The bibliography also contains four useful appendices which are: Appendix A — Transportation Dissertations, Appendix B — Transportation Statistical References, Appendix C — Journals Cited in the Bibliography and Appendix D — Abbreviations Cited in the Bibliography.
The bibliography will be very useful for reference librarians, trans-portation managers, transportation economists and students, re-searchers and consultants working on transportation projects and transportation historians. The book also suggests the need for continued effort and improvement in transportation cost accounting methodology and techniques. This book would be considered a must for any transportation firm and for university libraries. An update from 1974 to the present would be a welcome addition to the literature in transport costs and costing. The author is to be commended for this excellent work.
