Professional activity

Carina Thaller has been working as a research assistant at the Institute of Transport Research since April 2018. Currently, her thematic focus is on the following research fields.

• Analysing and forecasting the national and urban freight transport system and its development
• Ecological sustainable development of the freight transport
• Impacts of climate change or extreme weather conditions on freight transport
• Digitalization and automatization in freight transport at national and urban level
• Impacts of e-commerce on courier, express and parcel market
• Long-distance freight transport
• Examining innovative vehicle technologies and type of drives
• Assessing transport policy and logistics measures
• Deriving recommendations for transport policy and logistics

For analysing and forecasting freight transport Carina Thaller uses the following methodologies.

• Microscopic agent-based transport simulation (MATSim) and the integrated logistics module for route optimization Jsprit
• Causal Loop Diagramming, System Dynamics modelling
• Feedback between a macroscopic extrapolation (System Dynamics) and a microscopic transport simulation (MATSim, Jsprit)
• Empirical social research and statistical methodologies

Besides the methodological approaches, Carina Thaller works with her group in the following fields

• Improving the data quality as an essential basis for freight transport modelling
• Enhancing the forecast ability of models with intensified use of different macroscopic extrapolators
• Developing a Multi-Stakeholder model to illustrate urban freight transport
• Transport econometric methodologies
• Behaviour and explanatory models for the transport mode and lot size choice
• Optimization of logistics network structures

In addition, Carina Thaller leads the junior research group "Microsimulation of urban freight transport", which includes research assistants from the Chair of Commercial Transport at the Institute of Land and Sea Transport at the University of Berlin and the working group "Strategic Freight Transport Forecast" in the Department of Commercial Transport at the Institute of Transport Research at the German Aerospace Center. The aim is to ensure synergies between TU Berlin and DLR and to develop joint projects. TU Berlin contributes with their competencies in route planning and optimization as well as in the assignment in MATSim, whereas DLR incorporates expertise in the modelling of demand structures and demand behaviour.

Since the winter semester 2019/20 she has been teaching the course in "Transport Econometrics and Strategic Transport Forecast" as a lecturer at the Institute of Land and Sea Transport, Department of Transportation Systems Planning and Traffic Telematics at the Technical University of Berlin.

Carina Thaller finalized her doctorate in June 2018 at the TU Dortmund University, Institute of Transport Logistics, on Strategic Transport Forecast – A Feedback Approach between a Macroscopic Extrapolation and a Microscopic Transport Simulation. There she worked as a research assistant from September 2011 to March 2018. She focused on freight transport modelling using System Dynamics and microscopic agent-based transport models. Furthermore, she used different methodologies of empirical social research and statistics. From 2016 to 2018 she led the group Transport Modelling and Process Planning.

Publications

• Thaller, C. (2018). Strategische Verkehrsprognose - Rückkopplung einer makroskopischen Extrapolation mit einer mikroskopischen Verkehrssimulation. Dissertation, Fakultät Maschinenbau, Technische Universität Dortmund, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17877/DE290R-19348.  
• Thaller, C. (2019). A Feedback Approach between a Macroscopic Extrapolation and a Microscopic Transport Simulation for the Strategic Transport Planning – Case Study Courier, Express and Parcel Market at Urban Level. In: Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on City Logistics 2019, Dubrovnik, Croatia.
• Thaller, C., Papendorf, L., Dabidian, P., Clausen, U., Liedtke, G. (2019). Delivery and Shipping Behaviour of Commercial Clients of the CEP Service Providers. In: In: Proceedings of the Interdisciplinary Conference on Production, Logistics and Traffic. Springer, Cham. S. 205-220.

An overview of all publications, which are created as part of her DLR activity, can be found at the DLR-Publikationsserver elib.