Efficiency of Long-distance Truck

Transportation in Thailand

Terdsak RONGVIRIYAPANICH
King Mongkut’s University of Technology North Bangkok, Thailand
Sompong SIRISOPONSILP,, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand
Wirach HIRUN, Kasetsart University, Chalermprakiat Sakon Nakhon Province Campus
Research Background

 Freight transportation plays an

important role in economic
development.
 Government assumed a leading role
in freight transportation
infrastructure planning and
management.
 Freight movement data is an
indispensable input to
transportation planning.
Research Background
 Two common data collection
techniques.
 Commodity Flow Survey (CFS) is an
approach to collecting data from
shippers. However, it needs cohesive
cooperation from respondents.


 Roadside survey also offers detailed

and unique data on fleet utilization
and shipment characteristics.
 widely adopted internationally as a
 Research Background

 No nationwide freight data survey

since 1998.


 Department of Land Transport opted to

conduct road side interviews in 10
selected provinces, which are
major economic activity centers of
Thailand in 2008.

 Given budget limitations, the agency
expected that these survey locations
would cover a majority of long
 Research objectives

 To analyze the efficiency of road

freight transportation in Thailand by
using the roadside survey data
 Efficiency is measured through the
analysis of
 Distribution of shipment distance
 Load factor and
 Empty hauls

Roadside Survey in
Thailand
 Data collected in 2008 through the
roadside interviews of trucks
entering and leaving 10 major
provinces of Thailand.
 Four provinces, including Bangkok,
are at the heart of economic
activities in Thailand.
 Other six provinces are gateway to
each region of the country.
 These survey locations would cover
a majority of freight movement
volume in the country.
Survey Locations
Roadside Survey in
Thailand
 Interviews were conducted twice in
the year covering both wet and dry
seasons, in order to capture
seasonality of agricultural
products.
 Out of over 400,000 vehicles passing
the survey stations, about 55,000
truck drivers were interviewed.
Roadside Survey in
Thailand
 Each interviewed truck was stopped to
provide information pertaining to the
movement.
 truck type
 cargo type
 origin/destination and
 cargo weight


 In the case of multiple commodities in a

single trip, drivers were asked to
report commodity type of the goods of
largest weight.



Truck classification
Type Description Abbreviation
1 Single-unit trucks (6-10 wheelers) SU
2 Container trucks CT
3 Specialized trucks for beverage ST-B
4 Specialized trucks for petroleum and ST-P
gas
5 Specialized trucks for cement ST-C
6 Trailers TR
7 Semi-trailers STR
8 Light duty trucks LT
9 Semi-trailers for petroleum and gas STR-P
10 Small trucks (4-wheelers) 4W
Roadside Survey in
Thailand
Travelled Distances by
Commodity
Commodity Weight Ton - km Average distance
( million ton ) ( million ) ( km )
Aggregate 55.8 6,163 118
Food stuffs 37.0 12,654 297
Cement 35.8 9,306 252
Fuel 26.5 8,072 296
Wood 26.1 10,046 359
Metal 24.9 5,842 257
Rice 21.4 7,641 372
Animal feed 19.5 6,152 313
Construction materials 18.9 5,078 276
Plastics 15.5 2,836 221
Automotive 13.7 3,100 257
Vegetable & Fruit 12.9 5,624 382
Paper 12.2 3,077 239
Sugar 11.1 4,075 401
Chemicals 10.7 3,101 267
Fertilizer 10.3 3,873 384
Consumer products 10.1 3,664 362
Rubber 7.5 2,783 306
Others 113.5 37,117 327
Total 483.5 140,203 302
Travelled Distances by
Truck Type

 Majority of intercity shipment are carried by heavy trucks, which

occupy over 85 percent of total shipment weight
Distribution of travelled
distance of small trucks

Large share of long distance trip by s

 Small shipments by SMEs which are prone to

utilizing light duty trucks over long distance
Load Factor Analysis
Truck type Average S.D. Overloading
(% of total trips )
SU 0.78 0.44 28.0
CT 0.66 0.45 21.4
ST-B 1.06 0.50 56.9
ST-P 1.05 0.43 58.6
ST-C 1.07 0.53 55.7
TR 0.95 0.37 41.9
STR 0.79 0.43 26.3
LT 0.92 0.57 42.8
STR-P 0.74 0.31 15.9
4W 0.68 0.91 4.0
Total 0.82 0.47 31.6

Loadfactor by truck type was measured in terms of

the ratio of the average cargo weight to vehicle
weight capacity.
Load Factor Analysis

 Approximately 32 percent of trucks

were found to be overloaded,
which is lower than the rate of over
50 percent found in China.
 The overloading proportion is
particularly higher in some vehicle
types, for instance
 Over 50 percent of specialized trucks
were found to be overweight.
 Light duty trucks are also more likely
to be overloaded due to its higher
cost per ton-km comparing to heavy
Empty Running by Truck
Type
45.0
by trip by veh -km
40.0
35.0
30.0
25.0
20.0
15.0
n
u
ig%
m
p
ty
re

10.0
5.0
0.0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Total
Vehicle type

R e su lts a re a n a lyze d in te rm s o f
p e rce n ta g e of total trips and of total
Empty Running
Truck type % Empty Average Distance % Overloaded
running ( km )
SU 30.9 325 28.0
CT 31.1 348 21.4
ST-B 26.7 240 56.9
ST-P 44.4 265 58.6
ST-C 40.6 212 55.7
TR 31.7 316 41.9
STR 34.1 303 26.3
LT 30.4 206 42.8
STR-P 29.6 370 15.9
4W 32.2 139 4.0
Average 31.9 302 31.6

Shares of empty running trucks in Thailand are

equivalent to 32 percent of total trips and 25
percent of total veh-kms
Empty running is more prevalent in specialized trucks
Discussions and
Conclusions
 A considerable number of light duty trucks,
so called pickups, are also employed to
long haul transportation.
 Inefficient practice as transportation cost per
ton-km of running light duty truck is higher
than heavy truck.


 In terms of load factor, it was revealed that

average load factor of trucks in Thailand
is higher than those of developed
countries such as UK and Germany.
 This was made possible by common practice
of overloading, which constitutes
Discussions and
Conclusions
 It is clear that the extent of empty
running in Thailand is comparable to
that of UK.

 At present, operators are attempting to
reduce empty haul as shown by
shorter average distance of empty
trips comparing to loaded trips.

 Empty running is more prevalent in
specialized trucks, such as oil or
cement tanker due to difficulties in
 Discussions and
Conclusions
 A particularly high proportion of overloading
in specialized trucks
 The attempt by operators to cut cost in order to
offset high cost of empty haul.


 Inefficiency of light duty trucks and 4

wheelers as illustrated by equivalent shares
of empty running measured in both percent
of total trips and of vehicle-kms.


 Special attention maybe needed to promote

efficient fleet management of light duty
trucks in Thailand
Thank You for Your
Attention