Improving Road Freight Transport
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who is carrying his goods and what risk he runs of pilferage or late delivery. The trucker also benefits by getting to understand the shipper’s quality requirements: punctuality, special handling, and other quality concerns.
Benefits of Eliminating Queuing Despite their wide prevalence and recognized negative impact on transport efficiency, queuing systems have been abolished in only a few cases, with resulting benefits for both freight owners and truckers. The port of Aqaba, Jordan, which is not an LLDC but does have substantial transit road traffic, is an example of the benefits LLDCs and their transit neighbors might derive by abolishing a queuing system. In order to change the economy of the city of Aqaba from total dependence on its port to one that attracts commerce and tourism, the long queues of trucks in the downtown area that resulted from the tour de role queuing system had to be eliminated. In 2008, the queuing system was replaced with a technologically simple advanced notification system, which permits only approved and licensed truck operators to operate out of the port’s container terminal. Trucks are not even allowed to enter the town until they are notified that the container they have come to collect has cleared all its entry requirements and is ready for pickup, and they must use predetermined routes provided to the driver by the notification system based on the current levels of traffic congestion. Thus, traders now contract with transport companies for the transport of their containers rather than having to use the next truck in the queue that is waiting at the container terminal (for imports) or at the free trade zone (for exports). The impact on the trucking industry of this advanced notification system has been dramatic. The productivity of trucks serving the port has increased by a factor of about three, so they now travel about 100,000 km per year instead of the 30,000 km per year or so they averaged before the change was made. A 30 percent increase in container traffic at the port is being handled with a much reduced truck fleet. Importers are now provided with a reliable and timely transport of their containers at no increase in the tariff.
Procedures for Movement of Trucks and Drivers Across Borders Once the structure of the international road freight industry and the procedures for its members to contract with clients have been addressed, there remain the issues of getting trucks, their drivers, and their loads