Drop trailer method framework for trailer optimization for Malaysia haulage industry.

The increase in volumes of international trade using containerization has led to the rapid growth of container haulage operators in Malaysia. A drop trailer method operation is generally used in container trucking industry, whereby a container that needs to be stuffed or unstuffed is left mounted on its trailer at its origin or final destination. It is often the case that a container is left at a site for days together with its trailer and is used as a buffer warehouse by manufacturers. Despite the high capital investment in the container trucking industry, operators are experiencing higher costs of managing their fleet movements. Accordingly, managing drop trailer method has become a major concern for haulage operators due to various factors such as keen business competition from within and outside the industry, liberalization of the industry to more players and the fact that the operators are having more constraint in optimizing their fleets based on the services offered. The study proposes an improvement towards fleet utilization that emphasizes managing trailers using a new framework called Drop Trailer Method (DTM). The implementation of the DTM movement is to monitor and optimize the trailer fleet utilization. This is an exploratory study, and the qualitative method is adopted for data collection. A total of 12 respondents were interviewed and responded. The result indicated the lack of DTM management, particularly in the container haulage industry. It also indicated that the DTM framework is important in order to benchmark and manage the trailers appropriately. It is essential to have the DTM movement planning framework for better impact and performance on the Malaysian haulage industry.