Trucking Industry Perceptions of Congestion Problems and Potential Solutions to Container Transportation in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Inland Container transportation is coordinated and interacted between port terminals, Container Freight Stations, exporters, consignees, clearing agents, freight forwarders and primarily container transport companies. The key objectives of the study were to reveal the perception of container transportation industrialists with respect to road Congestion problems in Sri Lanka; and propose recommendations to improve the intermodal freight transportation.Therefore the factors that make an impact on road congestion namely, Road; Timing; Human; Vehicle; and Weather were examined.

It was revealed from the study that the congestion experienced by trucking companies is considerable thus congestion mitigation measures are needed especially in the urban areas. Better coordinating of traffic Signals and implementing effective system to attend emergency crews in clearing accidents should be implemented. Visibility in the system with respect to customs and other border management agencies in order to install electronic clearance stations at international border crossings would be essential. Further research on dedicating a single lane to truck traffic, having truck-only lanes on some surface streets; truck-only streets for access to ports, rail terminals, and airports; Eliminating some on-street parking during certain periods would be necessary prior implementation.

Keywords: Congestion, Containers, Transport, Trucking, Intermodal, Freight