Freight-forwarding company Panalpina has introduced an intra-Asia road transport service that it said is five to six days shorter than ocean freight and costs 30 percent to 50 percent less than air freight.
The door-to-door transit service connecting China to Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore is ideal for high-end products and caters to both full-truck-load (FTL) and less-than-truck-load (LTL) shipments, Panalpina said in an August 30 statement.
It is a through-container service, the company said, so goods remain in the same sealed 40- or 45-foot container throughout the entire journey, with only the trailers exchanged,
The daily LTL service from Shenzhen to Bangkok via Hanoi takes four days. Apart from coastal cities in China, intra-Asia road transport also directly connects Western China with Southeast Asia.
“The service covers a number of major cities in Western China such as Chengdu and Chongqing, where the entire market still struggles to find adequate capacity for air and ocean transport,” said Andreas Wolff, area trade lane development manager for intra-Asia at Panalpina.
The service includes customs clearance with on-site staff and close security monitoring.
Company staff will handle customs processing on-site at country borders to avoid delays caused by incorrect or incomplete paperwork. For shippers in China, the physical transfer of customs handbooks to the border customs is not needed, as copies are sufficient.
“Security is one of the main concerns,” said Stefan Gustafsson, district manager for Yangtze & Bohai Bay, Panalpina Greater China. “All trucks are equipped with GPS devices, and CCTV systems are installed inside each container to survey the cargo, ensuring highest security standards.”
With the trucking service, Panalpina is hoping to make inroads into the expanding intra-regional trade. Road transport within Asia is yet to be fully developed owing to the lack of integration, border obstacles, and long distances between markets.
