Intermodal Container Movement In Malaysia: Challenges And Strategies To Enhance Its Usage

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the factors that could influence the increase usage of intermodal for container transport in Malaysia. This study uses in-depth interviews with experts in container transport for data collection. The interviews were conducted with the road haulage operators, rail operator, inland terminal operators, port operators and freight forwarding operators. The most common challenges that could influence the increase usage of intermodal in Malaysia were efficiency, management issues and cost factor. Some improvements on these factors could make the rail-road intermodal container transport as attractive as the conventional road haulage services. Malaysia needs to emphasise more on promoting the high reliability, low cost and environment factors for a successful intermodal service. This study is limited to the container movement from ports to the important industrial areas in Malaysia and vice versa. The factors that influence the usage of intermodal can contribute to a better understanding on the best way to increase the current usage of the service. to develop possible strategies for improving the intermodal hinterland container transport system logistics in Malaysia. The study benefited the actors involve to improve rail-road intermodal container transport services.