What You Need to Know About Drop-and-Hook Transportation

　　Drop-and-hook transportation, as an important means to improve road transport efficiency, has become an indispensable part of the logistics and transportation industry in some developed countries. However, what is the actual situation of drop-and-hook transportation in China? Let's talk about it below.

　　● Drop-and-hook transportation greatly improves the utilization rate of tractor trucks.

　　"Drop-and-hook transportation refers to a powered motor vehicle that leaves behind the carrying device it tows, including semi-trailers, full trailers, or even cargo boxes on truck chassis, at the destination, then tows other loaded devices back to the origin or to a new location. This mode of transportation, where one powered tractor continuously tows two or more carrying devices, is called drop-and-hook transportation."

　　Usually, domestic transportation commonly involves one tractor towing one trailer. Most of the time, the tractor waits for the trailer to be loaded, resulting in a lot of wasted time. The vehicle utilization rate is relatively low.

　　Drop-and-hook transportation means that one tractor can tow a loaded trailer to the destination, drop it off, then pick up a new trailer to transport to another destination. In cases of sufficient cargo supply, theoretically, except for maintenance and repair time, the tractor can operate continuously, significantly increasing vehicle utilization.

　　1. Can a tractor tow different trailers?

　　Yes, because tractors and trailers are two different vehicle types, each with their own driving and operation licenses. It is possible to switch different trailers on the same tractor.

　　2. What are the advantages of drop-and-hook transportation?

　　Simply put, drop-and-hook transportation can relatively increase the utilization rate of tractors.

　　3. Drop-and-hook transportation is originally a cost-reducing and efficiency-increasing transport method and is mainstream in Europe and America, but why hasn't it become mainstream in China yet?

　　Drop-and-hook transportation in China is mainly restricted by five major factors: policy and regulations, degree of organization, freight station functions, informatization level, and vehicle allocation.

　　Policy and regulatory restrictions

　　The development of drop-and-hook transportation was once severely restricted by management systems, such as issues with semi-trailer licensing, vehicle inspection, customs supervision, toll fees, and insurance for semi-trailers.

　　Insufficient degree of organization

　　Currently, road freight cannot guarantee sufficient and stable cargo sources for drop-and-hook transportation; coordination between tractors and trailers experiences various interruptions, increasing management costs and affecting overall efficiency; additionally, the current level of organization easily leads to vicious competition such as freight price suppression and overloading.

　　Incomplete freight station functions

　　Drop-and-hook transportation requires a high number, layout, and service functions of road freight stations, but the current freight station conditions cannot meet the needs of drop-and-hook vehicles.

　　Insufficient informatization level

　　Currently, the freight industry has a relatively low level of informatization. Logistics companies lack comprehensive information systems, making it difficult to meet the requirements for dynamic dispatch and management of drop-and-hook vehicles and cargo consolidation.

　　Incomplete vehicle allocation

　　Technically, drop-and-hook transportation requires standardized vehicle allocation to ensure free combination between different tractors and trailers. In terms of quantity, the tractor-to-trailer ratio needs to be about 1:3 to achieve optimized capacity with "one tractor pulling multiple trailers."

　　4. Development status of drop-and-hook transportation abroad

　　In North America and Europe, logistics costs account for 7%-9% of GDP, while in China, logistics costs account for 16%-18% of GDP. How do North America and Europe reduce logistics costs? One important reason is the establishment of an efficient drop-and-hook transportation system.

　　Efficient drop-and-hook transportation supports logistics in Europe and America. In domestic transport in Europe and America, road freight accounts for about 90%, and road transport efficiency is key to logistics efficiency. In the US, 90% of intercity road freight is carried by semi-trailers or road trains. In Europe, road trains composed of tractors towing semi-trailers account for 70%-80% of total transport volume. The fundamental reason for the widespread use of drop-and-hook transportation in Europe and America is that it improves transport efficiency, mainly reflected in:

　　1. Loading and unloading at warehouses generally takes about 4 hours. During this time, the tractor can detach from the trailer being loaded or unloaded and tow another trailer, avoiding queuing and waiting, increasing effective working time of the tractor and driver by over 50%-70%, and reducing related tractor costs;

　　2. Drop-and-hook transportation can tow heavy loads and multiple trailers, reducing the number of drivers and lowering driver-related costs;

　　3. Tractors in drop-and-hook transportation can tow various types of trailers (box, tank, flatbed, insulated, refrigerated), increasing the types of cargo hauled and improving tractor utilization;

　　4. Trailers and containers in drop-and-hook transportation can be transferred among road, rail, and water transport, facilitating multimodal transport development;

　　5. Box trailers, tank trailers, containers, etc., can be used as temporary warehouses;

　　5. To achieve the efficiency of drop-and-hook transportation, an efficient transport organization system must be established.

　　1. Effective connection between urban internal cargo transport and intercity transport. Drop-and-hook transportation is suitable for batch transport between intercity logistics centers, warehouses, freight centers, and large enterprise warehouses. Small batch urban internal cargo transport and delivery services are suitable for small-tonnage freight vehicles. Different transport modes between urban and intercity freight require specialized logistics centers and transfer centers, and the construction of effective operational rule systems.

　　2. Effective connection between different transport modes. Drop-and-hook transportation is very suitable for towing different types of container cargo. Large numbers of containers need to be transferred among rail, road, and water transport (multimodal transport). Building specialized multimodal logistics centers, transfer centers, and effective multimodal operational rule systems is one of the conditions for developing drop-and-hook transportation.

　　3. Standardization of drop-and-hook transportation equipment and facilities. The drop-and-hook transportation system needs to establish a standardization system for equipment and facilities, including standardized tractors, trailers, domestic containers, shuttle trucks, lifting and hoisting equipment, straddle carriers, and logistics center warehouses.