Organization and operation of road transport

There are four main methods of organizing and operating road transport:

① Renting vehicles to users for fixed-time, fixed-route, or fixed-period use.

② Dispatching vehicles to complete transport tasks according to transport contracts or agreements. This is generally used for freight transport.

③ Organizing scheduled passenger and freight transport buses with fixed routes, stops, and times. Passenger buses are the main form of road passenger transport. Freight buses are the main form of less-than-truckload (LTL) freight transport, therefore, they are generally LTL freight buses.

④ Dispatching and organizing vehicles for rational operation according to the requirements of users who consign goods.

To improve the efficiency of road transport and reduce transport costs, the organizational forms and methods of road transport are constantly evolving. Container transport (see container transport), trailer transport, and centralized transport are now widely used. Trailer transport uses truck trains instead of ordinary freight trucks to transport goods, which can increase the vehicle's load capacity. A truck train consists of a tractor or a truck and a trailer, which can be attached and detached, allowing for flexible vehicle allocation as needed and enabling trailer-swapping transport. Trailer-drop transport involves using more trailers than trucks or tractor-trailers on fixed routes with loading and unloading at one point, multiple loading points and unloading points, or multiple loading points and one unloading point. This allows for the unloading of trailers at loading and unloading points, while the trucks or tractor-trailers can then take the loaded trailers for shuttle-like back-and-forth transport. Centralized transport involves a single trucking company transporting goods from one point of origin (station, dock, warehouse, etc.) to many receiving points, or from many points of origin to one receiving point. This eliminates the need for dispatching personnel, saving manpower; it also allows for more efficient vehicle scheduling, reducing empty runs and improving transport efficiency; and it creates favorable conditions for the use of truck trains, specialized transport vehicles, and loading/unloading machinery.