Measurement and Analysis of Vibration Levels in Two and Three Wheel Delivery Vehicles in Southeast Asia

Different types of small vehicles such as two‐wheel and three‐wheel motorcycles are commonly used for domestic delivery in many countries in Asia, particularly in Southeast (SE) Asia. These types of vehicles are mostly used for delivery of packages in the last leg of the supply chain. This study was initiated at the Technical Council meeting of International Safe Transit Association to understand the vibration levels that exist in delivering packages in SE Asia for the ‘last leg’. The study measured the vibration levels that are experienced by packages in Thailand and Indonesia. The delivery process in these countries uses two‐wheel and three‐wheel light vehicles to deliver printers and small packages. However, this portion of data and testing has often been overlooked by packaging test standards used in North America and Europe to design and test packages during the development process. The ‘last leg’ delivery method discussed has generally been considered the fast, convenient and flexible way of product delivery. Data recorders were mounted on the vehicle floor to measure acceleration levels during delivery in commonly used routes in the major cities in these two countries. Measured data in this research show that the vibration levels in these ‘last leg’ delivery routes are actually lower than those measured in truck and container shipment across road and rail transportation in North America that has been previously studied by the authors. Vibration levels in the two‐wheel vehicles with rear trunk containers were higher than those in the three‐wheel vehicles. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.