Abstract This paper explores the various alternative routes and methods available to garment
exporters in Lao PDR, a land-locked country in South East Asia, when exporting to the European Union. Lao exporters are dependent on the transport systems in place in neighbouring countries
(i.e. Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore) for transit purposes. A multimodal transport
cost-model is used to illustrate and clarify multimodal transport routeing alternatives. A
confidence index is also introduced for each route, transport modes and nodal links. Five routeing
alternatives are presented in this paper and it is shown that the most frequently utilised route via Bangkok (Thailand) is not necessarily the most competitive in terms of time and cost, while the
route via Port Klang (Malaysia) potentially offers a better alternative for Lao garment exporters