Various Transportation Modes For Cargo Services

 

 Which is the best  type of cargo and freight transportation? 

While planning the shipment process the mode of transportation is important to consider. Apart from the cost, urgency of the shipment, value and size of the goods need to be evaluated while considering the mode of transportation. Let’s see which mode is best to transport your cargo and freight service.

Different Cargo or Freight Services

Air

For the coming 15-20 years as the World GDP grows, there will be demand for higher value goods. To meet the demand for growth, air cargo traffic is forecasted to grow in an average of 4.2% per year. Air freight is an important mode of transport as it serves markets and supply chains that requires speed. On 1997 when Apple started innovating on the details of supply-chain management, most computer manufacturers transported products by sea, Steve Jobs took the benefit of air freight to buy the holiday air freight space. He paid $50 million to ensure that company’s new iMacs would be available during Christmas season.

Other industries like automotive and retail industry also utilizes air freight as it reduces greater flexibility and reduces inventory and storage costs. Also, putrescible goods such as foods, flowers and some pharmaceuticals took advantage of shorter transportation time. Another advantage of air transportation is that there is less likelihood of damage or theft is less.

But air freight has disadvantages due to the requirement of and fuel and it is expensive. It also has its size and weight limitations. There is also limitations in the goods that can be transported by air, large items, oddly shaped things may be suitable for other modes of transport.

Benefits of air freight/air transportation

• Quick transportation
• Greater level of security
• Less documentation
• Cargo handling is less.
• Well founded arrival and departures.

 

Rail

Trains require less fuel per ton mile than road transportation and needs only one driver. However there is some additional costs in a rail journey, ie, at the end of rail transportation, a road delivery is needed and there will be lift of cost. For longer journey rail is less expensive.

In 2015, first freight train arrived in the Rotterdam from China carrying ISO freight containers in 18 days. Other advantages of rail freight include is that as all containers are transported to the location in one go and it is environment friendly as train releases less CO2 than plane.

Benefits of Rail Freight/ Rail Cargo

• Rail has strong safety record.
• Lower emissions than other mode of freights.
• Cost effective and fast deliveries over long distances.
• Most efficient form of land transportation.

 

Road

It is one of the most common modes of transportation and is widely used in European, African and Northern American continents. For the seamless movement of goods across various countries single customs document is only needed.

Benefits of Road Transportation or Road Freight

• Cost effectiveness
• Fast and easiest mode of delivery
• Deliveries even in rural areas.
• Flexible service
• Packing cost is less
• Tracking and tracing of cargo and truck is easy.
• It is complete door-to-door service and is economical means of transport.
• Limitation is by the size and weight of the vehicles , also it is affected by weather, road and traffic conditions.

Multimodal

It is the combination of different modes of transportation such as rail, sea and road. It allows customer to cost-effective manage shipments from start-to-end and ensures care and efficiency at every step of the way. One of the example that uses cross region rail network with road (using truck) is DHL,UPS, Geodis.  According to UPS, this services offers savings up to 65% than air freight.

Sea-air is another multimodal transport and this service is less expensive than air and eco-friendlier than air transportation.

Benefits of Multimode service

• Transportation to any part of the world.
• Customers need to deal with one entity to handle all transportation modes under one document.
• It provides efficient and cost-effective delivery options.
• Distance between manufacturer and consumer is reduced.

 

Here we have seen that there are many means of transportation of goods and sometimes there won’t be a single solution for your transportation needs. As seen every transport has its own advantages and disadvantages. Understanding our shipment, prioritizing the needs, cost comparison while planning the shipment and choosing the best mode of transport.