The era of globalization is prosperous with millions of trading routes. Supply chains are vital for every industry in order to work like an accurate mechanism ‒ this means, that logistics play a significant role in economics: https://globalinklogistics.com/.
Logistics and transportation in modern-world economics
Every industry relies on the timely supply of key production components. Some companies have their different production lines placed in different parts of the world, meaning transportation is vital to ensure the stability of the production process.
Also, the world is economically interconnected ‒ no country is fully isolated and thus, on-time transportation of production components and ready-to-use goods is important on many levels.
Types of transportation
Consider the transit time, or how fast your package should reach at its destination, and your shipping budget when choosing the most effective cargo delivery method. Faster often equals more expensive, but not necessarily. What’s more important is the type of your goods ‒ some means of transportation have their limitations on certain types of products.
By air
The ideal means of transportation for commodities that need quick delivery and low inventories is air freight. The bellies of passenger aircrafts carry half of the worldwide air cargo, while cargo freighters carry the other half.
There are dimension and weight restrictions for the goods in air freight, based on the aircraft. For example, the famous An-225 “Mriya” could handle up to 250 tonnes of freight loaded there. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the aircraft was used for faster delivery of the vaccine around the world. Now her days are gone, her successor, An-124 “Ruslan”, can carry up to 150 tonnes of commercial weight.
The significant CO2 emissions per kilogram of cargo moved are one of the drawbacks of air travel. It is also the most expensive of all types of transportation.
By sea
The primary means of transportation for international trade is the ocean. The best transportation method for huge cargo amounts is over the ocean, which is sometimes the only choice.
Tens of thousands of containers can be loaded onto the largest ocean cargo ships.
By road
For delivery inside a continent, the most popular means of transportation is via road. For instance, almost half of all cargo deliveries made inside Europe are made via road freight.
Undoubtedly, we also need to take into account the fact that road transportation is used to pick up goods from the loading location and carry them to international airports and ports for the ocean, rail, and air delivery. The same holds true for the delivery process to the consignee’s address.
The weather, the state of the roads, and traffic all have an impact on how efficiently road freight can operate.
Due to a shortage of truck drivers, the road transportation business has been having trouble, but the tendency has been returning to the positive recently.
By rail
Rail freight has always been an important factor in international cargo transportation. Even though its share of all global freight has decreased in previous years, rail deliveries from Asian regions to Europe have increased quickly.
Rail transportation can be more effective than other modes of transportation in terms of tons-kilometers transported per amount of energy used.
Rail freight becomes more affordable as compared to vehicle freight, especially for long-distance delivery.
With just one driver, a block train can haul more than a hundred carriages full of different products.
