Question

(Please provide references for answers)

Q5. Goods are transported all over the world. To do that different kinds of modalities are used.

a) Give at least 5 different modalities

b) What kind of different characteristics of a modality is decisive for the final choice of a modality? Give at least 5 characteristics.

(Please provide references for answers)

Answer 1

5. a.

The types of modalities are:

Road: Road transportation is one of the most ancient modes of transportation. It has improved and advanced over the years. Some examples include cars,vans and trucks. The mode of transportation depends on the items and their size. Vans and trucks are used when the quanitty of items are more and can be pooled together. For example, mail and goods vans.

Maritime: Transportation by water is also ancient mode of transportation. It allows transportation of a large amount of goods as well as large sized items from places all over the world to different parts of the world. Ships and prime examples. Until the advent of air cargo, these were used primarily. Steam vessels, boats,

Air: It is one of the most popular transportation today. It allows one to ship goods from one part of the world to another within hours. Similar to passenger airlines, there are air cargos that provide swift delivery of goods. Thanks to air transportation, the time required to receive goods has fallen drastically, eliminating days and weeks of wait.

Rail: These are one of the modern transportation modalities used today. Similar to air, they provide high speed delivery of goods. In countries like Japan, the trains travel at speeds of over 300 kmph and this results in fast delivery of goods. It helps in delivering large amount of goods to far away places in a short amount of time.

Pipeline: These are transportation modes used mainly to transport fluids - steam, gases, oils, water and so on. Large quantities of fluids can be transported from one place to another, although this mode of transportation is rather slow. It may not be feasible or safe to transport some fluids from far away places using the conventional sources like road or rail (where there isn't sufficient rail connectivity or the nature of the goods are such that they have to be delivered directly to the place of delivery).

Multimode: Often different modes are used to deliver goods to a certain destination due to the remoteness or because using a single source isn't practically feasible. For instance, trucks are used to deliver goods to a cargo port. From there air cargo is used to deliver it to a port. From there, the goods are collected by container vehicles and transported to a warehouse.

Cable: Cables are used at two ends and goods are passed through these cables.

UAVs(Unmanned Aerial Vehicles): These days unmanned vehicles such as drones are used to deliver some goods to the recipients. These are often used to deliver emergency goods and items, for example: medicines and food supplements(when there is a famine and so on).

Following are some of the decisive characteristics that needs to be considered while selecting a given mode of transportation:

Speed: The speed of delivery is important. If the goods are to be delivered to a far away destination, it is really important that the mode used should be fast enough to reach the place. You cannot reach the destination if the mode of transport used is not fast enough. You may not be able to deliver goods from one country to another in a few hours using road transport, but it is possible by air or rail.

Timeliness and regularity: Timeliness refers to receiving goods on time. Pure speed of the mode isn't enough. Certain modes will have restrictions and checks on the way and the formalities and procedures may delay the delivery of goods. For these reasons, it is important to select a mode of transportation that will meet. There should also be regular service to the place. This is really important for businesses and to ensure that the goods 'will' reach the place. Also, some goods will have to be delivered urgently. All these factors will have to be considered to ensure timeliness and regularity.

Capacity: The amount of goods that can be carried is also a vital characteristics. For instance, air cargo cannot carry some items and commodities. Heavy equipments such as cranes and huge machines are often carried by sea. It is also important to consider the volume capacity of a mode of transportation if a business is to operate sustainably and economically. Choosing the right mode of transport will enable economies of scale.

Safety and Security: It is also important to consider the impact the mode of delivery will have on the safety and security. For instance, maritime transportation is much cheaper than air cargo, but air cargo ofters safety and security over maritime transportation due to minimal handling. Transporting by ship means that the goods are prone to the perils of the sea.

Accessibility: The mode of transportation being used should have accessibility to the place of delivery. For instance, to deliver goods directly by cargo to a certain place, there should be an airport nearby. If there is no airport nearby. It will be delivered to the nearest cargo centre and delivered by an alternative mode such as road transport.

Affordability: The mode of transport being used must be financially feasible, the user of the service should be capable of paying for it. Businesses will take this aspect into consideration if they are to run their businesses economically.