Source: adapted from Global Insight, Inc., TRANSEARCH database, and
U.S. Department of Transportation Freight Analysis Framework data.Freight Transportation Service SpectrumCargo value and weight are related to the mode of transportation
used and usually the outcome of a balancing act between cost,
capacity and level of service. Freight offers a whole spectrum of transport services,
each with its own cost, speed and reliability characteristics. On one side of
the spectrum, air cargo is the fastest, but the most expensive,
which caters to high value and time sensitive cargo. On
the other side of this spectrum, maritime transport offers low costs, high capacity, but
low speeds. While this is suitable for bulk trades (e.g. oil and raw
materials), containerized shipping is coping with low speeds by
offering high service frequency. Rail transportation is in the
middle of this spectrum. The freight service spectrum is obviously
conditioned by geography and underlines a
duality between maritime and inland transportation:
Inland transportation is serviced by the whole
range of transport services, implying greater costs / time options,
including intermodal rail. Still, inland transport system usually
have capacity constraints because of more limited water
transportation options on fluvial systems.
Intercontinental transportation is facing a
dichotomy where shippers are constrained by two opposite options;
air and maritime. Freight can either be placed on the fast or the
slow lanes, implying different supply chain management strategies.
