This document discusses different modes of transport and factors to consider when choosing a mode. The five main modes of transport are rail, road, air, water, and pipeline. Each has advantages and disadvantages related to cost, speed, flexibility, and load capacity. Choosing the optimal mode depends on characteristics of the goods like nature, volume, and distance as well as other factors like value, timeliness, reliability, and security.

1. Transport Geography
Choice of mode of Transport
Pavithra senthilkumar,
Msc.,geography,
Mk university,
Madurai.

2. Introduction
• TRANSPORT is responsible for the physical movement
of materials between points in the supply chain.
• At the heart of logistics are transport vehicles moving
goods between suppliers and customers.

5. Mode of Transport
• The mode of transport describes the type of
transport used.
• There are basically five different options;
*Rail * Road * Air
* Water * Pipeline

7. Rail
• Most commonly used for heavy and bulky loads
over long land journeys.
• They are almost invariably public carriers rather
than private carriers.
• The rail service is not nationalised, it is allowed
a monopoly.

10. Advantage of Rail
• Rail is that once the infrastructure is in place, it
has very high capacity and low unit costs.
• Railway is the safest form of transport.
• Railways perform many public utility services.
• Unit transport cost is low.

13. Disadvantage of Rail
• Its inflexibility.
• Trains can only travel along specified routes
between fixed terminals, and cannot stop at
intermediary points.
• Obvious limitation of only being used on land.
• Rail transport cannot provide door to door
service.

16. Road
• The most widely used mode of transport and is
used at least somewhere in almost all supply
chains.
• Road transport can normally carry loads up to,
say, 20–30 tonnes.

19. Advantage of Road
• Main benefit is flexibility, being able to visit
almost any location.
• Travel speed can be an important consideration.
• Use extensive road networks.
• Large number of carriers working in the same
areas.
• Easy to monitor location of goods.

22. Disadvantage of Road
• These become relatively expensive,so road
transport is generally used for shorter distances.
• Used for delivering finished goods than bulky raw
materials.
• Lorries are particularly vulnerable to congestion
and traffic delays.
• Obvious limitation of only being used on land

25. Different types of road vehicle
• Delivery vans
• Flat-bed lorries
• Box-bodied lorries
• Articulated lorries
• Lorry and trailer

26. Delivery vans

28. Flat-bed lorries

30. Box-bodied lorries

32. Articulated lorries

34. Lorry and trailer

36. Water
• Most supply chains use shipping to cross the
oceans , over 90% of world trade is moved by sea
(UK, Australia , USA..)

39. Advantage of Water
• Ideal for transporting heavy and bulky goods.
• Suitable for products with long lead times.
• Cheapest traffic means Requires cheap motor
powers than for airplanes.

40. Disadvantage of Water
• Longer lead/delivery times and slow.
• Difficult to monitor exact location of goods in
transit.
• Its inflexibility in being limited to appropriate
ports.
• Transfers to ships take time.

43. Basically three types of water
transport;
• Rivers and Canals
• Coastal Shipping
• Ocean Transport

44. Rivers and Canals

45. Coastal Shipping

46. Ocean Transport

47. Different types of vessel
• General cargo ships
• Bulk carriers
• Tankers
• Container ships
• Ferries
• Barges
• Combination ships

48. General cargo ships

49. Bulk carriers

50. Tankers

51. Container ships

52. Ferries

53. Barges

54. Combination ships

55. Air
• Passengers account for most airline business,
with eight billion passenger kilometres flown a
year in the UK.

58. Avantage of Air
• Main advantage is speed of delivery.
• Useful for Cargo companies For ex; Yurtici , UPS ,
Aras etc..

61. Disavantage of Air
• Transfers to plane take time in the airport.
• It is costly transport.
• Competition can also be fierce.
• Weight limits is prevent carrying amount of
materials .

64. Pipeline
• The main uses of pipelines are oil and gas
together with the utilities of water and sewage.
• They can also be used for a few other types of
product such as pulverised coal in oil.

67. Advantage of Pipeline
• Moving large quantities over long distances.
• Cheapest way of moving liquids For ex; oil and
gas.
• Local networks can add flexibility by delivering
to a wide range of locations.

69. Disadvantage of Pipeline
• Being slow.
• Inflexible.
• Only carrying large volumes of certain types of
fluid.
• Huge initial investment of building dedicated
pipelines.

72. From World, Transport mode

73. Choice of Mode
• Choice of mode depends on a variety of factors .
The main ones are the nature of materials to
move, the volume and distance.

74. Other factors include:
• Value of materials
• Importance
• Transit times,
• Reliability
• Cost and flexibility to negotiate rates
• Reputation and stability of carrier
• Security, loss and damage
• Schedules and frequency of delivery

75. Ranking for the cost, speed, flexibility and
load limits of different modes of transport