Transport

Welcome back to this transport blog where I want to take a look at the process of forwarding freight across land or sea or even through the air depending upon how urgently you need to get your stuff from point to point.

So we know that there are several different ways of getting your goods from collection point to their destination and these can be divided into three main groups and then subdivided down into the following methods:

Overland Freight

• Road freight or road haulage
• rail freight
• Short distance truck or van delivery
• Canal or river freight by barge (technically over-water freight)

Ocean Freight

• Shipping via container ship
• International shipping

Air Freight

• International air cargo
• Special delivery via air charter

These main groups and sub groups make up the main methods of transporting goods to wherever they need to be sent.

Depending upon the kind of cargo you need to send, forwarding freight by one of these methods will depend upon whether you need those goods to get there quickly or there is no particular deadline that needs to be met. For the urgent deliveries, you can use specialist courier services that can guarantee next day delivery anywhere in the country and often next day delivery overseas as long as an aircraft can get to the country within that time. Obviously you can’t get a package from the UK to Australia within 24 hours as its not physically possible. Yet!

When it comes to fast yet economical forwarding of cargo across land, the railways often offer the best deals, although you need to factor in the additional cost of the short hop delivery van costs to get your cargo from its pick up point to the railway depot and again to pick up that cargo from the destination railway depot and deliver it to its final destination.

The same goes for canal or river barge transportation, although this means of transport may be the cheapest per ton, it is also the slowest.

For international shipping the most economical way is via cargo ship but again this is relatively slow. If the cargo is large and heavy, of course this is often the only viable method as air transportation is limited to weight constraints.

Naturally the fastest way of getting your stuff from A to B is by air if it has to travel any great distance. You need to factor in the cost of each method and weigh it up against the delivery times and how easy or difficult your goods are to move. For further information on this topic, there is an excellent resource that can be found at: freight forwarders where all aspects of the industry are covered in greater depth.

Transport

Of all the many types of cargo that are transported from place to place, one type is by the most difficult to move and probably the most complex in terms of logistics and all the corresponding paperwork that mus accompany such an undertaking. This is the transportation of hazardous freight and it is this form of goods shipment that we’ll look at here in this article.

First of all, there are many different types and grades of hazardous cargo. When calculating the logistics of forwarding such freight, the level or grade of hazard needs to be taken into consideration. Such considerations may be concerned with the nature of the hazard and whether it is corrosive or explosive materials, dangerously large loads, dangerously high or wide loads, loads of noxious or poisonous materials, medical waste including that which may contain contagious pathogens, nuclear or radioactive waste etc.

Also to be considered is the transportation method, which will depend upon whether the materials need to be moved between towns or cities, interstate or internationally. Special materials need special handling and packaging and this must be in place well before the goods can even be loaded onto their transportation medium, be it truck, train, barge, ship or plane. It is all a complex web of calculation, planning and costing to arrive at the most logistically sound conclusion to facilitate the most economical albeit safest way of moving the goods.

In the case of goods that could cause injury or death to people or livestock, extra special considerations must be made, such as ensuring that the transportation route avoids populated areas where possible and if that is not possible, then to ensure that all possible precautions are made to ensure the hazardous materials do not come into contact with any person or animal.

When all is said and done, transporting hazardous freight needs to be undertaken with the utmost respect for the environment and population that it must be moved through while observing every safety standard that exists.

Transport