How to choose the right mode of transport for your goods

The type of transportation of your goods to the destination depends on a number of factors:

The products you sell (e.g. perishables or non-perishables)
Supplier production lead times
Product availability
Source of supply (e.g. China or others)
Customs and Excise rules (e.g. duty or quarantine)
Volume

You can use one method for all your transportation needs or a combination. Here are the main types of transportation, and their advantages and disadvantages:

Air Transportation

This mode of transport is useful for delivery products with short lead times, fragile and small-size goods. The bulk/value ratio will be a determining factor.

Advantages of the Air Transportation:

Fast delivery
Variety of destinations
High level of reliability and safety
Tracking of cargo location
Delivery of small-size cargo

Disadvantages of the Air Transportation:

Flight delays and/or cancellations
Customs and Excise/size/weight/packing restrictions
High air freight rates

Sea Transportation:

Mainly sea transportation is conducted in containers which vary in size. Goods can be delivered as grouped cargo into a container (LCL) or as full-container load shipment (FCL).

Advantages of the Sea Transportation:

High level of safety
The cheapest cost of transport
Easy to reload on any mode of transport
Long distance delivery, including remote and hard-to-reach places
Variety of destinations
Ideal for transportation of heavy, bulky and oversized cargo
Suitable for products with long lead times
Flow capacity of shipping lines without any restrictions, except for ports opportunities

Disadvantages of the Sea Transportation:

Longer lead/delivery times
Season surcharges
Frequent (monthly) changes in ocean freight rates by shipping lines
Deadlines of drop-off
Short navigation period for North regions

Rail Transportation:

Rail transportation is useful for the delivery of a wide range of goods including coal, steel and other heavy goods.

Advantages of the Rail Transportation:

Longer lead/delivery times
Cost-effective
High level of safety and reliability

Disadvantages of the Rail Transportation:

Suppliers/customers are not always located near a railroad freight depot and delivery to/from the depot can be costly and time consuming

Road Transportation:

A very popular mode of transport to deliver cargo. Goods can be packed/grouped in box, vans or in containers which are also used for sea transportation.

Advantages of the Road Transportation:

Cost-effective, especially for LCL shipments
Fast delivery
Variety of destinations
High level of safety and reliability
Ideal for short distances of the delivery of small consignment cargo
Easy to monitor location of goods

Disadvantages of the Road Transportation:

Transport subject to traffic delays
Restrictions during the delivery of LCL cargo, which require special temperature conditions
Bad weather conditions
Longer delivery of LCL cargo

Multimodal transportation:

Multimodal transportation (also known as combined transportation) is a delivery of goods under a single contract, but performed with two different means of transport at least (sea, rail, road and air), using of a various transport infrastructure (terminals, warehouses for consolidation, ports, airports). For multimodal transportation there is only one company-carrier which is responsible for the organization of transportation from the beginning to the end.

Advantages of the multimodal transportation:

Faster transit of goods
Cost-effective
Long distance delivery, including remote and hard-to-reach places
Variety of destinations
Advantages of all types of transportation
One agent is responsible for the delivery by all means of transport

Disadvantages of the multimodal transportation:

More reloadings and risks related to reloadings.

Please also read other articles in this section:

Freight request

How to Calculate CBM for a Sea Shipment and Air Shipment

CBM (or cubic meter) is the standard size that international sea shippers use to calculate how much to charge for cargo that is less than a container load (LCL). A CBM is defined as 1 meter high, wide and deep. You calculate it by multiplying the three dimensions of a box, crate or pallet in metric units. For example, a box that is 0.6 m high by 0.4 m wide by 1 m deep is 0.24 CBM. A CBM is approximately 35 cubic feet.

As for air cargo, air carrier usually charge the rate for kilo. And in order to avoid the situation, where light cargo can be charged less, volume weight can be applied. The formula for calculation is like this: Width (CM) X Height (CM) X Depth (CM) / 6000 = volume weight. So if the cargo is light, and 1 CBM for example is less than 166 kilo, it will be charged the rate for 166 kilos by air carrier anyway.