Carriage of Goods by Land
The transportation of good by land forms a crucial link between the producer of goods and the user of goods whether the destination is domestic or overseas.
The evolution of land transport infrastructure and equipment has long followed the trading needs of the producer and users over the years. Decisions on where to site a factory for example was dependent on the experience and vision of the entrepreneur who is investing.
The road network too has much followed the easiest route regardless of distance. It can also be traced that growth of civilization, towns and cities were in tempo with the developments in the transportation technology.
Sitting of communities along river banks slowly changed to more inland sites as land transportation became better developed for transporting large volumes quickly and economically.
This has led to the planned development of inland and offwaterway sites for communities and their peripheral services.
In more recent times, the decision to site factories has in a way been influenced by the setting up of industrial sites and ports based on a preplanned idea. For that matter, towns and cities were also pre-decided and built as opposed to groups of people expanding their family estate into villages and towns.
There are now new villages and other commercial as well as administrative centers that are planned and installed rather than found and built. Roads and other infrastructures were built according to preplanned layouts and routes and usually with emphasis for access to import and export windows. Users and investors need only to pick up the site he wants according to the size and price he is willing to pay for.
Transport of goods by land is either by road or by rail. However, in other countries, especially Europe, inland transport also includes the waterways.
Rail transport is limited to the terminal or stations as rail cannot reach a wide area due to its limitations. Road transport on the other hand can reach any point and therefore is the most useful transport mode, congesting the terminal and interchanges between other modes such as air, sea, rail and water transportation.
The development of road transport and the network of roads far surpassed that of rail due to its wide reach and accessibility. In fact building a simple dirt road may cost a small fraction of laying a rail track and almost all and sundry can use the road as opposed to specific user of rail tracks.
Transport adds value to the goods by placing them at the place where they are required and also during the time they are required.
