Logistics, Trade Administration and Supply Chain

Trucking moves freight with smaller average shipment size than rail. More than half of the shipments by truck are less than 10,000 pounds or LTL volume. The inherent advantages of trucking are its door-to-door [DTD] service, involving no loading or unloading between origin and destination as is often true of rail and air modes; its frequency and availability of service and its DTD speed and convenience. Truck and rail services show some distinct differences, even though they compete for many of the same product shipments. First, in addition to the common and private legal classification of carriers, trucking offers services as contract carrier as well. Contract carriers do not hire themselves out to service all shippers as do common carriers. Shippers enter into a contractual agreement to obtain service that better meets their particular needs and requirements without incurring the capital expense and administrative problems associated with private ownership of a trucking fleet. ...

A multimodal transport document is a bill of lading covering two or more modes of transport, such as shipping by rail and sea. A complete multimodal transport document should contain the following elements: Name of the carrier or multimodal transport operator with a signature identified as that of carrier, transport operator or ship's master or agent for or on behalf of either the carrier, transport operator or ship's master, An indication that the shipment has been dispatched, taken in charge or loaded on board along with a date, Indication of the place of receipt of the shipment that may be different from the place of actual loading on board and the place of delivery of the shipment which may be different from the place of discharge, A sole original or if issued in multiple originals, the full set of originals, The terms and conditions of carriage or a reference to the terms and conditions of carriage in another source or document other than the multimodal transpor...