According to the single mode of transportation, the four most compared and analyzed are sea transportation, air transportation, road transportation and rail transportation. As far as short-distance transportation is concerned, because it can be directly achieved door-to-door, the advantages of land transportation (road) are irreplaceable. The advantages of road transportation are negatively correlated with the length of the transportation distance, which involves a critical point. For railway transportation, a one-way distance of 900 kilometers is a node. Railways with a total transportation distance of less than 900 kilometers have almost no advantages. In transportation routes of more than 1,200 kilometers, railway transportation begins to become an alternative.

Among the four modes of transportation, only road transportation can achieve door-to-door transportation, and the other three modes can only achieve station-to-station transportation. Therefore, the first and last stages of transportation must still rely on road transportation.

For railway transportation and air transportation, there is only one possibility to achieve door-to-door transportation, that is, the dedicated railway line and the dedicated airport for air transportation

Tips: Definition of dedicated line

The literal meaning of dedicated line is dedicated line, fixed line, fixed schedule, fixed goods, fixed manufacturer, and no other use.

On the main railway lines, due to the demand for bulk cargo transportation, the state approves the establishment of dedicated lines for enterprises (usually involving bulk cargo production enterprises such as livelihood).

Therefore, apart from dedicated lines, railway transportation basically involves truck connections at the beginning and end of the journey.

Advantages and disadvantages of the four modes of transportation in short-distance and medium- and long-distance transportation:

1. The advantages of short-distance road transportation are obvious, fast, flexible, less affected by policies, and cheap (price war + diesel price index), but their disadvantages are:

(1) Not environmentally friendly (foreign companies are particularly concerned);

(2) Poor safety factor and weak supervision;

(3) Load restrictions (especially heavy goods can only be transported by railways and ships);

(4) Greatly affected by seasons.

Therefore, objectively speaking, only customers with medium- and long-distance transportation needs can become railway transportation customers.

2. Analysis of medium and long-term transportation:

The advantages of air transportation are fast, fast customs clearance (customs offices are relatively concentrated at airports), high mechanization during operation, high cargo safety, and minimal harm to the transportation of radioactive materials; the disadvantages of air transportation are obvious, needless to say, expensive, plus the truck connection fee before and after the airport is higher than the railway connection fee, because the airport is generally farther away from the freight station.

The advantages of sea transportation are cheap, stable shipping schedule, and the longer the route, the cheaper the unit freight, but the disadvantage is that it is relatively slow, and the ships are limited to the ports they can call at according to their draft depth, because the larger the single shipping volume, the lower the unit cost, so the more ship cargo space, the deeper the ship draft, and the fewer ports they can call at, which is what we usually call the concept of basic shipping ports.

Basic shipping ports: Several common ways adopted by shipping companies to reduce costs, one is to reduce the number of ships and reduce the number of empty warehouses; the second is to reduce the speed of the ship and save fuel consumption.