DUA FATIMA (BBA171037)

Supply chain Management

Assignment 3
Q: Evaluate and discuss strengths and weaknesses of the different transportation modes
that an organization can use for its supply chain endeavors. Use real time examples in your
answer. 

Different modes of transportation have different characteristics. Only by fully considering factors
such as differences in transport performance and transportation cost of various modes of
transportation, can we make reasonable plans for transportation investment. In many industrially
advanced countries, under conditions of free market competition, various modes of
transportation immediately show their advantages and disadvantages. The rapid rise of road
transportation and fall of railway transportation are the result of achieving higher economic
effectiveness through such competition, thus showing the irrationality of China's transportation
structure of emphasizing railway transportation, thinking little of road transportation, neglecting
waterway transportation and abandoning air transportation formed a long time ago.

Railway transportation
Railways are a powerful driving force pushing the development of modern industries,
characterized by its high speed and advantages in the long-distance transportation and
transportation of bulk cargo and freedom from restriction by natural conditions. However, the
railway construction requires big investment and takes long time to accomplish. Therefore,
railways are always used for long distance transportation and that of bulk cargo. However,
currently, of China's freight transportation by railway, short distance freight transportation covers
less than fifty kilometers and accounts for 14.3% and short distance freight transportation covers
less than one hundred kilometers and accounts for a quarter. This greatly reduces the economic
effectiveness of railway transportation and prevents other modes of transportation from bringing
into full play their advantages. Besides that, this also puts a comprehensive strain on railway
transportation. The transportation capacity can only fulfill about 60% of the plan and 40% of
cargo cannot be transported, resulting in a huge backlog of such materials as coal, timber and ore
becoming backlogged. Consequently, transportation of many agricultural and sideline products
and daily necessities of the people had been edged out.

Road transportation
Road transportation has considerable advantage. For example, transportation by roads, a flexible
and adaptable way to travel, requires less investment and shorter construction cycles and can
deliver goods tight to the doom by going through streets and lanes, into the mountains and
factories and fields. Its advantages are found in short distance transportation of small-sized
materials, transportation of top quality fresh and live goods and collection, distribution and
transportation of bulk cargo. Compared with other modes of transportation, road transportation
also has its weakness. Motor vehicles carry fewer loads compared with trains and ships and run
slower compared with trains and aircrafts and are only suitable for freight transportation within
100 kilometers.
By comparing the economic effectiveness of roads and railways, we can see more clearly the
prospect for development of road transportation. First, the construction cast of roads is far lower
than that of railways. It is estimated that the construction cost of each kilometer of single-track
railways is 200 million Yuan, while the construction cost of each kilometer of tertiary roads is
only 200,000 Yuan. Moreover, the short cycle produces quick results. Although railways allow
higher speed than roads do, they are not convenient for use, making it difficult to shorten the
freight turnround time. For example, the distance of transporting apples from Yantai to Beijing is
approximately 800 kilometers. In the case of railway transportation, it usually takes more than
ten days to transport apples from orchards to stores after several rounds of handling and transfer.
In the case of road transportation, it takes only two or three days. The time for transportation is
cut short, to damage to the fruits is reduced. Even though the freight is slightly higher, so are the
total economic benefits of road transportation as compared with the railway transportation. Road
transportation is unmatched by railway transportation in terms of advantages in short distance
transportation. Moreover, China's roads are far more widely distributed as a transportation
network than railways. This also lays the foundation for development of road transportation.

Water Transportation
Under certain circumstances, waterway transportation is the most economic mode of
transportation. It has the advantages of low energy consumption, large freight volume, low
freight rates, use of little space and low pollution. China boasts a coastline of 18,000 kilometers,
more than 50,000 inland rivers, most of which have abundant water and are ice-free all the year
round. The total length of rivers reached 227,000 kilometers, the current mileage open to traffic
accounts for only 25% of the total length of rivers, so the development potential of waterway
transportation is tremendous. Compared with other modes of transportation, waterway
transportation has many characteristics. By taking advantage of the natural conditions of rivers,
For example, the average transportation cost all along the line administered by the Yangtze River
Shipping Administration was 7.56 Yuan every one thousand-kilometers in 1978, while the
transportation cost of railways administered by the three railway bureaus in Chengdu, Wuhan
and Shanghai was 870 Yuan. In the countries with advanced waterway transportation, the cost of
inland waterway transportation is usually less than half of the cost of railway transportation.
Waterway transportation has advantages unmatched by road transportation in the long-distance
transportation of bulk cargo. Obviously, waterway transportation also has its weakness. First,
waterway transportation is dependent on utilization of river resources and therefore more limited
by natural conditions. Secondly, waterway transportation is slow and has a poor maneuverability,
making it difficult to transport materials for emergency use. But waterway transportation has
achieved good e results in transportation of materials for factories and mines along rivers and
coast.

Air Transportation
Air transportation is a newly emerged one with a short history of development. It has many
strong points and advantages. First, it is fast, more than ten times faster than railway
transportation, leaving other modes of transportation far behind. Even if the time of
transportation from downtown to the airport is considered, it remains the fastest modes of
transportation. Secondly, it requires little land and is not limited by geographical conditions. So
long as there are airports, A can carry out long distance transportation. Moreover, it is more
comfortable than other modes of transportation. The weakness of the air transportation is that it
can't be put into wide use when transporting the general materials because of the high
manufacturing cost of aircrafts and air transportation facilities. However, air transportation still
shows advantages with regard to the transportation of high-grade goods and passengers in need
of urgency. Especially in the case of long-distance transportation, including international
transportation, air transportation can create even more economic benefits.

Pipeline Transportation
Pipeline transportation can produce good economic results in transporting oil. Limited by natural
conditions and starting relatively late in China, such a new mode of transportation currently has a
rather small freight volume. Railway transportation undertakes 64% of transportation of
petroleum products. To develop pipeline transportation vigorously is an effective measure for
alleviating the pressure of freight transportation on railways.