TRANSPORT

AIR TRANSPORT

Air transport is the transport or carrying of goods or passengers over long distances, especially
between the continents of the world using airline.

Advantages

1. It is fast-good for carrying valuable goods like diamonds.

2. Good for carrying urgently needed goods. They may carry cargo.
3. It is safe. There is less handling. Damages are uncommon.
4. There is not much documentation
5. The air is free, no construction or maintenance is required in the air.
6. Free from obstacles like mountains and rivers.
7. Lower risk of damage and theft.

Disadvantages

1. It is very expensive
2. Not flexible, it follows a fixed time table.
3. Cannot deliver door to door
4. Other means of transport needed to use the plane
5. Airports are usually very far from city centres
6. Not available everywhere. Airports are found in far cities and towns.
7. Easily affected by bad weather.
8. Target for hi-jackers (terrorist)
9. Planes and air-ports are expensive to build.
10. More pollution especially noisy.

Airports

Trends in air transport

1. Improvement in services offered to air freight companies such as refueling, warehousing,

maintenance of runways, security, and unloading equipments.
2. The construction of more airports worldwide, and.
3. The building of large, much faster and more reliable aircraft.
4. Improved design of the fuse large and engine
5. Improved loading through large doors at the nose and tail.
6. Improvement of storage and cargo handling facilities at airports worldwide.
7. Special light weight containers have been developed for air cargoes.
8. Improved landing and navigation systems such as “autopilot &global positioning
system”.
RAIL TRANSPORT

Rail transport still remains an important form of in land transport especially for transporting bulk
cargoes such as coal, iron, steel, building materials petroleum and cement. In Botswana rail
transport is provided by Botswana Railways Corporation.

Advantages of Rail Transport

 It is safer to transport goods that are dangerous

 It is cheap for carrying goods in bulk over long distances.
 It provides faster services for goods and passengers especially over long distances. It
avoids traffic jams in the cities. It is not affected by poor weather conditions.
 Special transporters may be provided for specialized traffic like containers, grain, etc.

Disadvantages of Rail Transport

 High Capital Costs

Capital costs are heavy. Maintenance of track and railway rolling stock is also expensive.

 In Flexible
a. Trains can only go where there are lines.
b. They only move according to schedule and have fixed destinations. This means that
transshipment is necessary at the end of the rail journey.

 Too much handling

There is the need to unload and reload from the carrier to the railway truck and vice versa
when the train reaches its destination.

 Relatively high costs for short distances and small consignments.

Costs tend to be high for start hauls and for small consignments by rail.

Development

 It creates employment because labours are required to load and are load goods.
 More railway lines are needed in order for people to use rail transport.

SEA TRANSPORT

About 70% of the total surface of the globe is covered by water, therefore sea transport is a very
important means of linking the various continents and islands of the world. It has long been the
backbone of long distance trade between countries.
TYPES OF SHIPS

a. Passenger liners
These are ships built primarily for carrying people although they may also carry some
cargo. The follow fixed routes and keep to a regular timetable. For this matter delivery
dates can be guaranteed. However, they charge higher freight cost so most freights are
limited to high value cargoes only. They usually call at main ports throughout the world.

b. Cargo liners
These are ships used mainly for delivering goods although they may also carry few
passengers. Cargo liners will leave the part on time even if some of the scheduled cargo
has not yet arrived

c. Tramp Ships
These do not operate on regular routes or at fixed times, but sail wherever and whenever
traders want their cargoes to be taken. Tramps are normally hired or chartered by
whoever wants their goods to be transported. Charges are usually based on space
available, bulk/weight and distance.

Ways of hiring a tramp

i. Time Charter
This is an arrangement whereby the ship is hired for a specific period of time e.g. two months
at the expiry of the period, the ship goes back to the owner unless the agreement is renewed.

ii. Voyage Charter

In voyage charter the ship is hired for a particular trip or voyage leg from Durban to London,
whatever the duration of the trip.

d. Specialised vessels and general cargo

There are a variety of purpose built ships for carrying special types of cargoes.

i. Bulk Carriers
These are ships used mainly for carrying large quanties of one goods eg. Iron ore, grain,
timber or coal. Refrigerated ships (reefers) used for transporting fresh produce are
another example of bulk carriers.

ii. Tankers
These are a type of bulk carrier used to carry liquids, especially oil. They are specially
designed to maximize safety and simplify loading and unloading of the liquid. Without
tankers the transportation of petroleum products would be seriously limited.
iii. Roll-on roll-off ferries
Roll-or roll-off ferries are, ships specially, designed to allow vehicles to drive on and
off without difficulty. They are usually used for short sea trips eg. For crossing a big
river or a canal.

iv. Container Ships

These are specially designed (Cellular) vessels used to carry large standardized
container that can be load and unloaded quickly by means of cranes. They are a new
type of vessel but one that is rapidly gaining importance.

e. Coastal Shipping
This is an alternative to inland transport for bulk trade. It is used by countries which
have long coastlines. It might be more economical and convenient for a country like
South Africa.

f. Advantages of Sea Transport

Sea transport has several advantages for the carriage of goods.

 Sea transport is a relatively cheaper means of transport particularly over long

distance.
 Very large quantities of goods can be carried in one shipload so the cost per unit
of goods transported comes down.
 It is suitable for goods which are not urgently required, which are usually ordered
in advance for example, cars and machinery.
 The use of container ships has reduced freight charges and increased the safety of
goods as it minimizes handling of goods on transit.
 Sea transport provides a cheap transport linking all continents of the world as all
continents have long coast lines.
 The way (water/sea) is free, you only need to build ships, ports and dock
facilities.
 Tramp ships provide a very flexible service as they are not bound to a fixed route
and timetable.
 Special vessels such as oil tankers and reefers can be built for specific cargoes.

g. Disadvantages of Sea transport

 Sea transport does not offer door-to-door service as some areas have no sea/water.
 Bad weather can easily cause serious delays and losses at sea.
 Because of large tonnage carried, goods can be easily lost or damaged especially
where containers are not used.
 Hand locked countries like Botswana, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, and Zambia do not get
full benefits.
 Damp air and salty conditions of sea together with long sea journeys means goods
have to be well packaged to protect them against damage on transit and this can
be very expensive.
PORTS

When we talk about ports we include sea ports, air ports. They are very important in the
movement of cargo.

They provide :

 A place where goods in transit can be temporarily stored.

 Craft are maintained
 Provisions are renewed
 Journeys begin or eds.
 Cargo can be prepared for the next stage of its journey.
 Cargo are loaded and unloaded.

Sea ports

Port authorities are responsible for providing dock facilities to enable ships to dock, load, unload,
fuel and get other provisions efficiently. These facilities affect not only the efficiency but also
the cost of sea transport.

a. Facilities provided by the port authorities.

 Good transport connection inland, Port authorities ensure easy access by linking the port to
road and railway networks by a system which is capable of handling the volume of traffic.
 Mechanized handling facilities like gantry and wharf cranes as well jetty, pneumatic pumps
to ensure speedy discharge and loading of vessels.
 Warehouse and office building for shipping companies, banks restaurants, customs and
immigration authorities and any other organizations using the port.
 Ship repair yards e.g. Dry dock for routine maintenance and repairs to the effectively
carried out on ships.

b. The importance of seaport facilities.

 They enable ships to dock, load, unload, refuel and obtain the necessary provisions,
quickly.
 Efficient cargo handling reduces not only ‘turn around time’ of ships but also cuts dock
and freight costs.
 They enable goods to be imported and exported efficiently there by increasing the
efficiency as well as volume of world trade.