The average American requires a yearly movement of 57 tons of cargo to cater for all of their activities. In 2016, the freight transportation system handled nearly 16 billion tons of raw materials and consumer goods. All this movement is vital in supporting economic activities around the country. All the shipments including fresh produce, express packages among others require an extensive system comprising millions of vehicles supported by sophisticated information technology and managed by a big labor force. The USA is the largest consumer market in the world thus a need for a robust system to oversee the movement of goods from producers to consumers. America has a highly integrated supply chain that links producers to consumers through a combination of different transportation modes. Each of the transportation mode affects operational and logistical decisions (Savelsberg, 2008). The performance of a freight mode is influenced by a variety of factors that include the distance, capacity, fuel use, topography, loading process and the duration this process takes.
Freight in the country is mostly by rail, water, trucks and air (Barnhart and Laporte, 2007). Many companies, International have invested in freight industry here due to associated benefits such as a skilled labor force and comparatively low costs and regulatory burdens (Korner, 2012). This paper examines the four key modes of freight transportation available for movement of freight in the country with regards to their role, challenges facing them and current trends in the industry.
Rail is regarded as the most efficient mode of moving freight on land (Kanter, 2013; Limbourg and Jourquin, 2009). A ton of freight to be moved for an average of 473 miles requires just a gallon of diesel fuel. Rail is almost fourfold more fuel efficient mode of transportation than trucking. It is especially a vital mode for moving bulk cargo. It is projected that at least two-thirds of all coal shipments in the country are moved by rail. Demand for rail freight continues to increase marginally largely informed by its efficiency as pointed out earlier. The Department of Transport estimates that by the year 2035, there will be an 88 percent rail freight demand increase. Additionally, Forbes recently tipped rail freight to assume the position of the being the most important logistics system of this century. The reliability and efficiency of rail have even seen trains increasingly being used in short freight hauls of under 500 miles. For a long time, such distances have been a domain for trucks, but that is changing. Currently, the country rail network is approximately 140,000 miles long. Expanding it to meet the demand for its use requires huge capital expenditure. The Federal Railroad Administration estimates the cost of expanding the rail network to increase its capacity to demand level to reach 149 billion US dollars.
Trucking forms the last mode of “Capillary distribution” in what is essentially the first and the last miles of freight. The National Highway System is a 28,000 miles network. While rail may be more fuel efficient than trucking, certainly Trucking makes up by the ability in destinations such as a haul to a grocery or an apartment (Thill, 2000). In comparison, trucks get an edge in the time required to load freight and get moving to the destination. Usually, trucks are preferred for hauls of 750 miles or less from a given gateway (Brooks, 2007). Within this distance, the time and expenses that would be incurred in using rails would trump fuel efficiency. According to the Federal Highway Administration, an approximated 11 million trucks moved freight worth 14.9 trillion US dollars and weighing 16.1 billion tons. The body further predicts a 60 percent increase in the number of trucks in the next 30 years. This will translate into a significant slowing on the National Highway System especially during peak hours. With the current underfunding of the roadways which continue to wear and tear, states should move to focus resources on the critical freight corridors to galvanize this system. The America Truckers Association expects freight tonnage to increase by 23 percent in 10 years. In another positive outlook, surges in revenue are expected to hit 75 percent in this period. These factors have seen increased investment in the trucking industry. Daimler recently debuted an autonomous truck, and other breakthrough innovations continue to be considered. Notably, the rapidly changing urban demography is driving city freight delivery vehicles to the verge of evolution. The vehicles are on the path to becoming smaller, hybrid and even fully electric. Cities are moving towards cleaner delivery modes in urban freight movement. They hope to achieve this through an increased development of low emission zones which will eventually see old vehicles which usually have high emissions fade away from urban freight hauls.
At least 90 percent of all freight in the country has been moved through maritime. This freight is moved by ships, arguably the largest vehicles in the world. Bulk carriers such as tankers are the largest ships and rank top in terms of tonnage (INSMNSST and Weintrit, 2009; Weintrit and Neumann, 2011). Container ships, however, carry higher-value density. The boxes transported by container ships are also notably easier to handle. America’s port authorities are investing heavily to increase the capacity to dock larger ships (Chew, Lee and Tang, 2011). This is informed by the expansion of the Panama Canal which will see bigger ships make entry to the nation’s ports. Only the ports of Baltimore and Norfolk have harbors of a depth of at least 50 feet which is a minimum for a port to accommodate the expected larger ships. Miami, New York, and Savannah have embarked on expanding their ports to meet the requirement. Not all is positive with the arrival of big ships because it is also very challenging to mitigate congestion as they require a big capacity in terms of storage, rail, truck and other support infrastructure (Maučec et al., 2015).
Air freight is essential in the transportation of high-value and time sensitive cargo. Among the cargo involved range from documents, human organs, fresh cut flowers and consumer electronics (Janiâc and SpringerLink, 2014; Gordon, 2015). While air freight share of the country’s trade is 2 percent by weight, it has a 40 percent share by value underlining its importance.
The Department of Transport forecasts an increase of 56 percent by 2040 in the per-ton value of goods moved by air (National Research Council et al., 2010). In air freight, speed is the most critical element from processing to movement. The nature of the freight handled necessitates this. A sub-sector, express delivery services, provide export infrastructure to medium-sized companies that may not afford to operate their supply chain (Button and Yuan, 2013).
In conclusion, it’s clear the need for an improved integration of freight transport systems in the country. Population/Demographic trends pose an enormous challenge to this infrastructure. The Census Bureau estimates a 20 percent increase in population by 2040 which means more people who will need stuff. More cargo is coming thus the need to increase the capacity of the structures to keep it moving. Failure to manage the influx will certainly result into the nation’s freight traffic grinding to a standstill which would be detrimental to the economy. The freight industry further needs to continue researching on ways to efficiently combine the discussed modes of freight movement to achieve the best possible movement for freight.
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