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Cons Of Rail Transport

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II. Pros and cons of using Rail/risks and benefits of using Rail There are several pros and cons to any mode of transportation. These pros and cons include cost, efficiency, and responsiveness. The goal is to find the most appropriate mode of transportation for the type, amount, and destination of cargo. There will be different needs for every product, origin, destination, and organization. First on the list is cost. Cost of transportation is one of the major considerations involved in a successful supply chain. Fortunately, in this department rail is one of the best performers. Rail is known for being a relatively inexpensive mode of transporting large amounts of overland cargo. In fact, “The price structure and heavy load capability …show more content…

On the other hand, if the organization were able to ship their goods by truck, then they would have the option of either operating an in-house fleet or outsourcing their transportation needs. When comparing rail to tucking it is important to keep some things in mind. In the early days, the choice of rail vs truck was easy because by the time that transportation by tuck came about rail transportation had been around for a long time. In addition, “the adoption of motor cars also proved to be more gradual than that of passenger trains, the result of primitive technologies, high costs, and poor roads” (GRANT, 2012, p. 248). This further added to the dominance of rail. In defense of trucking it can hall large amounts of cargo over long distances. In addition, it can do so with a reasonably high degree of responsiveness. However, the amount of cargo that rail can hall is considerably larger than that of trucking. The responsiveness of trucking also comes at a higher cost then rail. Trucking is more suited to haling more expensive goods that require higher responsiveness. However, in other parts of the world where the rail infrastructure is more developed or more suitable for transporting cargo this may not be an option. Perhaps the best use of both rail and truck is in combination through intermodal transportation. This method makes use of one or more transportation methods in order to achieve to achieve the best mix of

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