The Problems With Freight Trains And Road Freight Australia

By Author: Vikram Kumar
Total Articles: 9431
Comment this article

The choice between transport by freight trains and road freight Australia is one that requires careful consideration and analysis by companies in order to determine the option that will minimize overall transportation costs and thereby maximize profits. Each form of transport is not without its own problems, and the following is a list of those problems that companies should definitely take into consideration when deciding which type of transportation to use.

One of the biggest problems with road freight is the rising cost of fuel. As oil becomes increasingly difficult to find around the world, the price of oil is rising steadily, making fuel increasingly expensive. With regard to road freight, this rise in the cost of fuel has translated directly into higher transportation costs. By comparison, the rise in fuel costs have not affected rail transportation costs as much because the amount of fuel expended per unit of cargo is much lower for rail freight than for road freight.

Also, as living standards and populations rise, the number of cars on the roads is also rising steadily. This has resulted in more and more ...
... problems with traffic congestion, which directly affects road freight. There are growing incidences of freight trucks being late because they were caught in traffic jams on highways across the country. Rail freight, on the other hand, does not suffer from this problem because train schedules are always carefully controlled by the railway companies so that the rail lines do not become congested or blocked at any point.

One of the major problem with rail freight is transshipment costs, which describes the costs involved in transporting cargo to an intermediate location whereupon a different method of transport is used for the rest of the journey. In order for cargo to be transported by rail, it must first be transported to the railway station, and unless a company is fortunate enough to be located right next to a railway station, the cargo must first be moved by road transport over the usually short distance to the railway station, loaded onto the train, then moved from the destination station by road transport to the final destination. Road freight, on the other hand, involves a direct journey by road from the starting point to the ending point.

Rail freight is also not economical when the distance over which the cargo has to be transported is short. Over short distances, the transshipment costs overwhelm any other savings that might be had by making use of rail freight, making road freight the better choice. As distances increase, however, rail freight becomes increasingly economical.

So if you are a business owner and you need to make a choice between transporting your cargo by freight trains or by road freight Australia, you should first consider the problems listed above to see which form of transport would be the most suitable for your business. By doing so, you ensure that your business does not spend more than it has to on transport for cargo, thus making for greater business efficiency.

Resource Box:
Both freight trains and road freight Australia have their own unique problems, and a good way to find out which would be the more economical option for your cargo transport needs is to obtain free quotes from the companies listed on the FreightBidz website and comparing those quotes.