Global trade has surged in the last 3 years at an average of 20 trillion USD. Even though the sudden hit of the pandemic didn’t slow down its pace. Businesses who are even the essential need providers, do require raw materials and distributors to maintain their functions. In order to deliver goods and even to fetch raw materials, no matter whether its international or domestic transportations, various modes of transport were then used. These goods are mostly transported over the road by trucks, the rail on freight trains, the ocean on cargo ships or by air on cargo flights.
To make it convenient for customers in regard to cost, timing of delivery, tracking, goods are transported by either single mode or combination of different modes of transportation. Here we are going to discuss the later option that we mentioned above. That is the concept of door delivery in business through multimodal transport. And we are going to discuss what could make you opt for this type of service.
WHAT IS MULTIMODAL?
Also known as combined transport, Multimodal transport is the transportation of goods under a single contract or bill of lading, but carried out with at least two different modes of transport. In this form of transportation, carriers are held liable for the entire carriage (they are termed as multimodal transport operators or MTO), even though it is performed by several types of modes (sea, road, rail, air). And these modes of transport need not to be owned by carriers, in fact most oftenly the carriages are performed by sub-carriers.
MTOs are the one who handles the transport of cargo from its pickup point to its final destination through various modes. Here the cargo that is being transported will go under a single contract.
Why TO CHOOSE?
In a Multimodal Shipment, the shipper gets one contract of carriage, that covers all modes of transport that starts from origin till upto destination. No matter whether it's a steamship line or international freight forwarder or NVOCC, the contract is supposed to be with one carrier only.
In a Multimodal Shipment, the shipper has one contract of carriage, which covers all modes of transport from origin to destination, whether that is a door-to-port, port-to-door or door-to-door.
The main benefits of having one carrier being liable for your transport, are that it's easy to track or trace updates from it, it may affect inventory turns and costs, it saves time of transportation, paperwork involved in the shipment. For some reason behind using multimodal shipments are also due to environmental impacts.
Types of transport used in multimodal transportation.
These are the common types of transport that usually established freight forwarders utilize to carry out multi or inter modal transportations.
Road
Road transport connects goods depots, warehouses, and business centers to seaports, airports, and other land transport hubs. They connect almost all corners of a country as well as connect over most international land borders too. Easily accessible and inexpensive, it is considered the backbone of an efficient overall transport system of the country.
Road transport is the most common form of transport. It depends on good roads, connectivity between places, in short overall infrastructure must be well-maintained to carry out goods transportations easily. Roads have been laid at very high altitudes and over rough terrains making it possible to transport goods by automobiles such as cars, buses, and freight trucks.
Rail
Another popular mode of transport for the movement of goods is by rail. Freight trains were being used since the emergence of colonisation, transferring coal and mining extracts from place to place. Now these mediums have advanced to help in transfer of passenger as well as goods too. Through rail large quantities of cargo could be transferred over a long distance.
Almost any type of cargo is transported over rail these days. Mostly it has been used to transfer raw materials such as Coal, ores, fuel oils, cement, food grains, gases, and several other commercial items.
Although trains go over a fixed route, they do require necessary infrastructure and sophisticated systems. But still they are considered to be inexpensive modes of transport.
Sea
Sea or ocean transport accounts for 80% of the world’s cargo. Boats, ships, and supertankers help to move freight over waterways and oceans.
Containerization and standardized methods of packaging and packing has further revolutionized the water transport industry. This transport method is highly cost-effective for moving bulk cargo and heavy loads over a vast distance.
Air
It's not inexpensive but is certainly the fastest mode of transport when it comes to moving passengers as well as cargo over a long distance. But as its infrastructure costs are high the cost to transport cargo is also naturally high.