DESIGNING AND PLANNING

TRANSPORTATION
NETWORKS
 Transportation in Supply Chain

Transportation refers to the means of distributing

goods, supplies, resources, information, people,
and energy from the original point (beginning of
supply chain) to the destination point (customer).

It also involves handling, packaging, managing the

time the goods are fetched and delivered, and
maintaining coordination, especially when inter-
modal or a combination of two or more transport
modes is used
An intelligent transportation system may be defined as a
planned network of elements or physical components that
play different roles in the transportation of goods, supplies,
resources, information, people, and energy from one place
to another.

A transport system consists of:

• ‚ fixed facilities
• ‚ flow entities
• ‚ control system
The fixed facilities are the physical components
of the system that are fixed in space and constitute
the network of links and nodes of the
transportation system.

For example, the links could be roadway or railway

track and the nodes could be intersections,
interchanges, transit terminals, harbors or airports
Flow entities are the units that negotiate the fixed
facilities. These include people, vehicles, container
units, railroad cars, and so on. In the case of a
road system, the fixed facilities accommodate a
wide variety of vehicle types, ranging from bicycles
to large tractor-trailer combinations.
The control system consists of vehicular control and flow
control. Vehicular control refers to the technological way
in which individual vehicles are guided on fixed facilities.
Such controls can be manual or automated.
The flow control system consists of the means
that permit the efficient and smooth operation of
streams of vehicles and the reduction of conflicts
between vehicles. This system includes various
types of signing, marking, and signal systems and
the underlying rules of operation.
Civil engineering is the branch of engineering involving
design of the fixed facilities. The design includes soil and
foundation engineering design, structural engineering
design, the design of drainage systems, and geometric
design, which is concerned with the physical proportioning
of the elements of fixed facilities.
• There are two keys players in any transportation that
takes place within a supply chain: shipper and carrier

The shipper is that party that requires the movement of the

product between two points in the supply chain.

The carrier is the party that moves or transports the

product. For e.g., when ABC uses uninterruptible power
supply to ship its computers from the factory to the
customer, ABC is the shipper & uninterruptible power
supply is the carrier
shipper and carrier
 Importance of Transportation
Basic service for increasing national income
‚As national income rises, infrastructure adopts to support
changing patterns of demand, with the shares of power,
transport and communication.
‚Transport is one of the most important services within any
country and a vital sector of growth.

Create new economic activity

‚Since, economic development in a country requires adequate
and effective transport services; the degree to which transport
creates new activity is a necessary condition within the
economy.
‚ Transport is one of the essential elements of an integrated
plan for area development.
 Importance of Transportation
Indicator of development
‚Existence of high quality transport network, availability of
number of mechanized motor transport, adequate number of
railway, air and shipping services as per the demand of the
users are indicators of the development in any country.
‚Effective transportation systems have been playing a vital role
in the economic prosperity of a country.

Enlarge the trading activities

‚The industrially developed countries lay more emphasis on the
development of trade.
‚ The search for an integrated system combines the merits of
the individual transportation modes and eliminates the
uneconomic and unproductive activities.
 Importance of Transportation
Promotes industrialization
‚It increases wealth, promotes industrialization and
transforms the organization of industry and raises the
standard of living of the people..
 Role of Transport in Supply Chain
• Transport system provides the vital linkage between production and
consumption. Development of transport infrastructure helps the
globalization of production process.

• Transport is essential in an economy because the demand and supply of

goods does not reach equilibrium at any particular area or point of time.

• The need for dispatch of the goods arises as they are often produced in
one place to be sold and consumed in another place.

• Thus, transport provides the vital link between the production and
consumption point and the objective of production is not fulfilled till the
commodity reaches the consumer.

• It forms an integral part of the production, distribution and marketing

systems
 Role of Transport in Supply Chain
• Transport infrastructure services are critical for diversification
and modernization of production and distribution process.

• Transport is the key factor to link dispersed areas. Transport

increases the economic efficiency of resources. The economic
efficiency of resources of various countries is increased with
the growth of different mode of transportation.

• Transport reduces the cost of production and distribution by

effective, planned, integrated and co-ordinated network.

• Developed or developing nations depend largely on transport

development for better utilization of resources.
 Role of Transport in Supply Chain
• The adequacy of transport infrastructure is a key factor in
the ability of countries to compete in international trade.
Competition for new exports and location of global industries
largely depends on the quality of transport infrastructure.
Increased globalization of world trade in many countries
arouses not only from the liberalization of trade policies but
also from advances in transportation.

• Transport helps to stabilize prices. Goods can be

transported to places, where there is scarcity for it. By this
the consumers can get their desired products or commodities
at a reasonable price. Similarly, by transporting goods to the
market, the producer gets fair price on their products.
 Transportation Modes in Supply Chain
Transport modes are the means to achieve mobility of
supplies. They fall into one of three basic types, depending
on what surface they are transported:

• ‚ land (road, rail and pipelines)

• ‚ water (shipping)
• ‚ air
Each mode is characterized by a set
of technical, operational and
commercial characteristics.
 Road transportation
• Road infrastructures are large consumers of space with the lowest level of
physical constraints among transportation modes.
• Physiographical constraints are significant in road construction with
substantial additional costs to overcome features such as rivers or rugged
terrain.
• Road transportation has an average operational flexibility as vehicles can
serve several purposes.
• ‚These systems have high maintenance costs, both for the vehicles and
infrastructures. Rapid movements of cargo occur in small batches. With
containerization, road transportation has become a crucial link in cargo
distribution.
• Trucks are used generally which lowers the cost and have good accessibility.
The trucks are able to access many more locations than planes or railroads.
• Regional truck lines are excellent for small, frequent shipment and are most
effective over short distances.
• But, the factors which lower the use of trucks are their speed, capacity and
range.
Road transportation
 Rail transportation
• Railways have an average level of physical constrains linked to the
types of locomotives.
• Heavy industries are traditionally linked with rail transport systems.
The process of containerization has improved the flexibility of rail
transportation by linking it with road and maritime modes.
• Rail is by far the land transportation mode offering the highest
capacity of cargo carried. Gauges are often complicating the
integration of rail systems worldwide.
• Railroads cost much less than other modes when shipping large
quantities or bulky goods over long distances.
• Trains run on a more consistent time schedule than trucks or
airlines. They are often able to travel in weather that would slow or
stop trucks and airplanes.
• Disadvantages include inflexibility, potential damage of goods and
ineffectiveness with small shipments.
Rail transportation
 Pipelines
• Pipeline routes are practically unlimited as they can be laid
on land or under water.
• They are used for transport of homogenous materials.
• The costs are lower than other transportation modes.
Pipeline construction costs vary according to the diameter
and increase proportionally with the distance and with the
viscosity of fluids. Pipeline terminals are very important
since they correspond to refineries and harbors.
• Pipelines are ideal for materials such as water, oil, and gas.
Pipelines have high initial costs since they must be built but
once they are constructed transportation costs are much
lower than other modes.
• They are unable to transport a variety of materials.
Pipeline
 Maritime transportation
• Ships are one of the oldest methods of transporting goods
and they are virtually the only way to transport large
volumes of good over-seas. Although this method is
slower than shipping by air, a ship can carry much more
cargo than an airplane. Costs are reduced significantly by
choosing ships over air transport. Because of the physical
properties of water such as buoyancy and limited friction,
maritime transportation is the most effective mode to
move large quantities of cargo over long distances.
‚
• Main maritime routes are composed of oceans, coasts,
seas, lakes, rivers and channels.
Maritime transportation
 Air transportation
• Air is considered a premium mode of transportation because of
the speed of delivery and the low impact on the cargo (items are
less likely to be broken than those shipped by rail or truck).
• Airplanes are also able to cover much longer distances in a short
time.
• Savings resulting in speed of delivery are greater than extra costs.
• Air transport constraints can be the site, the climate, fog and
aerial currents. For instance, a commercial plane needs about
3,300 meters of runway for landing and for take off.
• Air activities are linked to sectors like finance and tourism, which
lean on the long distance mobility of people.
• The mode of transportation has been accommodating growing
quantities of high value goods and is playing a growing role in
global supply chain management.
Air transportation
 Intermodal transportation
• Intermodal transport refers to a variety of modes that is
used in combination so that the respective advantages of
each mode are better exploited.

• The intermodal transportation applies for passenger

movements, such as the usage of the different, but
interconnected modes of a public transit system,

• Containerization has been a powerful vector of intermodal

integration, enabling maritime and land transportation
modes to more effectively interconnect.
Intermodal transportation
 Telecommunications
• Telecommunications are structured networks with a
practically unlimited capacity. They have very low
constraints that include the physiographic and oceanic
masses that may impair the setting of cables.
• They provide for the instantaneous movement of
information.
• Wave transmissions, because of their limited coverage,
often require substations, such as for cellular phone
networks.
• Satellites use a geostationary orbit which is getting
crowded.
• High network costs and low distribution costs characterise
many telecommunication networks.
Telecommunications