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Principles of Marketing - Philip Kotler

Transportation

Marketing professionals need to wonder any decisions regarding the transport of goods taking their businesses. The choice of carrier depends on the level of prices of goods, and timeliness of delivery and condition of the goods at the time of their arrival to their destinations. And all this in turn will affect the degree of customer satisfaction.

When shipping goods warehouses, dealers and customers the company can choose from five modes of transport: rail, water, road, pipeline and air. The characteristics of each of these modes is summarized in the Table. 14. The following is a description of them.

Table 14. Characteristics of the main types of transport

RAIL TRANSPORT. Railways are the largest cargo carrier country. They account for 30% of the national turnover in ton-miles. In terms of costs the railways - the most cost-effective mode of transport for transportation of wagon consignments in bulk - coal, ore, sand, agricultural and forestry products - over long distances. Recently, railroads have begun to increase the number of service-specific customer. It created new equipment for more efficient cargo handling certain categories of goods, the platform for the transport of trailers (shuttle contrailers), began to provide services in a way, such as the diversion of goods already shipped to another destination directly on the route and the processing of the goods during transport.

WATER TRANSPORT. A significant amount of goods transported by ships and barges in the coastal waters and inland waterways. The cost of transportation on water bulky perishable goods of low value such as sand, coal, grain, oil and metal ores is very low. On the other hand, water transport is the slow-moving and often exposed to weather influence.

ROAD TRANSPORT. Trucks constantly increases its share of the traffic, and today it accounts for 21% of the total ton-miles. In urban transport carries the bulk of freight traffic. This type of traffic is extremely flexible with regard to the routes and motion graphics. Trucks are able to transport the goods from "door to door", eliminating the need for Senders extra traffic. Trucks - cost-effective mode of transport for the transport of short-range high-value goods. In many cases, motor tariffs competitive with comparable rates of railways, but the trucks usually offer higher efficiency of services.

Pipeline transport. Pipelines - specific means of transportation of oil, coal and chemical products from their place of origin to the markets. Transportation of petroleum products by pipeline is cheaper than by train, but a bit more expensive than the water. Most of the owners of the pipelines used for the transport of their own products.

AIR TRANSPORT. The share of air transport accounts for less than 1% of the total turnover in the country, however, this form of transport is becoming increasingly important. Although air cargo rates much higher than rail or road tariffs, transportation by air is ideal in cases where the principal value is speed and / or when it is necessary to reach distant markets. Among the most purely delivered by air freight perishable foods (such as fresh fish, fresh flowers) and light touch products of high value (such as tools, jewelry). Companies are convinced that the use of air transport to reduce required inventory levels, reduce the number of warehouses, reduce the cost of packaging.