Various modes of transportation were used in the ancient times as animals (e.g. camels, horses’ elephants, and bullock carts), boats and ships. With the necessity of capacity and speed, changes took place particularly during the industrial revolution. The new system required ease of movement of workers to and from the factories and faster movement of goods to the place of consumption.
Older modes still continue although on a smaller scale. The modern modes of transportation can be classified as follows.
Transportation Modes
Operating Characteristics of the Transportation Modes
| Characteristic | Road | Rail | Air | Water | Pipeline |
| Cost | Moderately expensive | Low cost | High Cost | Low cost | Low Cost |
| Market Coverage | Point to point(Very flexible) | Terminal to terminal(No flexibility) | Terminal to terminal(No flexibility) | Terminal to terminal(No flexibility) | Terminal to terminal(No flexibility) |
| Degree of competition | Many big and small companies compete | Low | Moderate(few air freight companies) | Moderate(competition from various liners) | None |
| Product Characteristics | |||||
| Products moved | Anything and everything | Heavy items(Specially raw materials and containers) | High Value items | Low value items(that are not in ***) | Liquids, gases and *****) |
| Vehicle Capacity(MT) | 10-25 | 50-12,000 | 5-125 | 1000-60000 | 30000-2,500,000 |
| Service Characteristics | |||||
| Speed (Transit time) | Moderately fast | Fairly slow | Fast | Slow | Moderately fast |
| Availability | High | Moderate | Moderate | Low(Book well in advance) | Low(must schedule in advance) |
| Loss and damage | Moderate | Moderate | Fairly low | Items are more frequently damaged or lost | Virtually nil(unless pipes have leaks) |
| Flexibility | High | Moderate | Moderate | Low | Completely inflexible |
