Global Transportation

Global Transportation

Frank Burcar (Apr 7, 2014 4:00 PM) - Read by: 2 Reply

I found this week’s reading very interesting. The author compared European and North American systems not so much to say they are currently really that different but what the future holds as the quantities of goods that are shipped increase dramatically. The main issue at hand is how the European countries are so congested and have very little room to grow. The global transportation network has changed. We have moved to a leaner, agile logistics plan. Initially this assisted Europe, it allowed for a drastic decline in needed warehouse space. But the benefits were short lived since leaner meant faster moving goods. Again, Europe started to suffer do to the lack of large highway structures needed to support the increasing transportation needs. Europe’s economic community became concerned. The increased vehicles would cause more time for travel which also impacted the environment. To try and offset the increases the government imposed tolls on the highways, thus making transportation costs even higher. Europe has entertained and often used some of the short-sea shipping options to get around the high cost of inland shipping using vehicles. The U.S. uses a multimodal container shipping method which lines up with rail shipping after being unloaded at the incoming port. Another main problem with the European countries is the rail system is looked at as a monopoly, and in order to fix the monopoly issue certain countries would have to take a loss in the current rail businesses. With all these struggles and extra fees that are associated with Europe’s struggles to find the right mix of transportation needs the cost is increased. Any additions of fees to either end of the transportation network are costs that have to be added into the overall cost to do business, thus effecting the cost of global trade.