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Introduction
Transportation and logistics play a significant role in the worlds economic growth and development. Raw materials and finished products rely on transportation to get to the factories and consumers, respectively. Equally, transportation systems ensure that employers get to their working stations on time. Air, truck, rail, pipeline, and sealift are the most common types of transportation and logistics used worldwide.
They have developed over the decades according to technological advancement and rise in their demand to meet the needs in the global market. As a result, they have removed geographical barriers of trade and ensured effective and efficient shipment of goods and people. An evaluation of history of how transport and logistics changed due to technology growth, processes, and their pros and cons are vital in understanding the impact of technology on the sector.
History of Transportation and Logistics
Ancient History in Transportation
Ancient movement of goods and people across regions and cities was an important aspect facilitating trade and human interaction. There were no highways, airstrips, railway lines, trains, vehicles, planes, and ships. Most people would travel by foot for long distances carrying their loads. Animals such as camels and donkeys were used to transport commodities and people across cities. People also crafted simple boats out of logs to help them travel through water. They also canal artificial waterways to allow shipment of goods across regions.
Air Transportation History
The history of air transportation is traceable back to the nineteenth century following the discovery of hot air balloons. The concept of lighter than air led to the development of airships. The principle of flying machines that are heavier than air was introduced, and its implementation by Otto Lilienthal started in 1890 (Schmitt & Gollnick, 2015). The Wright brothers used the latters experience to build the first worlds airplane, and they made a controlled powered and sustained heavier-than-air human flight in December 1903 (Schmitt & Gollnick, 2015). More airplanes were manufactures during the First World War and used for civil transportation. Technological growth and development led to the production of planes with sophisticated features in the subsequent years, allowing them to carry heavy loads and numerous passengers for long distances across the world.
Rail Transportation History
One can trace the history of rail transportation back to the sixteenth century where people used carts with unflanged wheels, running on wooden planks. According to Bellis (2019), the worlds oldest operational railway was built in 1758 in Leeds. The United States of America constructed its first railway six years late in Lewiston, New York. Coalbrookdale Company introduced the metal rails in the 1760s by fixing cast iron on the wooden rails upper surface. Steel rails were introduced in the 1860s, making it possible for heavy locomotives and facilitating enhanced productivity of railroads. Locomotives were initially powered by steam, followed by electric-powered ones and diesel-powered trains. Trains have been a vital means of transporting goods, products, and people.
Truck Transportation History
Truck transportation plays a significant role in freight and logistics. Alexander Winston, an automobile and car inventor, was the first to design and produce trucks in 1898 (A Brief history of trucking, n.d.). He needed a massive and powerful truck-type vehicle to ferry his inventions to various locations. August Charles Fruehauf furthered the idea of a super truck in 1914 to transport a friends boat by attaching a semi-trailer to a Ford trucks rear end (A Brief history of trucking, n.d.).
The trucks used in the early 1900 were motorized wagons, resembling horses that drew those. Truck manufacturers suspended motor and other machinery under drivers seat. However, the invention of air-filled tires in 1920 enhanced the speed at which trucks transported heavy loads (A Brief history of trucking, n.d.). The first extensive use of trucks was during the First World War. Trucking accelerated in the subsequent years due to the increase of paved road construction and interstate highway systems.
Sealift Transportation History
The emergence of maritime passenger transportation is directly related to the development of the world transport system, which includes communication routes, means of transportation, management, communication, and a complex of technical structures and devices that can ensure their functioning. Changes in shipping in 1967, and the subsequent trends, shaped the future that humanity is observing today. Mercogliano (2017) speaks of the sealift military transportation as the fourth arm of defense in Vietnam War in 1955-1975. In the second half of the 1960s, container transportation of international liner routes was organized, distinguished by high technological efficiency. In 1966, the Sea-Land Fairland container ship opened the first commercial international container service operating in transatlantic trade (Gillis, 2017). The global maritime transport market was strongly affected by the additional demand for ships caused by longer flights at many auctions.
Pipeline Transportation History
Pipeline transportation has been in existence for thousands of years in the world. Initially, people in different parts of the world constructed a pipeline to convey water for irrigation and drinking. For instance, the Chinese used bamboo to make pipelines, and Romans and Persians used aqueducts. Bamboo pipeline in china facilitated the transmission of natural gas to light their capital city in 400 BCE. In the 18th century, the commercial use of cast-iron pipes significantly improved pipeline technology. Introduction if steel pipes in the 19th century made it possible to transport oil and natural gas over long distances. Uses of pipelines have developed over the years, and the latter can be categorized depending on the transported commodities. The major types of pipelines include water and sewer lines, oil, gas, and slurry pipelines.
Advancement in Transportation and Logistics
Air Transportation
The first commercial flight was made eleven years following the invention of the airplane. The plane ferries a passenger from Tampa to St. Petersburg, Florida (Rodrigue et al., n.d.). While the airline industry was initially associated with military aviation, civilian planes were developed and improved rapidly after the First World War. The capacity, speed, and range of most aircraft were 8-12 passengers, 170 km/hour, and 1100 km (Rodrigue et al., n.d.). By the end of the Second World War, the capacity, speed, ad range of planes across the world had increased to 28 passengers, 310km/hour, and 2400 km, correspondingly (Rodrigue et al., n.d.). Jet was introduced in the mid-1950s with a better range and capacity. Technology advancement in the aviation industry has seen more cargo and passenger plane manufacturing with better features that facilitate faster, safe, and efficient transportation across the world.
Rail Transportation
The role of rail transportation is increasing every year. The level of development of the states economy depends on the effective operation of this system (Attaran, 2017). In 1862, the current President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, issued a law on constructing railway tracks that were supposed to connect the western and eastern parts of the country. At the junction of the railways, a nail was symbolically hammered, which meant the connection of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
The length of the US railways in 1916 reached its peak and numbered more than 400 thousand kilometers, but by the end of the 20th century, this figure had fallen to 293 thousand kilometers (World Railway Length, n.d.). Railways in the 19th century became very popular; they carried out the transportation of goods, wood, and passengers. In the 1930s, there was a peak in the development of passenger rail service in the United States. The trains were modernized. Instead of massive heavy trains, streamlined locomotives were produced.
Truck Transportation
With the increase in the construction of paved roads in the 20th century, freight transportation became widespread and soon became regulated by various state regulations. Trucking is responsible for most of the overland freight movement in the United States, with the market being worth 791 billion US dollars in 2019 (Mazareanu, 2020). There are more than 30 percent of passenger cars in the US and more than 45 trucks used in the world. The number of trucks is growing very quickly. Any manufacturing or commercial enterprise in the United States with access to the highway prefers to use motor transport to deliver the necessary raw materials and products (Rai et al., 2017). Cars allow you to build a workflow on the principle of just in time, which reduces the cost of warehousing and storage.
Sealift Transportation
Since the speed of cargo river vessels is 22 mph, mainly goods that do not require fast delivery are transported along inland waterways building materials, such as sand, coal, grain, and oil and petroleum products (Mersin, 2017). There are also vessels carrying trucks along with their cargo and river container ships. The US government spends significant amounts on improving navigable conditions on rivers and canals. The growing importance of river transport the result of the impact of such factors as an increase in bulk cargo flows, increased competition between rail and road transport, and the switching of mass cargo flows from the railway to the water in this regard, the construction of new and modernization of old inter-basin connections. Such natural and geographical factors as the proximity of rivers to mineral deposits, large industrial centers, and climate have a significant influence on the development of river transport, necessary for year-round navigation.
Pipeline Transportation
The first US oil fields were located near water and existing land transport routes. The urgent need to introduce pipeline transport arose when remote oil fields were discovered and exploited. The oil pipeline system includes about 180,000 miles of field oil pipelines, usually less than 6 inches in diameter. Oil pipelines start at individual sites and wells, just as small streams flow down from watersheds in a river system. Gasoline and other liquid petroleum products began to be transported through pipelines relatively recently. Most pipelines in the United States are used to transport crude oil. Several hundred smaller tankers are used on the Great Lakes and inland waterways; in addition, various barges are used here. Currently, oil transportation by tankers is one of the most important ways of delivering oil to oil refineries.
Transportation Process Changes due to the Advancements in Technology
Surface Transportation Processes
The emergence of new technologies in transportation is partly due to computerization, which allows checking and performing operations between shippers and consignees and interacting with transport companies. Modern equipment for cargo transportation was introduced relatively recently (Treiblmaier, 2019). Carriers can track the actions of drivers and freight forwarders in real-time. In addition, the appearance of the blockchain allows performing actions and operations between transport companies based on the available information that is encrypted in the blocks of the chain (Koh et al., 2020). They also can be tracked using drones to avoid logistical challenges (Azmat, M., & Kummer, 2020).
Andreou et al. (2018, p.181) point out that a prototypical smart contract wrapped as a decentralized application is presented for investigating the potential benefits for applying blockchain for logistics. This technology is entirely new, and now there is the confidence that the future in logistics will be in this direction.
Sealift Transportation Processes
Internet technologies are increasingly being used to improve communication between the ship and the shore for intelligent traffic management. A closer interface includes, for example, the analysis of large databases to reduce the time for transportation and the time spent on entering ships into ports and other areas with heavy traffic, thereby contributing to lowering port congestion. Many companies nowadays apply an effective green logistics policy. It is an environmentally friendly logistics system that includes greening such processes as transportation, warehousing and distribution, and environmental processing and reverse logistics (Lu et al., 2019). This helps to take care of the environment and develop the countrys economy.
Pipeline Transportation Processes
Container pipeline hydro-and pneumatic transport belongs to the new, rapidly developing types of industrial transport. Transportation is vital for economic and social aspects, contributing to economic growth (Ranieri et al., 2018). The main advantages of this type of transport are high throughput, regularity of movement and a high degree of automation, the absence of interference with other types of transport, independence from weather conditions, and the exclusion of cargo losses on the way.
Air Transportation Processes
The worlds leading airlines are modernizing location systems to identify the location of aircraft and baggage as accurately as possible, accelerate ground pre-flight preparations, automate and improve service. Leading airlines and major airports are actively implementing the Internet of Things or IoT technology, connecting an increasing number of physical infrastructure elements. However, these technologies may include privacy violations and security risks (Azmat et al., 2019). At airports, the technology allows you to combine notification and traffic monitoring systems for all objects.
Intermodal and Multimodal Processes
Multimodal transportation is understood as a single operator responsible for the cargo during transportation and one transport document. Efficient multimodal networks such as crowdsourcing transit data will adapt schedules, and multiple trip options will be offered to travelers (Speranza, 2018). Intermodal transportation involves using a single particular document in the process of moving goods and the practical absence of the owner of materials when carrying out loading and unloading operations. Instant information exchange, automated solutions, and big real-time data analysis are among the features are the features of modern technologies in intermodal processes (Strandhagen, 2017). The main benefits of intermodality are safety, speed, efficiency, flexibility, and reduction of greenhouse gas and fine dust (Shin et al., 2018). In this regard, success is based on a balanced approach since an integrated transport system should be based on a thorough cost-effectiveness analysis on a national scale.
Pros, Cons, and Gaps in Transportation
Every means of transportation has its pros and cons. Thus, the advantages of sealift transportation are the low cost of river cargo transportation and unlimited dimensions and extra-large weights of oversized cargo transported, the maximum values determined only by the size and carrying capacity of a river vessel. However, sealift transportation has disadvantages such as a small number of equipped river ports for receiving oversized cargo and underdeveloped infrastructure of port services during transshipment of large cargo from road transport to a river vessel. It is also characterized by the low speed of cargo transportation and seasonal character identified by the inability to transport goods during winter.
The pros and cons of air transport can be tangible, but there are also disadvantages operating costs are too high; huge investments are needed to develop aviation technology; there are restrictions on the size of cargo during transportation. The advantages of air transportation are provided jobs, tax revenues increase due to them, and air transport increases productivity in the entire world economy. In terms of reliability, air transport gives a significant head start to any other carrier. It is much more difficult to spoil the cargo or steal the goods at a height than in different conditions.
An absolute plus of railway transportation is the safety and security when using closed rolling stock. Another significant advantage is the cost-effectiveness of transporting oversized or heavy cargo over a long distance. The longer the length of the freight, the cheaper it will cost to deliver it. Nevertheless, the timing is, perhaps, the main disadvantage of railway transportation. The railway is characterized by both a long period of transportation and preparation for it.
The advantages of international truck transport are fast cargo delivery, the absence of intermediate transshipment, the possibility of full control of the cargo condition during transportation, which can be done with drones (Raj & Sah, 2019).
It is characterized by flexible route planning because there are roads almost everywhere is also presented as an aspect that inclines to the choice of this particular type of transport. In terms of the speed of delivery, road transportation wins over rail transport and is flexible in supply chains (Giusti et al., 2019). The gain is due to the absence of such moments as sorting containers, wagons, and trains. The disadvantages of road transport can be attributed to the fact that long-distance road transport loses the cost of delivery to railway transport and complication of human-machine interaction concepts (Klumpp, 2018). It causes significant negative impacts in terms of congestion, emissions, and space consumption (Cleophas et al., 2019). It is worth remembering that vehicles weight and overall characteristics allowed to move on public roads have their limitations.
Pipeline transport has certain disadvantages, such as the high cost of initial capital investments in constructing an oil and gas pipeline network, the risk of environmental damage, especially when transporting underwater pipelines, and the complexity of laying the route in certain areas. However, despite this, this type of transportation has several advantages. Among them, the possibility of pumping oil, gas, and oil and gas products over considerable distances, a high rate of delivery and various throughputs, continuous operation all year round, with a short-term stop, in case of repairs or accidents, and losses on the route are minimized, thanks to the design features of pipelines and their preventive maintenance.
Conclusion
Trends in the emergence of new economic systems, the growth of world trade, changes in consumption habits, and the emergence of new customer requirements for delivery have a significant impact on the development of the transport and logistics industry. At the same time, regardless of the type of transport used, one of the main problems that require immediate solution can be attributed to the problems of congestion of the transport network and the increased need to increase capacity, as well as the need to update the transport infrastructure and introduce environmentally friendly transport into the transport system.
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