What is multimodal transportation?

What do we know about multimodal transport? He Multimodal transport It is what we know for those who, during their transport from its beginning to its delivery, use more than one different means of transport, whether land, sea, air, etc. This type of transport consists of combining several means of transport without having to handle the merchandise that it contains, that is, the merchandise cannot be separated. This makes it easier to transport on transoceanic trips, including maritime means. With multimodal transport, the need arose to simplify and guarantee loading and unloading operations and their distribution. Not only does it generate benefits in costs and times, but it helps the person who manages it since there is a wide range of possibilities regarding how to approach a possible trip for future transport.

WHAT ARE THE ADVANTAGES OF MULTIMODAL TRANSPORT?

The objectives of multimodal transport are the following:

• Reduce costs and travel times
• Anywhere any place
• . reduces the need for warehousing of goods
• Lower risk of loss or theft of merchandise.
• Ease of transshipment
• Simplicity of documentation
• Global transportation route scheduling and economic costs
• Reduced cost of goods control

WHAT MEANS OF TRANSPORTATION CAN WE USE IN MULTIMODAL TRANSPORTATION?

As we have already mentioned previously, the transportation sector allows us to use different means of transportation to reach our destination in the shortest time possible and streamlining all possible processes.

ground transportation

It is the transport that is most used and the most versatile, it is therefore the transport that is most in demand today. It consists of transportation from one point to another by land with three types of vehicles: rigid truck, articulated and road train. It can be divided into carga completa or groupage..

Rail transport

In this last decade, there is an increase in its use as transportation of goods since it reduces transportation time and speeds up delivery times when we talk about long-distance shipments. It is mainly used to move large volumes and they can be adapted to the load, that is, depending on the type of merchandise we can use a tank car, container ship, refrigerators...

Maritime transport

It transports cargo through aquatic media, that is, it allows ports to be connected to each other. It is the most common means of transport on routes international transport. Several clients and/or companies that use the same means of transport and share spaces are usually coordinated in order to save costs and contract regular lines.

Air transport

This type of transportation allows us to transport cargo by air. It is generally used for shipments of urgent for its speed. Different types of aircraft are used depending on the type of transportation that needs to be carried out, since the only drawback it presents is its price, because it is usually high.

WHAT CHARACTERISTICS SHOULD MULTIMODAL TRANSPORTATION MEET?

In order to be considered multimodal transport, apart from using several means of transport, it must meet several other characteristics:

• Use of a a single transport document, the FIATA Bill of Landing (FBL).
• The merchandise must not be separated during the journey, that is, there should be no breakage of the charge

How can we avoid the separation of merchandise? Due to this need not to separate the merchandise during the journey, transport units such as the container or the mobile box emerged (swap).

• Container: Container that allows loading for maritime and land transport. Its characteristics are rigid and protects its interior from weather variations. The containers are standardized with ISO 668 regulations.
• Mobile or swap body: Load unit that serves for the transportation of goods and has an appropriate size for land transportation by road and rail.

The difference between both transport units is that the mobile box or swap They are conditioned or adapted to be transported by trucks, while containers are not. Depending on what the characteristics of your trip will be, we can use a unit click.