Six Reasons To Choose Road Freight For Your Business
Businesses that aren’t in the service sector usually have a requirement to transport their goods. First, the business needs to move raw materials from the supplier to their location and often, they then need to transport finished products to their customers or another location such as a fulfilment centre or warehouse.
There are five common freight transport modes: railway, air, road, pipeline, and water transport. The type of freight mode you choose is largely determined by the type of cargo you want to transport. For example, bulky goods are best transported by rail and not air.
Road freight is the most common mode of transport for your cargo. Due to its popularity, it has a few advantages over other types of transportation. This article will look into that. By the end of this, you’ll have six great reasons why road freight might be a good solution for your business.
The Biggest Benefits of Utilising Road Freight
It’s Flexible
Road freight is the most flexible mode of transportation because it accommodates last-minute changes relating to routes or schedules. You, as a business owner or transport manager, can communicate the routes you think are better as well as the convenient time for the transportation of your products.
There’s no liberty of such suggestions when using other freight modes. For example, air transport has specific time schedules and routes that must be strictly followed; if your cargo isn’t on time, you risk missing your flight.
It’s Cost-Effective
When you compare the shipping charges of road freight and air freight, road freight has more affordable shipping charges. Reduced cost of shipment helps you increase your profit margins. Also, you can use the money saved from the transport cost to do other important things such as expanding your business through investing in technology and innovation.
It Allows For Shipment Tracking
Many business people prefer being kept in the light as to where the products have reached and how long it’ll take for them to reach the destination. Road freight allows you to track how your products are being transported.
The technology of shipment tracking was first developed for road freight. It’s only now that other modes of transportation like air transport are catching up. Not all air freight companies have yet adopted air freight tracking technology. It’s not a guarantee that the company you deal with for air freight will have the tracking system. However, when dealing with road freight, you can rest assured that you’ll be given a chance to track your cargo.
Road Freight Involves Fewer Chances Of Product Damage
Road freight involves loading at the pick-up point and offloading at the drop-off point. The minimal loading and offloading of products ensure that products aren’t harmed and are delivered in good condition. It also minimises the risk of your cargo getting lost at different terminals.
This isn’t the case with other freight modes such as air transport as they might involve connecting flights. Connecting flights increases the number of loading and offloading, which might further increase the risk of product damage or loss.
Road freight is always used at the beginning and end of transportation of goods when using other freight modes. Therefore, you can’t escape loading and offloading during other modes of transport unless you’re using only road freight. For example, you must transport your products to the airport by road. The goods have to be offloaded from the truck to the warehouse and then to the plane.
Road Freight Is Used In Interior And Rural Areas
Delivering or transporting commodities to rural and interior areas might be challenging using freight modes such as air. The latter is because not all areas have amenities like airports or airstrips. On the other hand, almost every place has functional roads, making road freight easier.
Road freight promotes door-to-door product delivery, which is convenient for both long- and short-distance journeys. In short, you can safely deliver products to your clients, regardless of their location.
It Saves Time
Using road freight in your business saves you time as you don’t need to be involved in every stage of the supply and delivery process. You’re only required to give information about when and where the freight company will collect your goods and the delivery location.
The freight company takes care of other processes such as transporting your commodities, ensuring that the trucks are in good condition and have the right storage capacities. This means you will have time to focus on other business-critical responsibilities.
Conclusion
Each mode of transport has pros and cons. For speedy delivery, air cargo might be the best solution; however, for a reliable, cost-effective, secure solution road freight is the option you should opt for.
The flexibility of the service provider, cost, capability and availability all need to be considered when looking at transport methods and providers. Find a reputable service provider and your business will quickly start to benefit from choosing to utilise road freight for your transport.