The purpose of this module is to provide you with the necessary competencies so that you can contribute to designing effective and responsible logistics information systems and logistics networks. This will make it easier for your organization to provide a superior logistics service at the lowest p...
,KEY TERMS IN ASSESSMENT
When you assess yourself, complete compulsory assignments or answer examination questions, it will
help you enormously if you know what to do when you encounter the instructions in the list below.
• Analyze – Identify components and the relationship between them, and identify implications
• Compare – Show how things are similar
• Contrast – Show how things are different
• Define – State the meaning of a term or mention the essential qualities of a concept
• Describe – Provide details of characteristics and features
• Discuss – Identify the issues and provide points for and/or against particular issues
• Evaluate – Make a judgment based on criteria; determine the value of something
• Explain – Make clear; describe cause and effect; make the relationship between things evident;
provide details of why and/or how something occurs
iv
, STUDY UNIT 1
The nature and structure of road transport
The movement of freight and passengers is an essential ingredient of economic sustainability and enhances
our daily lives in many ways. We, the general public, are quite familiar with road transport because we see
large trucks daily.
Benefits of road transport:
• it makes it possible to stock the shelves of corn shops, local supermarkets, do-it-yourself
(DIY) stores and the like.
Road transport disadvantages:
• Trucks (in addition to the buses and the thousands of cars on the road) add to the congestion
in towns, city centers and on highways;
• they pollute the air we breathe with unhealthy exhaust fumes;
• they cause visual intrusions, noise and vibration and they contribute to the accident rate on
our roads.
Despite the environmental penalties of road vehicle use, we cannot do without road transport. The
heavy truck will never go away and can never be replaced by another form of conveyance that is
noiseless, fumeless and takes up no road space. Road transport is an important component of a
country’s transport system.
The primary concern of road transport is to:
• move passengers or goods from one point to another,
• it performs an important function as a feeder service for other modes of transport, since virtually
all freight and passenger trips begin and end with road transport.
Most communities depend on road transport:
• people have to travel to work, or
• for recreational and business purposes, or
• to buy consumer goods such as bread, milk, newspapers and other items.
Road transport plays an equally important part in the supply chain.
• The manufacturing industry depends on a regular road transport service to ensure effective and
efficient manufacturing processes
• to enable enterprises to keep their inventories of raw materials, semi-finished products,
component parts and packaging materials to the minimum.
• Transport should be continuously available to ensure that the manufacturing industry does not
suffer unduly.
• It is important that finished goods enter the distribution channel on time.
• This is where the adaptability of road transport can be exploited to minimize cost and transit
time.
• It stands to reason that road transport closely affects people’s daily lives and activities and,
therefore, the economic activities of a country.
• Road transport obviously operates as a system with various components. It functions within a
specific environment, which in turn affects the road transport system
5
, .
THE ROAD TRANSPORT SYSTEM
Road transport, like any other mode of transport, consists of several elements that constitute a system.
The road transport system is illustrated in figure 1.1.
• In road transport, as in any other economic activity, there is interaction between demand and
supply.
• The road transport system represents the supply of road transport and consists basically of four
subsystems or elements:
o infrastructure,
o vehicles,
o traffic control mechanisms, and
o services.
All these subsystems are subject to specific internal or external constraints and control measures.
These constraints and control measures are present in the environment in which road transport
services are provided.
FIGURE 1.1
The road transport system
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