The movement of goods is a fundamental part of what keeps local, regional and global economies working. Transporting raw materials, parts and products from A to B allows businesses to grow and consumers to get access to the products they want. Of course, transporting goods requires energy, organisation and capital, and represents a major logistical and financial outlay for any business. Add in the environmental responsibilities all businesses face and it becomes a real challenge.
The major transportation modes include air, sea and road, and each boasts a list of pros and cons that make them suitable for various businesses, depending on their needs. But there is one mode of commercial transportation that is often overlooked: rail freight. Moving goods by train was the original mass transportation method, coming off the back of the birth and growth of the railways in the first half of the 19th century. In fact, freight rail transportation played a significant role in driving the industrial revolution, which in large part laid the foundations for the modern world. But far from being a thing of the past, rail freight still plays an active and important role in cargo transportation.
Rail freight, a time-tested mode of transport, continues to offer significant advantages, as outlined below.
Energy Efficiency
Every business needs to keep its carbon footprint in mind when considering any freight option. After all, freight by its very nature is an energy intensive industry. However, rail freight transportation offers major advantages in this respect and produces seven times less CO2 emission than transportation by truck. For businesses keen to reduce their impact and work towards carbon zero, rail represents a step forward over air or road transport.
Costs & Savings
As well as saving the planet, every business has to focus on cutting costs and expenditure. Again, in this respect rail can deliver. Rail freight costs can be significantly lower than other forms of transport, as much as 20 to 30% less than transportation by truck and other freight forwarding methods.
Time Efficiency & Reliability
Business success is built upon reliability and efficiency. Supply chain hold ups can result in costly downtime and production line bottlenecks. Not to mention the disruption this can cause to the end customer. Rail freight is less likely to be delayed and held up by traffic and other incidents, largely because the rail network is not as dependent on the multiple variables that can occur with other forms of moving freight. In fact, the on-time delivery rate for train freight is 95% in comparison to road freight which is on average 85%. As a premier freight forwarder UK, Jordon’s on time delivery rate is a seriously impressive 98.3%.
Security
Rail freight forwarding is less exposed and likely to be liable to theft and robbery, as well as other safety and security risks. The theft rate for rail freight is just 0.01%, lower than other freight modes and very reassuring to businesses, especially if they are sending or receiving valuable cargo.
As you can see, sometimes old ideas are the best. But when they are also combined with the cutting edge rail freight technology delivered by Jordon, they can be even better.
For more information on the best ways and methods to transport your freight and goods, get in touch with our experienced team at Jordon Freight today.
