The Unpretentious Origin of Maritime Transportation - Essay Example

Table of Contents Page Number Introduction 2 Limitations of Maritime Transportation 3 Advantages of Maritime Transportation 4 Preference Given to Other Modes of Transportation 6 Conclusion 7 MARITIME TRANSPORTATION Introduction It has been said without a doubt that from the unpretentious origin of maritime transportation as Egyptian coastal sail ships (around 3200 BC), it has been a support which has prevailed for global trade. Like air and land modes, a maritime transportation function on its particular space, this has also been called geographical due to its physical attributes, due to the control, it has been said to be strategic and finally commercial considerations have been said to be more dynamic. The two major elements that constitute of the physiography of the maritime transportation are rivers and oceans. The existence of maritime routes or in other words the fact that regular itineraries are existent is said to be the concept of maritime transportation.1 There have been quite a few technological transformation which have had the potential of affecting water transports, the most recent one is that of the modification of water canals, increasing the size as well as the automation and specialization of vessels. However it has been noted that the increase in maritime traffic has had the consequences of major ecological disasters.2 Limitations of Maritime Transportation It needs to be pointed that the bulk of circulation that takes place through maritime transportation is limited along coast line and further three continents have limited fluvial trade. The majority of maritime infrastructure requires a huge maintenance cost for the modification of waterways or investments on the expansion of capacities of ports, which is very expensive and on the other hand takes a lot of space.3 It needs to be pointed out at this point that not every country has direct access to the ocean, these countries are better known as the maritime enclave that is they have difficulties in undertaking maritime trade since they are not part of what is called the domain of maritime circulation. So it requires agreements between neighboring countries to have access to the facilities of port via road, rail line or any other possible alternative. It is important to keep in mind that the countries which are enclave are not excluded from international trade or in other words it can not be implied that they can not take part in international trade, but the problem that they face are that they face higher costs which might lead to weakening of economic development.4 Over the last decade it has been notice that due to the growth in transpacific trade, there has been, geographically, an increase in maritime traffic. It has been proved that due to the establishment of commercial linkage between continents, maritime transport has been able to sustain a substantial amount of traffic which covers approximately 90% of intercontinental transport demand of freight. 5 Advantages of Maritime Transportation The main strength of maritime that can be pointed out to is not the speed but on the capacity and the load as well as the traffic situation which runs in a continuity. These have been said to be the main advantages which have till now not been outweighed neither by the road transportation nor by the air transportation. The main reason for road and air transportation not being able to support such traffic is because of the geographical scale and intensity. Thus it can be said that the maritime transportation is in a very advantageous position when compared with other modes of transportation with regards to traffic. Further another advantage that can be pointed out wih regards to maritime transportation is that the huge amount of bulk that a certain cargo can bear, if transported by alternative modes of transportation will eventually turn out to be immensely expensive and thus not feasible. The fact of maritime transportation having an upper hand over other modes of transportation can be justified from the fact that the technological development that have occurred clearly show that the mode of transportation is immensely in demand and is rising day by day. The improvements that can be found are by looking at the fact that voyage is speedier now, because of the new ships and cargoes being made with better speed. Further it has been seen that the size of the cargoes and the ships has been increased so as to hug amount of cargoes. It needs to be pointed out that specialized ships have been made so as to transport people as well as heavy capital etc. The design have been made more intelligently and allowed for a better transportation. Finally the development of automation like computerized unloading and other options have made the mode of transportation to respond to modern times and act accordingly.6 By comparing other modes of transportation with maritime transportation it can clearly be illustrated that it is more economic or in other words its main advantage is its economies of scale, thus making it cheapest when the per unit cost is calculated, thus making it ideal for thos businesses who transport heavy industrial activities. One the other hand, it has been seen that the highest entry costs of the transport sector is of the maritime transportation. Generally it has been noticed that the economic life of a ship is between 15 to 20 years and so is a considerable amount of investment that must be authorized. The two main sources which might fund the maritime transportation are the public and private sector. The public sector is generally responsible for guidance infrastructures, public piers, dredging, and security and in quite a few cases the administration of ports. The concern of the private sector is mainly concerned with definite facilities which include piers, transshipment infrastructures and ships, which are normally owned by private maritime companies who control such operations.7 It has been seen in the past that governments intervened which have been at times massive, in the maritime sector so as to achieve various goals which include economic development, national defense, prestige, balance of payments and protecting the national industry. The government tried to achieve these objectives by relying on measures such as regulation, applying subsidies ports of entry and many other implementations. Cabotage regulations has been said to be the privileged measure that has been adopted so as to protect the national maritime transportation industry. 8 Preference Given to Other Modes of Transportation The only thing that has been found is that if speedy transportation is needed then air or road transportation has been preferred. Further if the material or things for transportation are less in weight than these modes have been used. However it needs to be pointed out the maritime transportation has not lost the competitive advantage that it possessed of carrying heavy transportation with ease. Further the improvements in technology along with speed has further allowed for competition, thus making the maritime transportation more competitive. 9 Conclusion Thus it can be clearly seen that neither road nor air transportation has affected the competitive advantage that had been possessed by maritime transportation, however there is still a need for improvements in the maritime transportation nor so concurrent measures have been adopted by various governments and so will be fruitful for the improvement of maritime transportation. 10Finally it is stated as has been pointed out there are certain areas that have allowed for an advantage to road and air transportation and these have to be curtailed by maritime transportation so as to make it more efficient and effective. Word Count:1214 BIBLIOGRAPHY MOTT, G. F. (1967). Transportation century. Baton Rouge, Louisiana State University Press. GIBSON, P. (1985). Maritime transportation. KRISTIANSEN, S. (2004). 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