It can be various of transportation in order to transport material from one place to another.

Logistics Managers are using Rail, Road, Air, Water and Pipe Line as the modes of transportation.
A logistics expert needs to understand these modes based on priorities, product type and lead time
to decide appropriate mode of transportation.
Rail is use for delivery of a wide range of goods including coal, iron or cement, food grains,
fertilizers, steel, petroleum products and other heavy goods. Rail transport has a number or
characteristics that need to be taken into account when coming up with regulation framework.
Firstly is the multi product nature of rail activity. It provides the movement of differents types of
freight, a bulk export and general freight and passenger services. Rail passenger transport
including long distance and commuter service as we can see in South Africa there is a rail
commuter service which include the multi product nature of rail activity.
The second characteristics of rail transportation is its cost structure. The rail cost are usually
classified into train operational costs like energy which include operation, maintenance and
depreciation cost, the terminal and station cost and administration cost. In addition,the energy cost
depend on train kilometres while driver cost depend on length of the route. Lastly is the role played
by rail industry, as a rail industry, it is regarded as extremely energy efficient because of the rail
rapid growth as the first public transport system.
The advantages of train transportation are fast for example nowadays train is very fast then
before, it is also safe, more environmentally friendly than alternatives and does not add to
congestion because they have their own track to move.There are also the disadvantage of this
transportation. Limited routes, inflexible routes and timetables, expensive, sometimes unreliable.
Road transportation is used by suppliers to deliver goods in a cost effective manner and best
suited for short distances. The characteristic of road transportation are it is fast base on speed,the
reliability and packaging is in medium depends on size of the vehicles, risk of lost and damage are
also medium base on situation of the road and wheather and lastly it gives high impact in the
environment due to smoke come out from the lorries or truck. Many transport companies have
expertise for fast delivery, packaging example for making scheduled delivery.

The advantages of road transportation are cost effective,if you want to transport goods
directly from door to door, we can choose between different types of road transport, such as bikes,
cars, and vans . Low vehicle costs make it comparatively easy for new users to gain entry, for
example helps ensure that the trucking industry in highly competitive. Low capital costs also ensure
that innovations and new technologies can spread quickly through the industry. It is also fast
delivery, ideal for short distances, ideal for transporting perishables such as fruit and
vegetables,easy to monitor location of goods example by using GPS, easy to communicate with
driver example by using cell phone, and it is ideal for sending by courier shortages to custom.
 There also have disadvantages of road transportation. It is noisy and pollutes the
environment, less safe than alternatives, stressful for drivers for example when they get stuck in the
traffic jammed and for long distance courier it makes driver get stress because of tiredness, and
potential delays, can be expensive where there are congestion or road charges example like tols and
fuel.
The characteristic of air transportation is it's used mostly for delivery of high value and tone
volume goods from distant suppliers, It is also suitable for immediate item to be imported for some
specific requirement because it is very fast in terms of speed,it is also very reliable, risk of lost and
damage also very low because it only depend on the wheather.The advantages of air transportation
are fastest for long distance deliveries, customer perception is high, easy for order fulfilment, very
safe mode of transport, and reduces lead time on suppliers improved service levels example
Malaysia also have our own airbus which is very efficient to deliver tones of goods to other
country. The disadvantages of this transportation expensive, unsuitable for some goods, limited
routes, inflexible timetables, pollutes the environment, airport taxes
Water transportation used by firms for delivery of goods from distant suppliers, mostly
conducted in containers of varied size. This mode is ideal for transportation of heavy and bulky
goods and suitable for products with long lead times. The speed is very slow, it takes time to deliver
goods and it is not really give bad impact to environment. The advantages of this transportation are
ideal for transporting tones of goods, suitable for products with long lead times, cheap for large
volumes and disadvantages of this transportation are very slow, relatively few ports,example in
Malaysia there is only few ports for trade goods which is port klang and Pasir Gudang in Johor
Bahru , and lastly is port duty or taxes requires inland transportation for door to door delivery.
Pipe Line used by oil sector companies for mass movement of petroleum products including
gases. The characteristics of pipe line transportation are, first quite low operating cost it is one of
the preferred mode of transportation,the speed is also very slow,the reliability is very high,risk of
loss and damage is low and the enviromental impact is also very low. The advantages of pipeline
are cost efficiency for medium and long-haul transportation, with no need for handling operations.
For comparison purposes, the average cost per metric ton per 100 kilometers is we can see the
example Pipeline: RM 1.8 to RM 2.1,Train (2,000 tons): RM2.7 to RM4.1,Truck (38 tons):
RM4.1. Secure supply, unaffected by weather with fewer than two incidents per 10,000 kilometers
of pipeline per year and large-volume transportation for example 60 million liters per day.There are
two disadvantages of pipeline architecture. The first is complexity. The second is the inability to
continuously run the pipeline at full speed, for example the pipeline stalls and interrupt in signaled .