Surface Area Transportation is the transportation of goods across land. This includes all land-based modes of transportation, which are motor carrier, rail, and intermodal (between the two).
As it pertains to supply chain management, surface area transportation may only be part of it, but the modes that it encompasses make up the majority of all transported goods in the United States, as well as other parts of the world.
Because transporting goods through across the surface area tends to hold land-locked routes, most use of these modes tends to remain within one continent, unlike airfreight, pipeline or water carriers.
Types
Motor Carrier
Motor freight is largely made up of two main sectors: Less-than-truckload (LTL) and Truckload (FTL). Trucking has largely been the most popular mode of surface area transportation since the construction of the highways and decline of the railways, but in recent years has had reduced interest with the increased use of intermodal transportation.
Rail Freight
The use of rail freight for transportation across the surface area is very popular for commodity goods such as raw materials used in manufacturing, especially in North America. While the use of railroads declined towards the end of the 21st century, it appears to be back on the rise as many of the existing railroad tracks are being utilized for the intermodal transport of goods.
Intermodal Transportation
Intermodal transportation is a growing transportation mode that involves the use of intermodal containers that can be sent via rail or taken off of train cars and attached to motor carriers. In recent years, those in the supply chain field have found that intermodal carrying can be very efficient and is a great way to utilize highways as well as the railway infrastructure that exists in many places.
Team FS12_22 (11/19/2012)
SCM wiki 