Moving Freight by Water

Of all of the freight options, water freight is one of the oldest forms. People have been using boats to transfer and move goods for thousands of years, and it is still an industry which is successful and popular today. As an example of the popularity, almost 2 million tonnes of freight was carried along the River Thames in 2007 alone.
One of the main benefits of moving freight by water is that the costs can be significantly less that moving freight by air, especially if over a long distance.

Aside from cost, one of the other main benefits of moving freight by water is that there is a significant reduction in emissions compared to air freight and even road freight. It is important of course to consider that water freight can play an important part in road freight by transporting vehicles between two separate pieces of land.

Modern water freight is commonly associated with large boats which trawl across the world’s oceans. This has evolved from the large steam boats which were first introduced in the 19th century and is often the most cost effective way to transport goods around the world due to the sheer volume of goods which can be transported in one journey, meaning that the costs are split much further. This can help to keep the price of products down and give a company the cutting edge.

In all of the main developed countries around the world, as well as many of the less developed countries, there are sea ports which offer direct access into that country.

These ports generally have good transport links, and the number of them means that you can still move freight efficiently despite the sometimes increased travel time compared to other methods.

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