Transport plays a key role in economic life. The development of transport brings markets closer together, enables increased production (determines economic growth), and activates areas of economic infrastructure – new industrial and economic plants are being built along roads and hubs. Trends in the economy focus on increasing the intensity of the flow of materials for production and finished goods, as well as on shortening the time that elapses between individual stages of production and the end recipient. This leads to an increase in the requirements placed on the transport sector, which is the link between production areas and consumption regions, which connects individual production and service centers with each other and ensures the exchange of goods. In its intermodal functions, the transport system should ensure, in relation to the movement of materials, raw materials, semi-finished products and finished goods, the patency of all supply and distribution channels in supply chains. Patency is otherwise the provision of optimal proportions between the mass of produced goods, the transport capacity of transport means, the throughput of the transport network and the transshipment capacity of warehouses, as well as the size of orders and stocks.Specialization of labor, mass consumption and economies of scale in production mean that the places where products are manufactured do not coincide with the place where demand for them is reported. Hence, transport is necessary to fill the spatial gap between the buyer and the seller. (…)
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Source: Logistics Magazine 5/2011