Transportation of Goods by Road

Goods are usually transported in sequence of events as below.

Readiness of the goods for transportation by the owner or supplier and a known destination address of the buyer or recipient. The same owner may also transfer the goods to the other locations belonging to him for value added purposes without involving the sales and purchase transactions. In this case, the owner will be the sender or consignor and the buyer will be the recipient or consignee.

The consignor may procure the use of a road transport operator by contacting him direct on a spot market basis or a pre-contractual arrangement, or through intermediary of a broker or transport clearing house.

A transport provider should be chosen on the basis of his capability to deliver safely ad timely the goods at a quotation acceptable to the cargo owner or to the party having pay for the services.

To fulfill his commitments, the transporter should be the one who has the following criteria:

1. He has the transport equipment or vehicle, duly licensed, that meets the transportation requirements of the goods. For example, the goods may be in bulk, then he should have bulk transport vehicles to take up the delivery. An operator may not have the specific equipment but he may sub-contract the service to another service provider who has the vehicle that could undertake the required transportation for his customer. In this case, depending on his sub-contract term, the owner may have to deal with another party who may not be aware of the exact terms of contract. This problem can be overcome by specifying the terms of agreement and making it available to all contracting parties.
2. He may be an owner operator that is, he drives the vehicle which he uses for transporting his customer’s goods.
3. He may be an organization (company) operating on a larger scale and has trained staffs who can plan deliveries/pick-ups, answer questions and communicate well and timely with goods owners and receivers.
4. Well trained drivers and assistants who understands the requirements of the goods transported and are courteous, non-aggressive on the road (also known as defensive driving) and can deliver the goods safely and at the appointed time agreed between the seller and buyer.
5. Good accounting system which can ensure timely invoicing and accurate recording of transaction for billing.
6. He operates from a secure depot where his lorries are parked under reliable security overnight. There are cases where laden trucks that cannot make its delivery and have to parked somewhere overnight before reaching its final destination. Operators who did not have secure parking locations would park along road sides where this may subject to theft or damage on the cargo.

Besides, the operator must also be financially strong, which means he will have no problem in paying his creditors, staffs, drivers and regular maintenance of his fleet of trucks.

Cash flow problems may also affect the purchase of spares and effective repairs which may cause its vehicles to breakdown during delivery of which would result to goods damage, delays and other inefficiency as well.