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45-542: In 2015, 108 trillion tonne-kilometers were transported worldwide (anticipated to grow by 3.4% per year until 2050 (128 Trillion in 2020)): 70% by sea, 18% by road, 9% by rail, 2% by inland waterways and less than 0.25% by air. Land or "ground" shipping can be made by train or by truck (British English: lorry ). Ground transport is typically more affordable than air, but more expensive than sea, especially in developing countries , where inland infrastructure may not be efficient. In air and sea shipments, ground transport

90-483: A barleycorn . A system of measurement is a collection of units of measurement and rules relating them to each other. As science progressed, a need arose to relate the measurement systems of different quantities, like length and weight and volume. The effort of attempting to relate different traditional systems between each other exposed many inconsistencies, and brought about the development of new units and systems. Systems of units vary from country to country. Some of

135-525: A 2018 report from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) , merchant shipping (or seaborne trade) carries 80-90% of international trade and 60-70% by value. On rivers and canals , barges are often used to carry bulk cargo . Cargo is transported by air in specialized cargo aircraft and in the luggage compartments of passenger aircraft. Air freight is typically the fastest mode for long-distance freight transport, but it

180-480: A crucial role in human endeavour from early ages up to the present. A multitude of systems of units used to be very common. Now there is a global standard, the International System of Units (SI), the modern form of the metric system . In trade, weights and measures are often a subject of governmental regulation, to ensure fairness and transparency. The International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM)

225-478: A hassle-free option for customers to import goods from one jurisdiction to another. This is compared to standard shipping, the price of which typically includes only the expenses incurred by the shipping company in transferring the object from one place to another. Customs fees, import taxes and other tariffs may contribute substantially to this base price before the item ever arrives. Tonne-kilometer The units of measurement in transportation describes

270-415: A multiple of the unit of measurement. For example, a length is a physical quantity . The metre (symbol m) is a unit of length that represents a definite predetermined length. For instance, when referencing "10 metres" (or 10 m), what is actually meant is 10 times the definite predetermined length called "metre". The definition, agreement, and practical use of units of measurement have played

315-424: A quantity may be described as multiples of that of a familiar entity, which can be easier to contextualize than a value in a formal unit system. For instance, a publication may describe an area in a foreign country as a number of multiples of the area of a region local to the readership. The propensity for certain concepts to be used frequently can give rise to loosely defined "systems" of units. For most quantities

360-496: A result, units of measure could vary not only from location to location but from person to person. Units not based on the human body could be based on agriculture, as is the case with the furlong and the acre , both based on the amount of land able to be worked by a team of oxen . Metric systems of units have evolved since the adoption of the original metric system in France in 1791. The current international standard metric system

405-400: A small set of units is required. These units are taken as the base units and the other units are derived units . Thus base units are the units of the quantities which are independent of other quantities and they are the units of length, mass, time, electric current, temperature, luminous intensity and the amount of substance. Derived units are the units of the quantities which are derived from

450-433: A unit is necessary to communicate values of that physical quantity. For example, conveying to someone a particular length without using some sort of unit is impossible, because a length cannot be described without a reference used to make sense of the value given. But not all quantities require a unit of their own. Using physical laws, units of quantities can be expressed as combinations of units of other quantities. Thus only

495-445: Is also the most expensive. Cargo is exchanged between different modes of transportation via transport hubs , also known as transport interchanges or Nodes (e.g. train stations, airports, etc.). Cargo is shipped under a single contract but performed using at least two different modes of transport (e.g. ground and air). Cargo may not be containerized. Multimodal transport featuring containerized cargo (or intermodal container ) that

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540-485: Is central to the scientific method . A standard system of units facilitates this. Scientific systems of units are a refinement of the concept of weights and measures historically developed for commercial purposes. Science , medicine , and engineering often use larger and smaller units of measurement than those used in everyday life. The judicious selection of the units of measurement can aid researchers in problem solving (see, for example, dimensional analysis ). In

585-479: Is commonly measured in twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs), rather than cargo weight, e.g. a TEU-km would be the equivalent of one twenty-foot container transported one kilometer. Transportation density can be defined as the payload per period, say passenger / day or tonne / day. This can be used as the measure of intensity of the transportation on a particular section or point of transportation infrastructure, say road or railway. This can be used in comparison with

630-562: Is easily transferred between ship, rail, plane and truck. For example, a shipper works together with both ground and air transportation to ship an item overseas. Intermodal freight transport is used to plan the route and carry out the shipping service from the manufacturer to the door of the recipient. The Incoterms (or International Commercial Terms) published by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) are accepted by governments, legal authorities, and practitioners worldwide for

675-409: Is expressed as the product of a numerical value { Z } (a pure number) and a unit [ Z ]: For example, let Z {\displaystyle Z} be "2 metres"; then, { Z } = 2 {\displaystyle \{Z\}=2} is the numerical value and [ Z ] = m e t r e {\displaystyle [Z]=\mathrm {metre} } is the unit. Conversely,

720-491: Is more favorable. Freight is measured in mass-distance . A simple unit of freight is the kilogram-kilometre (kgkm), the service of moving one kilogram of payload a distance of one kilometre. The metric units (pkm and tkm) are used internationally. (In aviation where United States customary units are widely used, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) releases its statistics in

765-464: Is now defined as exactly 0.0254  m , and the US and imperial avoirdupois pound is now defined as exactly 0.453 592 37   kg . While the above systems of units are based on arbitrary unit values, formalised as standards, natural units in physics are based on physical principle or are selected to make physical equations easier to work with. For example, atomic units (au) were designed to simplify

810-416: Is required to take the cargo from its place of origin to the airport or seaport and then to its destination because it is not always possible to establish a production facility near ports due to the limited coastlines of countries. Much freight transport is done by cargo ships . An individual nation's fleet and the people that crew it are referred to as its merchant navy or merchant marine. According to

855-469: Is tasked with ensuring worldwide uniformity of measurements and their traceability to the International System of Units (SI). Metrology is the science of developing nationally and internationally accepted units of measurement. In physics and metrology, units are standards for measurement of physical quantities that need clear definitions to be useful. Reproducibility of experimental results

900-480: Is the International System of Units (abbreviated to SI). An important feature of modern systems is standardization . Each unit has a universally recognized size. Both the imperial units and US customary units derive from earlier English units . Imperial units were mostly used in the British Commonwealth and the former British Empire . US customary units are still the main system of measurement used in

945-503: Is the conversion of the unit of measurement in which a quantity is expressed, typically through a multiplicative conversion factor that changes the unit without changing the quantity. This is also often loosely taken to include replacement of a quantity with a corresponding quantity that describes the same physical property. One example of the importance of agreed units is the failure of the NASA Mars Climate Orbiter , which

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990-856: The 4th and 3rd millennia BC among the ancient peoples of Mesopotamia , Egypt and the Indus Valley , and perhaps also Elam in Persia as well. Weights and measures are mentioned in the Bible (Leviticus 19:35–36). It is a commandment to be honest and have fair measures. In the Magna Carta of 1215 (The Great Charter) with the seal of King John , put before him by the Barons of England, King John agreed in Clause 35 "There shall be one measure of wine throughout our whole realm, and one measure of ale and one measure of corn—namely,

1035-477: The United States outside of science, medicine, many sectors of industry, and some of government and military, and despite Congress having legally authorised metric measure on 28 July 1866. Some steps towards US metrication have been made, particularly the redefinition of basic US and imperial units to derive exactly from SI units. Since the international yard and pound agreement of 1959 the US and imperial inch

1080-401: The metric system , the imperial system , and United States customary units . Historically many of the systems of measurement which had been in use were to some extent based on the dimensions of the human body. Such units, which may be called anthropic units , include the cubit , based on the length of the forearm; the pace , based on the length of a stride; and the foot and hand . As

1125-553: The social sciences , there are no standard units of measurement. A unit of measurement is a standardized quantity of a physical property, used as a factor to express occurring quantities of that property. Units of measurement were among the earliest tools invented by humans. Primitive societies needed rudimentary measures for many tasks: constructing dwellings of an appropriate size and shape, fashioning clothing, or bartering food or raw materials. The earliest known uniform systems of measurement seem to have all been created sometime in

1170-436: The unit of measurement used to express various transportation quantities , as used in statistics, planning, and their related applications. The currently popular units are: Passenger-distance is the distance (km or miles) travelled by passengers on transit vehicles ; determined by multiplying the number of unlinked passenger trips by the average length of their trips. Passengers per hour per direction (pphpd) measures

1215-603: The London quart;—and one width of dyed and russet and hauberk cloths—namely, two ells below the selvage..." As of the 21st century, the International System is predominantly used in the world. There exist other unit systems which are used in many places such as the United States Customary System and the Imperial System. The United States is the only industrialized country that has not yet at least mostly converted to

1260-809: The Minnesota Department of Public Safety, Office of Traffic Safety Volume of traffic, or vehicle miles traveled (VMT), is a predictor of crash incidence. All other things being equal, as VMT increases, so will traffic crashes. The relationship may not be simple, however; after a point, increasing congestion leads to reduced speeds, hanging the proportion of crashes that occur at different severity levels. Energy efficiency in transport can be measured in L/100 ;km or miles per gallon (mpg). This can be normalized per vehicle, as in fuel economy in automobiles , or per seat, as for example in fuel economy in aircraft . MacNeal 1994 discusses

1305-515: The United States, the unit is used as an aggregate in yearly federal publications, while its usage is more sporadic in other countries. For instance, it appears to compare different kind of roads in some publications as it had been computed on a five-year period between 1995 and 2000. In the United States, it is computed per 100 million miles traveled, while internationally it is computed in 100 million or 1 billion kilometers traveled. According to

1350-414: The base quantities and some of the derived units are the units of speed, work, acceleration, energy, pressure etc. Different systems of units are based on different choices of a set of related units including fundamental and derived units. Following ISO 80000-1 , any value or magnitude of a physical quantity is expressed as a comparison to a unit of that quantity. The value of a physical quantity Z

1395-407: The construction, running costs of the infrastructure. Fatalities by VMT ( vehicle miles traveled ) is a unit for assessing road traffic fatalities. This metric is computed by dividing the fatalities by the estimated VMT. Usually, transport risk is computed by reference to the distance traveled by people, while for road traffic risk, only vehicle traveled distance is usually taken into account. In

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1440-500: The crew confusing tower instructions (in metres) and altimeter readings (in feet). Three crew and five people on the ground were killed. Thirty-seven were injured. In 1983, a Boeing 767 (which thanks to its pilot's gliding skills landed safely and became known as the Gimli Glider ) ran out of fuel in mid-flight because of two mistakes in figuring the fuel supply of Air Canada 's first aircraft to use metric measurements. This accident

1485-468: The different systems include the centimetre–gram–second , foot–pound–second , metre–kilogram–second systems, and the International System of Units , SI. Among the different systems of units used in the world, the most widely used and internationally accepted one is SI. The base SI units are the second, metre, kilogram, ampere, kelvin, mole and candela; all other SI units are derived from these base units. Systems of measurement in modern use include

1530-512: The domestic or international shipment of cargo from the point of origin (POI) to the destination while generally remaining on the same piece of equipment and avoiding multiple transactions, trans-loading, and cross-docking without interim storage. International DTD is a service provided by many international shipping companies and may feature intermodal freight transport using containerized cargo . The quoted price of this service includes all shipping, handling, import and customs duties, making it

1575-432: The history of this topic, exploring such units and how humans developed the current state of logically recognizing and naming them. Unit of measurement A unit of measurement , or unit of measure , is a definite magnitude of a quantity , defined and adopted by convention or by law, that is used as a standard for measurement of the same kind of quantity . Any other quantity of that kind can be expressed as

1620-457: The interpretation of the most commonly used terms in international trade. Common terms include: The term "best way" generally implies that the shipper will choose the carrier that offers the lowest rate (to the shipper) for the shipment. In some cases, however, other factors, such as better insurance or faster transit time, will cause the shipper to choose an option other than the lowest bidder. Door-to-door ( DTD or D2D ) shipping refers to

1665-439: The maximum route capacity of a transport system. A system may carry a high number of passengers per distance (km or mile) but a relatively low number of passengers per bus hour if vehicles operate in congested areas and thus travel at slower speed. A transit system serving a community with a widely dispersed population must operate circuitous routes that tend to carry fewer passengers per distance (km or mile). A higher number

1710-608: The metric system. The systematic effort to develop a universally acceptable system of units dates back to 1790 when the French National Assembly charged the French Academy of Sciences to come up such a unit system. This system was the precursor to the metric system which was quickly developed in France but did not take on universal acceptance until 1875 when The Metric Convention Treaty was signed by 17 nations. After this treaty

1755-426: The metric units.) In the US, sometimes United States customary units are used. The dimension of the measure is the product of the payload mass and the distance transported. A semi truck traveling from Los Angeles to Chicago (approximate distance 2,015 miles) carrying 14 short tons of cargo delivers a service of 14 * 2,015 = 28,210 ton-miles of freight (equal to about 41,187 tkm). Intermodal container traffic

1800-425: The numerical value expressed in an arbitrary unit can be obtained as: Units can only be added or subtracted if they are the same type; however units can always be multiplied or divided, as George Gamow used to explain. Let Z {\displaystyle Z} be "2 metres" and W {\displaystyle W} "3 seconds", then There are certain rules that apply to units: Conversion of units

1845-434: The same unit for the distance between two cities and the length of a needle. Thus, historically they would develop independently. One way to make large numbers or small fractions easier to read, is to use unit prefixes . At some point in time though, the need to relate the two units might arise, and consequently the need to choose one unit as defining the other or vice versa. For example, an inch could be defined in terms of

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1890-515: The wave equation in atomic physics . Some unusual and non-standard units may be encountered in sciences. These may include the solar mass ( 2 × 10  kg ), the megaton (the energy released by detonating one million tons of trinitrotoluene , TNT) and the electronvolt . To reduce the incidence of retail fraud, many national statutes have standard definitions of weights and measures that may be used (hence " statute measure "), and these are verified by legal officers. In informal settings,

1935-453: Was accidentally destroyed on a mission to Mars in September 1999 (instead of entering orbit) due to miscommunications about the value of forces: different computer programs used different units of measurement ( newton versus pound force ). Considerable amounts of effort, time, and money were wasted. On 15 April 1999, Korean Air cargo flight 6316 from Shanghai to Seoul was lost due to

1980-519: Was signed, a General Conference of Weights and Measures (CGPM) was established. The CGPM produced the current SI, which was adopted in 1954 at the 10th Conference of Weights and Measures. Currently, the United States is a dual-system society which uses both the SI and the US Customary system. The use of a single unit of measurement for some quantity has obvious drawbacks. For example, it is impractical to use

2025-549: Was the result of both confusion due to the simultaneous use of metric and Imperial measures and confusion of mass and volume measures. When planning his journey across the Atlantic Ocean in the 1480s, Columbus mistakenly assumed that the mile referred to in the Arabic estimate of ⁠56 + 2 / 3 ⁠ miles for the size of a degree was the same as the actually much shorter Italian mile of 1,480 metres. His estimate for

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