97 2015 ability and frequency is a disadvantage. The Director of the NTC & Logistics mentions other variables: “For being slower and requiring higher volumes, rail transport requires higher stocks, increasing warehouse and storage costs”. He ends this comparison saying that the truck has the advantage in relation to railways in all of the requirements, except for minor security issues and capacity. It does not mean that train is infeasible in cargo transport, however, in order to be competitive, a businessman in this sector has to focus on specific niches. “Your ideal product is the low-value one, high volumes and long distances,” says Neuto. To specify the goods he mentions agricultural products, petroleum products, alcohol and others. “As for high added value industrial loads, trucks will continue to be the most widely mean used,” according to Neuto. Vincent Abate disagrees on this opinion; he thinks that the critical factor to define whether transport must occur by a particular modal is not the product or the value of the load. “From an economic point of view it makes no sense to use truck to transport goods by two thousand kilometres if there is a train covering the same route”, he affirms. “Besides that, the wagon load capacity is up to 128 tons on average, twice the capacity of an extra-heavy duty truck, the train is free of some costs, such as tolls”. He insists that the selection criteria should be the distance and suggests: up to 500 km, one should opt for road; longer distances till 1.000 km, rail; for longer distance, ship transport, especially on rivers. Regarding the percentage, the President of Abifer believes that the ideal framework can be found in United States, where cargo transportation is divided as follows: 35% by road; 35% by rail; 25% by water and 5% by aircraft. Nonetheless, he explains that this operation will depend on infrastructure of each mean. However, the director of the NTC&Logística believes that road transport can be more competitive, and he mentions the awful conditions of the roads emphasize how our system can be more efficient and reduce costs. “Brazil is still very poorly developed in terms of paved roads, for only 212 thousand kilometres – out of a total of 1.6 million km – are paved. Furthermore, 63% of these roads are in terrible, bad or regular conditions.” Truck is irreplaceable Regardless of competition between these systems, our interviewees agree that truck & implement sales will not be affected by the progress of other systems. Another factor that contributes to the necessity of trucks is the prohibition of cargo trains passing through medium and big urban centres. “This is true. Just like Belo Horizonte (MG), other municipalities will have railway routes for respective loading and unloading areas out of urban boundaries. The product transport from the train station to the shopping areas shall be made by small and midsize trucks,” says Vincent Abate. Neuto also says that vehicle and implement manufactures should not be worried of losing market with laws which ban the traffic of heavy and extra-heavy duty vehicles in major urban areas. He ensures that this measure does not affect the road transport, for transfer can still be made by heavy duty vehicles while light vehicles can make the distribution. However, truck fleet owners, who are always watching out for new opportunities, also invest in other means of transportation. “A good example is the transport company Bertolini, which operates barges from Belém to Manaus,” concludes Neuto Gonçalves dos Reis. Transport modals used for cargo transport in Brazil and the United States Brazil United States Means % tku US$ 1000/tku % tku US$ 1000/tku Road 67 132 31 310 Rail 18 22 37 29 Water 11 30 10 10 Pipe 3 25 21 9 Air 0,04 1.060 0,3 1.107 Source: Ilos It should be noted that, if excluding ores (which account for 74% of rail freight), road transport would have an even greater share. In the United States, as well as in countries such as China, Russia, India and Canada, the non-road means prevail. But it is also noteworthy that our road cost is much lower than the United States’s.
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