Advantages And Disadvantages Of Ocean Freight

Ocean freight is one of the best ways of transporting goods to places around the world. Oceans cover most of the landmass of our planet because of which they provide people with a easy mode of transportation. During the industrial age, ocean freight was the only means of transportation used by the industrialized countries such as England and France. With the advancement of technology, planes started being used to transport goods as they offer people with a faster mode of transporter. Despite the popularity of projects as a means of transportation, the demand for ocean freight has not decreased.

Advantages

The various advantages of ocean freight are as follows:

1. Cost-effective - compared to air freight, ocean freight services of not cost a lot of money. They offer companies with a cost-effective means of shipping all kinds of products. Companies need to make sure that they do not spend a lot of money in shipping the goods they manufacture or export, so that they can reduce their cost of operation. By opting for transportation through ships, they can save a lot of money and reduce their operational cost in the process. This helps them to sell their products to the end-users at very affordable prices, providing them with an edge over their competitors.

2. Ideal for heavy goods - companies that import heavy goods such as automobiles, industrial parts, machineries etc. will not be able to use the services of air freight services as airplanes can not transport such heavy goods. Even if they do, the cost of transportation will be too high and outside the budget for many businesses. This is why, business organizations opt for shipping heavy goods through ocean freight as ships are capable of carrying all kinds of heavy objects. Beside, they will not have to spend a lot of money in the process as well.

3. Environment Friendly - airplanes consume a lot of fuel and in the process, they leave a very large carbon footprint, which is very harmful to the environment. Carbon emission leads to increase in temperature of our planet and disruptions its ecological balance. Ships on the other hand, leave a very small carbon footprint as they do not consume a lot of fuel, in comparison to airplanes. They are very environment friendly and offer companies with an opportunity to transport all kinds of goods, without causing minimum harm to the environment. This helps business organizations to improve their brand image.

Disadvantages

The largest disadvantage of ocean freight is the time taken to ship the products. Many times, business organizations need to provide faster delivery to their clients and during those times, they need to opt for transportation through airplanes as it is the faster than ocean freight. These days, the threat of ships coming under attack by pirates is very high and when the pirates attach cargo ships, they steal the products being transported, resulting in a loss to the companies which use ocean freight for shipping and transportation of goods.