TRANSPORTATION MANAGEMENT. IN: HANDBOOK OF TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERING

Abstract

This chapter describes how previous research conducted by Pouliot (2002) indicates that transportation represents one of the most important human activities worldwide. Furthermore, he maintains that transportation is a multidimensional service that affects many aspects of daily life. While transportation is complex and multifaceted, it could be viewed as simply the movement between two or more points. According to Wood and Johnson (1996), transportation is the physical movement of people and goods between points. Therefore, transportation is a very broad, generic term and it consists of three major industries: air, water, and surface transportation. Wood and Johnson even include pipelines. Within these three major industries, different carrier modes are regarded as subindustries. One major subindustry is transit within the area of surface transportation. Within the transit subindustry there are many carrier modes, like local passenger transportation by means of buses, trolleys, light rail, and so on. Sometimes carrier modes such as ferry boats cross subindustries. Ferry boats fit within both water transportation and transit because they are usually orientated toward local passenger service. These differences in carrier modes foster unique industry characteristics such as public versus private ownership, degree of government regulation, type of organizational structure, degree of unionization, and organizational culture. To make meaningful generalizations about transportation management, it is often necessary to distinguish between industries within the industry.