Modes of Transportation

How to choose the appropriate mode of transportation for your operation?

Defining the mode of transportation must take into account factors such as urgency, safety, and cargo packaging conditions.

Air Modal: known for its great agility, air transport is indicated for the fast transport of goods. This modal is considered the safest, as there is little handling of the cargo, on the other hand the cost is high compared to other modes.

Maritime modal: the maritime modal is known for its cost-effectiveness, it transports large amounts of goods, however the transit time is longer than the air one.

Road modal: the road modal is the most used in Brazil, ideal for short and medium distances.

Rail Modal: the rail modal is little explored in Brazil, but companies and professionals are hoping for the improvement of the infrastructure and greater incentives in this modal.

Cabotage: Cabotage is the maritime transport between national ports without losing sight of the coast. Recently, the BR do Mar Project was launched aiming to promote this modal.

Bill of Lading and modes of transportation:

The Bill of Lading is the main document that demonstrates the transport of the cargo, which means it contains all the data of the merchandise, its origin, destination, exporter and importer data, and details of the operation, such as INCOTERMS, modal, Mercosur Common Nomenclature and a complete description of the merchandise, type of package and how it is packaged.

It is extremely important that the information contained in this document is 100% correct, because in addition to its legal value, this document is still the basis of the Merchant CE and therefore of the Import Declaration.

For each mode of transport there is a Bill of Lading:

  • Air – AWB (Airway Bill); MAWB (Master Airway Bill); HAWB (House Airway Bill).
  • Maritime – BL (Bill of Lading); HBL (House Bill of Lading); MBL (Master Bill of Lading).
  • Road: CRT (Road Transport Certificate)
  • Multimodal: (Through Bill of Lading)
  • Rail: TIF (Railway Cargo Certificate)