Transportation forms an important part of our society. We need to move things from one place to another. Over time, transportation has evolved and made the movement of people and goods easier. Now resources are flown to far off destinations by air. People hire ground vehicles for short-distance transport. Resources can be either humans or goods, both need transportation equally. To travel overseas, there are ships. This way, there are different modes of transportation connecting people, cities, businesses and countries.
It’s not that road, rail, air and water transportation were not there 20 or 30 years back, But, its use and functionality have improved over the decades. Like our body requires transporting blood to different parts in order to function well, society requires good transportation to work well.
Importance of Transportation
People need to reach work and also get back home on time every day. They need to travel a specific distance daily for work. Similarly, there are resources like goods and materials that need to be transported to other places and people for their use. So, now you know how important transportation is in our daily lives.
This blog focuses on explaining the importance of transportation. We have divided the blog into two sections. The first part focuses on the overall explanation of how transport helps in movement or people, resources, etc. In the next part, we have discussed the detailed benefits of transportation in various fields like economics politics, etc.
Movement of People
The most basic need of transportation is for people to move from one place to another. They don’t necessarily work at places that are within walking distance from their homes. Labor needs to reach the site on time. A banker needs to reach the bank on time. In the same way, people leave their houses every day for work or other personal reasons, for which they need transportation facilities. Some people even need to travel to neighboring towns or cities to work every day!
So, transportation is required so they can to the destination on time. Like going to work on time and getting back home in the evening to their family on time. It is not just these professional needs that demand transport facilities, but we do travel for recreational trips or various other travel expeditions once in a while. This also requires a good transportation facility.
If not through transportation, it would take days for us to travel from one place to another on our own. With transport facilities, things get easier and we can easily cover long distances in lesser time. We have been indulged talking about working individuals so much that we forgot about the students in society. They also need to go to schools and colleges. Distances within the cities can easily be covered by cabs and taxis, which has been easier to hire through their mobile applications, As aforesaid, transportation has evolved in these modern times!
Movement of resources/goods
Not just us, humans, but goods also require transportation. Materials such as cement, bricks, sand, etc are used at construction sites. Offices require electronic devices, paper and other materials. These resources are important for their smooth functioning and it needs to be transported to them on time. For this, transportation is essential. If these resources do not reach the sites on time, it would get difficult for people to work successfully. Their normal day routine will be hampered.
Another important thing to note is the food that we eat. We eat at least three times a day and we hardly care about the level of effort and resources put in to bring the food to our table. The ingredients are grown on a farm, processed in an industry and then supplied to stores for sale. For each stage of the process, they need transportation. In the same way, the clothes you wear are also made from different materials. These materials are produced in one place (mostly collected from an animal or crops), transported to a textile factory or mill for preparing clothes.
The clothes are then bought by different brands and they stitch or design then in their own way to sell at their stores. Do you think all these stages of production, e it food or clothes, would be possible without transportation?
Influence on the economy
As we have talked about people and resources being moved from one place to another through transportation, let us now throw some light on its effect on a country’s economy. Transportation is a crucial mode that contributes to a country’s economy. For the smooth running of a country, it is important to have a smooth transportation system. When goods and people are moved from one place to another, a lot of resources are utilized. Transportation requires vehicles and fuel, which needs investment. All these resources should be utilized in a proper way to balance the economy of a country.
For a country to be managed properly, a good amount of money should be invested in transportation and infrastructure. It helps industries to generate higher revenue that boosts a country’s economy. It is a complete cycle – better transportation leads to a better economy and a better economy leads to better transportation. Businesses are also quite dependent on transportation.
In these hard times of Coronavirus attack, as all the major countries went into lockdown, there is drastic downfall in their economy. And, one of the main reasons was no transportation.
Opportunities for employment
As transportation is now integrated with technology efficiently, it has created a lot of employment opportunities for people. They now use apps like Uber, Careem, Ola (in India) and similar applications to work. So, you own a vehicle but do not often use it? People can register it with transportation facilities and help people reach their destinations. You will have a daily income if you have a two-wheeler or four-wheeler but do not employ. You can drive people from one place to another and get a good commission from the transportation company.
Both employed and unemployed people can use transportation as a means of making money. Though in a little indirect manner, transportation has helped people get job opportunities other than vehicle drivers. Big companies hire people to maintain records of their drivers and transportation. Similarly, airports have their own transportation facilities to take passengers from one terminal to another. In such cases, they hire people to manage these records, giving them an opportunity to have a fixed income.
So, if you are finding it difficult to make ends meet in these modern times, you can use these transportation app facilities to make money. Register your car with Uber, Careem or Ola; hire a driver if you do not wish to drive and help people travel from one destination to another. It will bring you a good amount of money every month.
Benefits of Transportation
In this section, we have distributed the topic into three main areas of a country that largely depends upon an effective system of transport. Read on.
Economic Benefits
Let’s begin with how good transport facilities affects the economy.
Extensive market
Transportation supports in assembling raw materials and distributing finished goods. It enables the movement of goods from one place to another – from the production spot to the place where it will be consumed. Earlier, we only had local markets due to a lack of safe transport facilities. Thankfully, now trade does not have confined boundaries of cities or a nation but is possible across the world.
And, all this has been possible with efficient transportation facilities. Transportation has connected nations into building an extensive market. Even perishable items like meat, dairy products, fish, etc. are transported to and from distant places across the world. Such development in commerce and trade would never have been possible if not for good transportation worldwide.
Mobility of Capital and Labor
Transport minimizes the rigors of immobility of specific production factors. Mobility of capital and labor increases with the developing transport facilities. When there’s a network of efficient transport services, it encourages the movement of goods and people from one place to another.
Imagine, laborers can migrate from one place to another for better job opportunities. This in turn, reduces the exploitation of site workers. It won’t be wrong to say that the United States and Australia would not be able to develop to this extent without the immigrations from Europe. With developing transport facilities, capital investment has also channelized to new lands and different other places across the world.
Specialization and Division of Labor
Transport helps a country and region to plan optimum and efficient use of their natural resources. Each region can focus on producing goods for which they have suitable resources. In this way, the movement of people and goods from a place to another results in division and specialization of labor. It leads to a reduced production cost and minimum wastage of resources.
Economies of large scale production
Not just small scale businesses, but large scale industries also move towards development with better transport services. If not with transportation, large-scale industries would not have been able to gather a huge number of workers, procure raw materials and sell the goods.
Thus, we can say that transport makes it possible for big production companies to expand their economies with low cost of production, boosting the overall economy of the country.
Stability in Prices
Transport facilities help reducing wild fluctuations. People can transport goods to places that have scarcity and high prices from places that are surplus amount at low prices. This kind of movement of goods helps in maintaining uniform prices throughout the country and further tends to equalize the prices of goods throughout the world.
Perks to consumer
When there is improved means of transport, consumers are at the end of the benefit. The consumers can enjoy using different goods that are otherwise not available at their place, by getting those goods transported from far off places. This also reduces the production costs of goods for consumers and boosts their buying power.
Boost in employment opportunities and an increase in national income
The evolution of transportation into various means have offered employment to millions of individuals living across the world. It is also a reason behind the improvement in the economic development of a country, as we have discussed in our first section, how modern cab and taxi facilities provide job opportunities to the unemployed. So, it won’t be wrong saying, transportation has contributed substantially to the national income of the major developing countries.
Not encouraging monopoly
With developing transport services, the scope of multiple income sources has expanded. Considering how commodities can be easily transported from one place to another, local producers now don’t charge prices as per their convenience. This has stopped encouraging monopoly and has encouraged competition.
Agriculture development
Transport has helped a lot in agriculture development in the last few years. As an efficient means of transport is now possible, there is an increase in agricultural business to a large extent. Now, it is possible to produce crops and cultivate land in a better and easier way with modern agricultural techniques, fertilizers, etc. and, all this is happening with enhanced transport facilities being the core reason.
Industrial development
Transport is one of the factors facilitating the industrial development of a country. It helps in the growth of small, medium and large-scale industries by making the production of goods available for them at lower costs. In the modern world with improved transport facilities, setting up an industry is not as difficult as it was years ago.
Social Benefits
Not just the economy of countries, transportation has benefitted in influencing people’s lifestyles as well. Keep reading to know in what ways.
Discovery of new lands
Imagine, if there was no means of transportation, how would you explore new places? Will you be able to travel to a foreign country within hours? No. Discovering new lands and exploring beauty across the world is only possible because of the convenience of transportation. This has also led to the growth of urban areas and cities. With the availability of cheap long-distance transport facilities, the land has been utilized for the maximum benefit of people across the world. Even people have started using wastelands today! This way, the value of land is also increased over the years. Especially, the value of land located close to a railway station, on the roadside or by the bus stand has increased manifold.
Higher living standards
As discussed earlier in the blog, transport facilities facilitate production increase, which in turn, raises the living standards of people. Only because of transport, the 5 M’s – Men, Material, Machinery, Management and Money, can come together at the place of production. This is why industries depend upon transportation.
Diffusion of population
It minimizes the concentration of population in the production area as people can easily travel to reach even from distant places with efficient transport systems in the area, region or city.
Strength to face natural calamities
Transportation has helped society to face and deal with natural disasters such as floods, earthquakes, famine, drought, etc. In emergencies like these, transporting necessary commodities faster to the affected area is now possible.
Mutual understanding
It eliminates the problem of long-distance – helps individuals of different areas to come together, promotes co-operation, encourages the exchange of culture and ideas, understanding cordial relations, etc. among people belonging to different parts of the world.
Reduces ignorance
Easy and faster transportation facilities remove prejudices, promote culture and destroys ignorance in the society. It allows spreading knowledge and becomes the cause of education.
Broadens individual outlook
As transport facilities allow mutual understanding among the people of the world, it also broadens their outlook and brings nations together in times of need.
Political benefits
There’s also a political significance of efficient transportation.
National integration, peace, unity
Transportation helps in balancing national unity and the internal peace of a country. It motivates national integration. In a country as large as India or the United States, people are held together with the convenience of an effective transport system.
Not only this, transport also facilitates political and economic interdependence by encouraging division and specialization of labor. It strengthens the need for national integration and unity.
Political awakening
With convenient and balanced transport facilities, the chances of political awakening in people and in the growth of civilization.
National defense
Without transportation, a strong national defense in a country is not possible. During the times of war, the movement of defense personnel, equipment and material is only possible with good transportation facilities. All these resources can reach the border areas within no time today, all because of improved transportation.
Revenue source
As transportation boosts national wealth, it becomes the revenue source for the central government of a country.
In a Nutshell
An efficient system of transport is important in society, considering all the vital aspects. For the movement of people, movement of goods, resources, etc., we need transportation. The importance of transportation is not generally understood, but when we ponder over the modern facilities we have got, it shows that all of these are possible because of the convenient transportation system.
Be it encouraging industrial development, offering employment opportunities or contributing to the national wealth, we are indebted to our transport facilities in many ways. Without transportation, we would miss a lot of experiences. The travelers won’t know the excitement and value of exploring new destinations, the cities won’t see much development and a country’s economy will also not develop at a steady rate.
And all these things are essential for a happy living. Thanks to the transportation facilities we have across the world that connects different cultures, occupations and expands the scope of development of countries.
