Integrated Transportation Services

a means of conveying passengers and freight by more than one type of transport, for example, railroad, water, motor vehicle, air, and pipeline. Integrated transportation services are necessary when there is no direct connection between points of departure and arrival or when integrated services are more advantageous than a single type of transport.

In the USSR, integrated services have developed under a state plan, which establishes the size and weight of freights according to the most efficient use of each type of transport and the interaction of several types. Railroad transport in particular is often combined with motor vehicle, river, and sea transport.

Integrated services work most efficiently when a freight is hauled over an entire route with a single bill of lading and is loaded directly, for example, from a railroad car to a ship or motor vehicle, without intermediate storage. Container transport increases the efficiency of integrated services by reducing transportation and transshipment expenses.

The development of integrated transportation services has been facilitated by joining the rivers of different basins by way of high-capacity canals, building ships capable of operating on both rivers and seas, and establishing crossings for railroad and sea ferries, for example, the Krasnovodsk-Baku and Crimea-Caucasus crossings. It has also proved advantageous to correlate schedules of trains, ships, planes, and trucks and to adopt special rates for integrated transportation services, especially for freight shipped by rail and river transport.