Limitations of the multimodal transport cost-model
The choices of multimodal transport combinations are based on factors others
than just transportation costs, which are directly related to transit time, distance, and intermodal transfer. Other issues such as the nature of freight, cargo value-density, marketing strategy, stockholding policy, risk of damage
and pilferage, packing requirement, security, etc., can be at least as important. These issues need to be assessed and balanced with direct cost components in
order to find the most appropriate multimodal transport combination for a
particular commodity. It is acknowledged that analytical models, such as this
multimodal transport cost-model, are based on some simplified assumptions. Nevertheless, this model can be helpful to the transport decision maker in the
selection of routes and modes