4.1.2.3 Transportation
With farms normally having no direct access to rail terminals or inland ports, short distance
transports from farm to warehouse have to be performed by truck. Only a small part goes directly
to a factory for processing or to the export port. Long-distance transports from warehouse to
port are either realized by trucks or by intermodal transportation, which includes road and rail or
road and waterway transport. The cargo is shipped to the export port where it is first stored or
directly loaded onto the cargo ship. Operations within the port area are conducted either by the
port operator or by the concessionaire, which is in most cases a trading company (ANONYMOUS 2,
2012).
Road transportation
For shipping agricultural bulk goods, transport service providers commonly use a double trailer
truck with either seven or nine axles. ANTUNES (2012) asserted the use of the seven axle model
Bitrem (see figure 4.4). It has a net weight cargo of 37 t and a maximum gross weight of 57 tons.
Medium fuel efficiency was estimated at 0.5 l/km. The truck model with nine axles Rodotrem has
a maximum gross weight of 74 tons with net weight cargo of 50 t. Even though the capacity is
greater, it is less used because reception infrastructure in intermodal terminals is lacking and working hours during the day are legally restricted. Furthermore, complicated licensing procedures
for new registrations hinder the fleet owners to take advantage of the Rodotrem model
(JESUS, 2012; ANTUNES, 2012; ANONYMOUS 4, 2012).