Cost Freight transport cost depends on whether transport is realized by the shipper, or entrusted to a carrier. In the former case, the cost is given by the sum of costs associated with the depreciation, maintenance and insurance of the vehicles (owned or hired), crews’ wages, fuel consumption, loading, unloading and transshipment operations, administration and use of vehicle depots. Moreover, there can be additional costs which depend on the specific mode of transport: for example, maritime or fluvial shipping leads to port mooring charges, port costs (agencies and piloting), canal transit cost and so on. Some of the costs depend only on transport time (e.g. the cost of insurance of owned vehicles), and others depend only on the distance covered (e.g. fuel consumption); still others are dependent both on time and on distance (e.g. vehicle depreciation costs), whereas other costs (such as administration) are customarily allocated as a fixed annual charge.