Why is water transportation cheaper than land transportation?

Ships and trucks with the same power can drive different cargo capacities. Give a simple estimate. (Since it is an estimation, there must be a deviation from the actual value, which is definitely incorrect for quantitative analysis, but it should be possible for qualitative comparison.) Thank you for adding. The documentary "The Power of Combustion" tells the story of a 20000 TEU (assuming 40 feet) giant cargo ship with an engine power of 63800 kW, which is more powerful than 200 heavy-duty trucks. The conventional calculation for heavy trucks is based on 400 horsepower (1 horsepower=0.735kw), which is 294kw, less than 300kw. 294kw * 200<60000kw<63800kw, but all of them are approximately equivalent to 60000 kilowatts. 200 heavy trucks with a capacity of 200 TEUs. Similarly, with a capacity of approximately 60000 kW and a cargo ship of 20000 TEUs of the same power, the sea freight capacity is equal to the air freight capacity. Therefore, it can be seen that the cost of air freight, excluding taxes, personnel, and other costs, is about 100 times that of sea freight. There is a large proportion of cost factors with a difference of 100 times the power cost, and the impact of other cost factors on the total cost difference can be ignored.



Author: Qingqi Puts Abdominal Qi into Self Prosperity

Link: https://www.zhihu.com/question/29457053/answer/1969579928

Source: Zhihu

The copyright belongs to the author. For commercial reprints, please contact the author for authorization. For non commercial reprints, please indicate the source.