The impacts of globalization on international road and rail freight transport activity
Overcoming space in a global economy requires a substantial amount of energy and has consequently been subject to massive economies of scale.
The less energy costs per ton or passenger – kilometer, the less transfers are an economic burden. It aims to attenuate the spatial inequalities in the location of resources by overcoming distance. Energy is the potential that allows the mobility of passengers and freight from one location to another. Since the industrial revolution, work related to processing resources was considerably mechanized, initially with simple machines, then assembly lines, and currently with automation. Concerns the modification of products from the biomass, of raw materials and of goods to manufacture according to economic needs. It also includes the disposal of wastes, which are in an advanced industrial society very work-intensive to dispose of safely (e.g. Involves the extraction of agricultural resources from the biomass and raw materials (minerals, oil, lumber, etc.) for human needs. All the activities involved in making space suitable for human activities, like clearing land for agriculture, modifying the hydrography (irrigation), and establishing distribution infrastructures, as well as constructing and conditioning (temperature and light) enclosed structures. There are four types of physical work related to human activities: Thus, the more energy consumed, the greater the amount of work realized, and it comes as no surprise that economic development is correlated with higher levels of energy consumption.
The energy content (or energy density) of an energy source is the available energy per unit of weight or volume, but the challenge is to extract and use this energy effectively. Human activities are dependent on the usage of several forms and sources of energy to perform work. Transportation activities are significant energy consumers, providing mobility to passengers and freight, which accounts for about 25% of world energy use.