Good Example Of Essay On Rwanda Transportation

Rwanda is one of the countries in Africa with well-developed transport network. It has numerous transport networks some of them being Roads, air freight transportation and Ports. Road network remains the commonly used mode of transport in Rwanda. Most of its areas such as major cities and towns in Rwanda are connected using roads. Road transport in Rwanda can be categorized into national and international. National refers to the main form of public road transport in Rwanda which uses share taxi such as stopping and express taxis. On the other hand, international road transport in Rwanda links it with other destinations most in the African Great lakes. Outstanding examples are the coaches which operate between Kigali and Kampala in Uganda and also Nairobi in Kenya.
Road transport supports 70% of commerce in Rwanda with many using road freight for commerce purposes. In addition, road freight has created many jobs in the country hence contributes much to the country’s GDP. Road transport is subject to various policies which affects its functionality. The main regulation controlling the operation of road freight includes rates, licenses and competition relations. In addition, the country provides the road users with time frame for using road services. It is also concerned with quality service of the road freight in order to enhance transit time and reliability. Besides, it is also concerned with service frequency, required capacity, communications and freight rates. The main competitors of road freight in Rwanda include rail, water and air transport. The degree of competitiveness is subject to logistics. In this case, logistics entails the management of goods, information between the terminals covered by the road transport (Parker 2006, 188).

Air Freight Transportation

In most cases, Air transport is suitable for time sensitive deliveries. It is a bit expensive as compared to other slower modes of transport. Rwanda has a main air gateway is Kigali International Airport which is 10km from Kigali city. The main destinations covered by the airport include Amsterdam, Dubai, Addis Ababa, Johannesburg, Lagos and Nairobi among many others. Air transport freight is not well pronounced in Rwanda implying that very few use air transport mode. Just as the road transport, air transport has also various policies that govern its operations. Some of the policies pronounced in the air transport include safety oversight, legal framework, infrastructure development and custom services among many others (Gray 2012, 64).

Ports

Use of ports in Rwanda is not well pronounced. However, the country is also connected to various lake ports namely Cyangungu, Kibuye and Gisenyi. Lake Kivu is the largest Rwandan lake that borders DRC. The main media used in the Rwandan lakes is boats which are mostly used by the country’s navy to protect the country and fishermen while fishing. Ideally, most local fishermen are the common users.
For Rwanda to manage the intermodal transportation system there is a great need to focus on various factors that determine the suitable mode. The first factor to help in determining the transporting mode to apply is the urgency and sensitivity of the items being transported. Rail, road and water transport in Rwanda remain very slow and thus it is only air transport that can be used to transport very sensitive and urgent items. In addition, the country should also focus on the volume of the items to be transported and the distance to be covered. In such as case, large volume of items requires use of rail and road (Cranic and Kap 2010, 234).

Bibliography

A Report on the International Transportation Bottlenecks Affecting Rwanda and Burundi. Washington, D.C.: World Bank, 1980.
Crainic, Teodor Gabriel, and Kap Hwan Kim. Intermodal Transportation, 2010.
Gray, Leon, and Ian Graham. Transportation. New York: DK Pub., 2012.
Parker, Philip M. The 2007-2012 World Outlook for Transportation Services. San Diego, CA: ICON Group, 2006.