Greatest volume of cargo in international trade is carried by sea transportation. This explains one of the important roles sea transportation plays in the world. Freight transportation by sea is a cheaper means by which people move their cargoes in large quantity from one nation to another. Industrial revolution becomes effective in a nation that has a well-developed marine transport. Indeed,
it’s a necessary complement to other modes of freight transportation and trading
activities.
However, ships can be classified by its propulsion and size. Below are the types of
ships in marine transportation:
1. Bulk Carriers: Like the name suggests, they are cargo ships used to carry large number of cargo. The main surface of the out-side floor of the ship is designed like a large box to carry cargoes.
2. Container Ships: Like the name suggests, it is used to carry large dry cargoes packaged into large standardized containers. To a large extent, most of these ships are moved by diesel engines.
3. Tankers: They are designed to carry liquid materials such as petroleum gas, crude oil, petroleum products, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), liquefied natural gas (LNG), chemicals, vegetable oil, wine and so on.
4. Refrigerated Ships: These are also cargo ships used to carry perishable items that need controlled temperature to preserve its freshness and such perishable items include: fruits, meat, fish, and vegetable among others.
5. Roll-on/roll- off ships: These ships are specially designed to carry dry cargoes like automobiles, trailers, railway carriages. The ships are designed with ramps that make it easy to roll in and roll out.
6. Coastal Trading Vessels: These are used for trading activities between different areas, nations and continents. They are usually small in size.
7. Ferries: These kinds of vessels are commonly used as public transport for people living in water-side areas; they are used to move passengers and their belongings such as any form of vehicles, luggage, and equipment, among others.
8. Cruise Ships: These are used mostly by tourism industries. They are ships used purposely for pleasure and people traveling in cruise ships are people traveling for recreation.
9. Ocean Liners: These are ships used to carry large number of people from one seaport to another on a long regular- distance planned at a certain time. They are also used to carry cargoes, mails and at times, they are used for any other purpose. Ocean liners normally are strong ships designed to resist rigorous conditions they are likely to face while on ocean.
10. Cable Layers: These are undersea or submarine built vessels purposely used to lay cables for telecommunications, electricity etc. below the surface of water.
11. Tug-boats: These boats are used to tow other boats or vessels.
12. Dredgers: They are ships usually used in a depth-less area of the sea that may affect smooth operations of the ship. These ships are designed to dig out and remove the materials that sink to the bottom of the sea.
13. Barges: They are flat-bottom boats usually used to move heavy cargoes on rivers and canals. It is important to note that most barges use tugboats or towboats to operate.
14. Multi-purpose ships: They are ships used to carry various items both in bulk and small quantities and at times, they are used to move heavy items. The modern ones are now designed to carry containers.
Sea transportation is the movement of goods and people from one place to another by sea or any other waterways. Hence, ship engineers, as it were, are people who run or in charge of the engine in a ship. They play major roles in ensuring a smooth sea transportation and preventing unwanted mechanical or technical faults by maintaining propulsion plants during operations. These, among others, explain indispensable obligations of ship engineers.
In addition, ship engineers also perform other functions such as maintaining the sewage, the lighting, the heating, the air conditioning, the lubrication, the ventilation, the propeller shafts and propellers, the refrigeration, the fabrication of engine parts for replacement e.g. bolts, valves etc., installing the engine controls, the electrical power generation plant as well as the water system in the ship.
Other duties include managing life-saving equipment, fuel management, boat management, safety management, fire-fighting, first aid, supervising loading and off-loading hazardous materials, monitoring working conditions of engines and any other equipment so as to know whether or not they are working properly and to identify any fault, as well as engaging in pollution prevention in line with the international regulations and nautical tasks.
However, there are different positions in ship engineering division generally for
British and US vessel. Here are the positions:
1. Chief Engineer: This post is in charge of engine department.
2. Second Engineer in US it’s called 1st Assistant Engineer: This post engages in daily operations of engine department.
3. Third Engineer in US it’s called 2nd Assistant Engineer: The position takes the responsibility of maintaining the auxiliary engines and boilers.
4. Fourth Engineer in Us it’s called 3rd Assistant Engineer: This engineer unit maintains the air compressors, purifiers, pumps and auxiliary machinery.
5. Electro-technical Officer (ETO): The officer in charge maintains electrical and electronics equipment like radars, VHF and so on.
6. Electrical Officer: The officer maintains only the electronics equipment.
7. Junior Engineer
8. Cadet
Technicians and craftsmen in ship engineer division
In ship engineer division, there are other regular skilled jobs which include:
a. Machinist or fitter: The person in charge fabricates and repairs machines.
b. Motorman: The person assists the engineer and also does menial jobs.
c. Oiler: The duty is to ensure that the machines are well lubricated.
d. Wiper: The duty is to keep the engine room clean and tidy.
Having considered the above enormous tasks of ship engineer division, it won’t be too much to say that the engineer division is indispensable in marine transportation. 
c. Light Truck
d. Medium Truck
e. Heavy Truck
f. Off Road Trucks
Trucks can also be classified according to the specific function of the body they carry.
1. Refrigerator truck: It is a truck with a device that is used to move fresh goods from one place to another. Such goods are frozen items which include: ice cream, food, and vegetables, among others.
2. Box truck: This is a cargo box-like container of a vehicle that is designed to carry goods. It’s often designed or structured in an enclosed box-shape with a door fitted at the back or the side of the truck purposely to load and to off-load cargo.
3. Concrete mixer: It is a truck with a container or body for mixing concrete by rotating in one direction in such a way that all particles therein follow the turning circle at a center point with a common velocity.
4. Dump truck: This is also known as a tipper in some English speaking countries. A dump truck is a truck with an open-box container at its back to carry loose materials like sand, gravel etc. It is also designed with elevation in front of the container to lift it up to a higher position to enable off-loading the contents through the rear fitted door.
5. Flatbed truck: This is a trailer having a flat surface to carry objects or cargo. It is the best vehicle in road transportation to carry both long and short containers from both seaport and railway stations to a desired location.
6. Semi-truck: This is a truck with a long trailer attached to the back of it.
7. Tank truck: This is also known as a tanker truck. It is designed to carry liquid materials such as: water, kerosene, petrol, diesel, among others. Some tank trucks are specially designed to carry gasses and any other hazardous and inflammable materials.
8. Tow truck: This is a truck used to tow away other vehicles that suddenly break down on the road probably due to a serious accident or a mechanical fault. Such trucks are designed with special equipment on its back to tow away stuck vehicles on our public roads.
9. Specialized heavy truck: This is also known as a heavy duty truck designed to be used for very difficult and intensive tasks such as carrying oversized equipment or objects.
10. Off-road heavy truck: This is also a very large truck designed specially to be operated away from the public roads.
picture showing traffic congestion. Source: chron.com
It is an undoubted fact that road transportation plays a notable role in nation building. A well-developed road transportation is a testimony and quality of a developed nation. An industry that has a fleet of vehicles operating within its community or city is a mark of a successful enterprise. In all ramifications, road transportation is important to individuals, an organization or an industry and to a
nation, at large.
In logistics, the importance of road transportation cannot be over-emphasized; an improper management of vehicle fleet has a great negative impact on logistics industry’s productivity as well as the customer service. Since customers are the life wire of any business, hence, poor customer service due to improper fleet management in an organization, a logistics industry or any transport service provider is a bid toward the extinction of such an organization.
Therefore, looking at the factors that can affect the smooth operation of vehicle fleet is a justification for this article. Hence, below are the factors:
1. Congestion: Unnecessary long delay due to traffic congestion will increase
travel time of a vehicle thereby causing a late delivery of goods.
2. Government Policy: Restrictions may be placed on particular trucks to ply a certain road.
3. Increase in Fuel Price: This may cause shortage of fuel thereby affecting the transport smooth operation. It can also increase the cost of transport, therefore, causing low patronage.
4. Poor Fleet Maintenance: This may cause a down-time and this will definitely affect transport operations.
5. Poor Communication: Good and effective communication leads to effective cooperation, understanding obligations and reduce unnecessary mistakes at the work-place. Poor communication, however, proves otherwise to these benefits. 
source: mccluskeychevrolet.com
Since April 2008, the United Kingdom Corporate Manslaughter Act was fully enforced on company directors and also the company’s drivers involving any company’s vehicle in any fatal road accident and any other vehicle used for business purposes. The police in the UK have stood their ground to handle any death records from road accident as ‘an unlawful killing’ and ready to deal with the offender or suspect.
The UK Police also have power to sue company directors who fail in their duties to provide frame work and guidance for their drivers to follow at work. It is interesting to note that even the private individual owned vehicles used for transportation business will also be dealt with in the same manner if they are involved in a road accident that causes the death of an innocent citizen. Nevertheless, most preventable accidents that cause the death of innocent road users make it more sensitive to enforce this law with alacrity in the UK. Therefore, under this act, directors and individual transport businesses are expected to ensure that their vehicles are adequately insured and roadworthy.
To this end, adequate fleet management of company vehicles to make our road safer and to enhance transport smooth operations as well as prevent unwanted lawsuits that are likely to arise as a result of fleet related fatality remain the inevitable reasons, among others, for writing this article. Hence, below are possible benefits of fleet management:
1. It lessens the cost of labour: With GPS fleet tracking, you can know your drivers whereabouts thereby making them be accountable to a cause or any assignment given to them.
2. It prevents potential ghost workers: The use of fleet management software
automatically freezes out ghost-workers.
3. It creates perfect contentment for drivers on duty: Proper management of vehicle fleet will surely boost the driver’s efficiency and their confidence when driving on the road.
4. It boosts customers’ satisfaction: Proper management of vehicle fleet makes the organization (transport provider) reliable and committed to satisfying their numerous customers.
5. Proper management of vehicle fleet also increases average lifetime of vehicles, thereby increasing the organizational profitability.
6. Reason for Safety: In transportation, safety comes first; one major essence of fleet management is to ensure that each vehicle is safe for smooth transport operations. It also prevents the vehicle from the chances of being lost or stolen through remote vehicle disabling systems.
7. It improves accountability: Through fleet management systems (FMS), data can be gathered to check drivers’ behavior thereby making them to be committed or
accountable to their actions.
8. It enhances drivers’ safety: When a vehicle is in good condition, it will reduce the accident rate.
9. Fuel management: Fleet management helps to prevent the wasteful use of fuel. In other words, it ensures an efficient use of fuel to complete a particular journey.
10. An efficient management of vehicle fleet by a transport company or transport provider enhances smooth operations of any given industry.