➤

Pipeline Transport

Characteristics of Pipelines Transportation

logistics photo Photo courtesy of Special Piping MaterialsOpens in new window

Pipeline systems were mainly developed for transporting large volumes of products, often over long distances. Pipelines tend to be product specific, which means they are used for only one particular type of product throughout their design life. A limited number of products can be transported by pipelines, including natural gas, crude oil, refined petroleum products, chemicals, water, and slurry products.

Although product movement through pipelines is very slow (only 3 to 4 miles per hour), their effective speed is much greater than the other modes because they operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. For transit time, pipeline service is the most dependable of all modes because of the following factors:

  • Pumping equipment is highly reliable, so losses and damage because of pipeline leaks or breaks are extremely rare.
  • Climatic conditions have mineral effects on products moving in pipelines, so weather is not a significant factor.
  • Pipelines are not labor intensive, so strikes or employee absences have little effect on their operations.
  • Computers are used to monitor and control the flows of products within the pipelines.

Losses and damage costs from transporting by pipeline systems are low because:

  1. liquid and gases are not subject to damage to the same degree as manufactured products, and
  2. there are fewer types of danger throughout a pipeline operation.

Pipelines have the highest fixed cost and the lowest variable cost among transportation modes. High fixed costs result from right-of-way, construction, and requirements for control station and pumping capacity.

To spread these high capital costs, and to be competitive with other modes, pipelines must operate at high volumes. The variable costs are extremely low and mainly include the power for moving products, because, as noted, pipelines are not labor intensive.

See also:
  1. J.C. Johnson, D.F. Wood, D.L. Wardlow, P.R. Murphy, Contemporary Logistics, seventh ed., Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ, 1999, pp. 1 – 21.
  2. A. Rushton, P. Crouche, P. Baker, The Handbook of Logistics and Distribution Management, third ed., Kogan Page, London, 2006.
  3. S.C. Ailawadi, R. Singh, Logistics Management, Prentice Hall of India, New Delhi, 2005.
  4. R.H. Ballou, Business Logistics/Supply Chain Management: Planning, Organizing, and Controlling the Supply Chain, fifth ed., Pearson-Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ, 2004.
  5. J.R. Stock, D.M. Lambert, Strategic Logistics Management, fourth ed., Irwin McGraw-Hill, New York, 2001.
  6. G. Ghiani, G. Laporte, R. Musmanno, Introduction to Logistics Systems Planning and Control, John Wiley & Sons, NJ, 2004, pp. 6 – 20.
  7. M. Hugos, Essentials of Supply Chain Management, John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken NJ, 2003, pp. 1 – 15.
  8. H.T. Lewis, J.W. Culliton, J.D. Steel, The Role of Air Freight in Physical Distribution, Division of Research, Graduate School of Business Administration, Harvard University, Boston, MA, 1956, p. 82.
  9. D. Riopel, A. Langevin, J.F. Campbell, The network of logistics decisions, in: A. Langevin, D. Riopel (Eds.), Logistics Systems: Design and Optimization, Springer, New York, 2005, pp. 12–17.
  10. M. Browne, J. Allen, Logistics of food transport, in: R. Heap, M. Kierstan, G. Ford (Eds.) Food Transportation, Blackie Academic & Professional, London, 1998, pp. 22–25.
  11. J. Drury, Towards More Efficient Order Picking, IMM Monograph No. 1, The Institute of Materials Management, Cranfield, 1988.
Image