Transportation by road or rail, where a route is taken between two destinations. These road transport options can range from small vans and trailer trucks to long road trains. The load can be secured on the vehicle but also in a swap body like a container, often referred to as container shipping, and can be a multimodal mode of freight transportation for end-to-end deliveries. The size of cargo transportation can vary between a parcel up to a whole truckload.

An advantage of transportation by road and rail, such as groupage cargo, part loads, and full truck loads, is speed and reliability with little risk of delays because they do not have to load or unload between origin and destination. As they can provide door-to-door services and come in a wide variety of vehicle types, it allows them to offer flexible freight forwarding services of almost any size and weight over any distance.