Trade and Travel

It is a commonplace that the demand for transport is derived. Transport is not desired for its own sake: rather, its worth derives from the access it provides to other goods and services. The good ‘transport’ can for the most part be considered to have a negative utility. That is to say, its worth is negative, the less of it one has to consume the better. It is an irksome burden foisted upon us with the dimensions of direction and distance which we inhabit. People transport their goods and travel from place to place because they judge that it will afford them an excess of advantage over the cost in money, effort and irritation involved in the act of movement. The advantage does not arise from pushing a big rig down the Ml or from burning up the by-pass. The benefit accrues from the sale of your labour, the production and vending of goods, the consumption of goods and amenities or the enjoyment of meeting or entertainment. What motivates the demand for transport is a combination of the consumer’s desire to maximize his well-being, coupled with the fact that production costs and, therefore, the free-on-board prices of goods vary between places. The issue is a little clouded by the tendency we have to turn necessity into a virtue and sugar the pill. The romance of rail and now the cult of trucking give transport the appearance of an end in itself. The fact is, however, that no matter how much glamour and fun we invest transport with, it remains a chore better avoided.