Reading The Notion of Transport

Transport (from Latin "transportare" - to transfer, to take from place to place) is one of the most essential branches of material production, which provides production and non-production needs of economy and population in any kind of transfer. Concentration of diverse means of transport in a certain area creates a unique transportation system to satisfy the necessity in shipping loads, people, technical means, transport communications, etc. All kinds of transport are classified according: 1) to the way they are used - public usage (intra-productive, intra-airport, intra-plant, intra-built) and personal usage; 2) to the kind of transfer (passenger, freight); 3) to the means of transport (rail, sea, river, auto, air, city transport). In accordance with the Law of Ukraine "About transport" of 1994, Ukrainian single transportation system should meet the requirements of social production and national security, have branchy infrastructure to cover the whole spectrum of transportation services and guarantee efficient foreign-economic activity. Transport directly participates in the product creation delivering the finished goods from the sphere of production into the sphere of consumption. Moreover, it influences economic development being the major consumer of fuel-energy, metallurgic, machine-building, timber-industrial, chemical and other industrial systems. According to the classification of the kinds of economic activity, that has become the Act of Ukraine since June 1, 1997, transport is considered to be the one providing services. Thus, on the one hand, it continues production process through transferring goods (it belongs to the material production in this respect), and on the other hand, provides services for production and non-production enterprises and population.

Foreign-economic sense of transport is reflected in its being the material basis for international trade; in its social sense, transport facilitates labour (during freight transfers); in the cultural sense, transport enables visiting scientific, cultural centers inside the country and abroad, interchanging of printed materials, art masterpieces, exhibition equipment, etc. Defense capacity is the other important function of transport.

Transport development depends upon development and allocation of productive abilities of the state. The rational allocation, in its turn, depends on the whole transport system. Ukraine has favorable conditions for forming and allocating the transport system. They are branchy structure of agricultural system and its territory organization and , which ensures exploitation of rail, automobile and pipeline transportation. Flat area allows to lay the lines and to track the ways. Thanks to the outlet to the sea, the hugest seaports have been erected. Possessing the rivers Dnipro, Dunaj, Dnister and the Southern Buh, Ukraine has greatly developed its river transport.

Modern transportation system of Ukraine started its existence in 1860s with the development of the rail transport in the state. The first line Lviv - Pzemysl was laid and exploited in 1861.

Changes in the forms of property and management structure are caused by the lack of influence from the side of the state on the development of economy in general and its transport, in particular. Transport is the major source of earnings to the state budget. The quantity of employees in the transportation system in 1990-2000 counted 847,000 people. Nevertheless, the salary tends to grow at the beginning of the 21^st century because of the stabilization in the sphere of transport. On the whole, to promote the development of all means of transport, the state should hold an efficient transportation policy.