A Dictionary of Transportation Terms

From the head load, animal cart and boat to ships, railways, highways, aircraft and space ships, the history of transport would perhaps read like the story of the development of human civilization. Exploration of the world, understanding geography, analysis of conquests and invasions, colonization and control, all tell us of the crucial role so often played by movement and transportation factors. Like every branch of activity, transport has had its own words evolved through usage and acquired by one language from the others. The first commercial means of transport was shipping and the words used there were often adopted later by other modes like railways, mechanized road transport and airways. Even otherwise, words have moved from one mode of transport to the others and this coupled with a rapid growth of technology and management practices, this group of words has enlarged enough to warrant a dictionary of its own. This book is about transportation terms and, at places, also about the concepts behind them.