It really depends on what you&#x27;re transporting.<p>If you want to move 100 tank cars of crude oil, or 100 cars of coal, then a freight train will accomplish that pretty easily. You can even move a truck trailer via rail, that&#x27;s called intermodal.<p>But if you want to deliver 50,000 pounds of freight across the country in three days, you can&#x27;t do it by rail. You pay a tractor trailer &quot;team&quot; (e.g. often a husband and wife)* to pick up your load on the West Coast on Thursday and deliver it on the East Coast on Monday. They&#x27;ll take turns driving all weekend to accomplish that.<p>Bulk stuff moves by train or barge, relatively heavy relatively time sensitive stuff moves by truck, light and time sensitive stuff moves by air.<p>*Edit: that sounds complicated or risky, but it&#x27;s not. Manufacturers use logistics companies to handle these details. Logistics companies are also good at quickly moving LTL (less-than-truckload) loads across long distances by consolidating multiple shipments into one trailer.