Barge size has increased significantly since the early days of commercial navigation. The river's availability as a competitive transportation option also helps to keep truck and rail prices down.
River transportation has a direct impact on the prices consumers pay for the things they buy.
Soft drinks, ice cream, baked goods, and pancake syrup, for example, are all sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup made from grain grown in the Midwest. Some of this corn is loaded onto barges and shipped down the Upper Mississippi, then up the Ohio, and eventually up the Tennessee River to a processing plant in Loudon, Tennessee. TVA ratepayers also benefit from navigation. Cargo capacity comparison Because just one barge can transport as much tonnage as 15 rail cars or 60 semi-trucks, water transportation also offers some important benefits in terms of highway safety. Plus, it reduces fuel consumption, air pollution, wear and tear on highways, and the number of tires going to landfills.