Definition of Means of Transport
You use means of transport to define groups of vehicle resources.
Means of transport are groups of vehicle resources, for example, container ships or cargo ships. You assign a means of transport to each vehicle resource.
You can specify that the means of transport is part of your own fleet.
You can specify that a means of transport cannot move by itself and that it therefore needs to be coupled to a vehicle that can move by itself. The incompatibilities (see Incompatibilities) as well as the means-of-transport combinations that you have defined determine whether or not a trailer can be coupled to a vehicle.
You can define a coupling duration and an uncoupling duration for a trailer.
The system schedules the uncoupling activity for a trailer when a different vehicle has to move it in the next stage. If the system has assigned an empty trailer to a stage, it schedules the coupling activity directly before the transportation activity and the uncoupling activity directly after the transportation activity.
Note
You cannot couple trailers to schedules (see Schedule).
Trailers must have capacity.
You cannot define schedules for trailers.
The transportation mode specifies how the goods are transported, for example, as a sea shipment.
The following figure represents the relationship between vehicle resources, means of transport, and transportation modes:

Relationship Between Vehicle Resources, Means of Transport, and Transportation Modes
The vehicle resource is a particular means of transport, for example, the ship “Santa Maria”.
You can specify a means of transport that is superordinate to a means of transport.
A means of transport A that is superordinate to another superordinate means of transport B is also superordinate to any subordinate means of transport of the means of transport B.
You create means of transport and define the following functions, among others, in Customizing for SAP Transportation Management (SAP TM) under :
Your own means of transport
Passive means of transport
Transportation mode
Superordinate means of transport
You define a coupling and an uncoupling duration for passive means of transport in Customizing for SAP TM under .