When it comes to international shipping, it might be a surprise to some to discover that sea transport is the cheapest route. Most people nowadays take floating commuters for granted. Air travel is the face of human transport, so many assume that shipping follows a similar trajectory. However, shipping by boat is by far the greenest, safest, most economical method. Consider a few shipping statistics to see the truth of that statement.

Worldwide, sea shipping accounts for ninety percent of traffic. That leaves a meager ten percent of the shipping pie to be shared by land vehicles and air transport. For comprising such a small amount of alternative traffic, the fact that 50% of commerce pollution is caused by shipping over land and air is also surprising.

With a fleet of 50,000 ships devoted to merchant transfer, most of the world’s trade glides over the surface of the oceans. Coastal countries have an advantage in the industry, but even landlocked nations often use sea routes when moving cargo over large distances. Though an estimated two million commercial trucks traverse the roads in the United States alone, they carry far less freight than ocean liners.

While much trade occurred before the emergence of the Roman Empire, it was the Romans who had the largest impact on sea shipping, using it, like the great Roman roads, to connect the world. Their efforts to rule the then-known world united many distant lands in commerce, and made trade between Europe and China significantly easier. Because of the capacity of and relatively small crew needed for ocean liners to use waterways for shipping, even after air travel emerged hundreds of years later as a quicker way to transport goods, the ocean continued to provide the most economic and sustainable solution.

Today, with the exception of oil tankers (spills and companies at fault), ocean commerce is more reliable than any transport method. The United Nations’ oversight of international trade brings tighter regulations to an industry, overseen by 150 sovereign nations, than any other form of travel. This considerable regulation has led to enforcement of safe practices beyond the competitive methods for moving every kind of product.