Posted : 09/10/13 3:21 AM
No favorable decision for NITL’s petitioning of America Surface Transportation Board (STB) to adopt new reciprocal switching rules between the state’s four Class I railroad carriers was attained. With reciprocal switching, under specific conditions, railway challengers share railways between transport customers for a payment. If a shipper required the accessibility of a particular Class I railroad that it might otherwise not use, having no contractual agreement, the non-contractual Class I rail line can allow the ‘captive’ shipper (situated in a final area) of its competition, railway access, charging the rival rail line a service charge. The NITL request calls for particular conditions to be placed on the STB rules of mandatory mutual transport. The petition says that the captive shipper would have to be within 30 miles of the working interchange of the least two-class I rail carriers as well as the point of origin to destination transportation rate charged by the competing rail carrier exceeds 240% of its variable service cost. Another caveat of the petition is the fact that the selection of when to participate in switching should rest with the railway carriers mutually concerned. Said railway carriers will not engage in any competitive changing agreement that is…
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The railroad business’s revival to facilitate US and world-wide commerce is seeding the strategies of state commerce departments to enhance port infrastructure-as many states want to dedicate railway connections from the logistics hubs for the marine ports. As plans for the new Intermodal Railyard get underway after much battle of interests and public / private sector land disputes, South Carolina and also the city of North Charleston are in detente. Background of Difference with North Charleston and S.C. Commerce Department This Season, the town of North Charleston was not initially on board with the South Carolina Department of Commerce’s airy plans for the proposed rail yard to be situated on the former Charleston Naval Base where it would be accessible by the Norfolk Southern and CSX Corporation rail lines. The S.C. Commerce department’s position projected the Intermodal Railyard development would reinforce state and local organizations, bringing increased commerce to the port of Charleston. However, North Charleston had various issues. The city’s contention was to maintain private ownership of the land and its particular vested interest was residential safety and its riverfront attractions. North Charleston Mayor Keith Summey brought a suit against the S.C. Commerce department, citing the state’s disregard of…
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Posted : 09/8/13 11:15 AM
The interconnectivity of the whole world’s major ports is broad scale. Many public and private sector capital investment has backed programs, design, and building of global logistics infrastructure of these hubs over the past few years. As international trade continues to boom with high-demand commodities and customer responsiveness, design technologies of new ports is shape shifting to fulfill the demand. Transportation sector specialists, financial investor homes for example JP Morgan, and important firms like US Contractor Bechtel, are moving forward – using reclamation technology within the development of man-made island ports with at least 3 million TEU (twenty foot equivalent unit) annual container capacity and managing boat capacity of around 400,000 dwt (dead weight tonnage). Abu Dhabi Khalifa Port Container Terminal The official launch of The Abu Dhabi Khalifa port on December 12, 2012 at 1200 hours, marking the 5-year end of Bechtel’s land reclamation project, was successful; inaugurated by its own namesake, President HH Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan along with royalty, diplomats, and other business leaders. All container traffic of Abu Dhabi’s Mina Zayed port was routed, a couple of months before schedule, for the Khalifa terminal. The port’s Phase One container capacity is 2.5 million TEUs.…
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As it pertains to global trade inland port terminals diversify the US supply chain. The escalation of e-commerce sales is affecting Intermodal logistics and taxing ground shipping of businesses such as UPS and Federal Express. The railway – to – maritime port part of inland ports relieves the over – the – road capacity tension on those businesses when obtaining inbound shipments. With the revival and growth of the railway industry giving rise to augmented rail-to-rail and Intermodal (rail-to-truck) cargo capacity methods, dry port terminals have facilitated the circumvention of rising diesel fuel prices and retrenchment in the trucking/carrier business over recent years. Throughout the last five years, truck carriers like J. B. Hunt, Werner Enterprises and CRST/Malone (Cedar Rapids Steel Transport’s flatbed division) have cut over-the-road capacity to 15 percent from a previous 12 percent cutback. According to Logistics Management’s September 2012 online problem, cost developments for trucking carrier sector specialized services, like LTL or less-than-truckload, general freight, tanker and other specialized freight solutions, are declining, down 9 percent just in June and July. Correct to forecast, retail giant JC Penny, consolidating its East/West coast operations, set up a 1.1 million square foot retail distribution center on site. JCPENNEY’s…
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Dry ports or inland terminals, although not a new theory within the global supply chain, are newer, in a demand wave of intermodal, global transportation as global trade rises. With the increase of global trade taking a toll to the capability of coastal or marine ports, for instance, many US coastal ports, inland terminals shoulder loads of the burden of sea port terminal inbound/outbound transport traffic. The inland port is interchangeable with hinterland logistics; the ‘hinterland’ being any nation’s interior logistics zones which coastal ports have difficult access. This frees the sea ports to obtain the next boat of inbound freight, as well as railway and expedites truck outbound shipments to these ports. Three basic demands of inland terminals encompass ‘co location’, a principle of multi-function capacity which cements the inland port’s energy in its integral role for the international supply chain for a dedicated connective part of logistics zones, military bases and maritime terminals. Success within the effective operations of accurate inland terminals is contingent upon the state and municipality ‘prime directive’; legislative support of inland port development and association of logistics infrastructure incentives. Additionally, a deal seal of approval of investor/stakeholder collaborative port direction ensures the paramount worldwide…
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Posted : 09/5/13 10:06 AM
International commerce has become an extremely large factor within the operations of smaller businesses. Advances in technology supplied by computers and mobile communication devices have enabled small companies to tap into this lucrative market. The web provides a platform to get access to markets throughout the planet that previously only large scale businesses had the resources needed to make use of. Courses can even be located online outlining the business etiquette to be utilized in such processes. They’re going to walk the neophyte through every step needed to produce such an operation a success. Numerous governmental agencies are specialized in helping small business operators in this aspect. In the United States, the Small Business Administration comes immediately to mind, however a search engine request will unlock an abundance of other departments offered to help small business expand within this domain. Additionally, there are many trade associations accessible that can provide invaluable insight in to the logistics and funding had a need to make a success of aforementioned endeavors. Global trade is helping to stabilize small enterprises by providing a significantly improving customer base which will inherently be less susceptible to cyclic downturns that often happen in more localized markets. Special…
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Ports are a major source of pollution, not just in the ships entering and leaving the harbor, but also from the various vehicles that support the port and handle the freight arriving and going out. The latest boat designs can handle over ten thousand containers and that will often translate into an equivalent number of trucks needed to haul all the containers away. Moving some of that load onto rail cars is but one of the numerous ways that port managers are employing to cut down on air pollution. The need for such reductions is getting ever more obvious. Until now, few ports were obliged to meet air-quality standards, but it has begun to change, spurring new initiatives to cut back on the emissions spewing from these critical transit facilities. Southern California is notorious for its smog and has waged a lengthy and expensive fight against it. The LA Long Beach port complex could be the largest single source of air pollution within the area and is presently a goal for reductions. The amount of freight handled by this port complex has tripled in the past decade with a corresponding increase in emissions. Higher standards for auto emissions can no…
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Trucks carry over two thirds of all of the freight that’s transported across America and in doing this they eat up nearly 70% of all of the energy that is consumed1 for our absolute transportation needs. It is a huge amount of resources especially in an environment where fuel is growing more expensive since the reserves become increasingly depleted. By having an estimated 750,000 interstate motor carriers in the US, finding approaches to cut back fuel prices has become an important issue. Late in 2011 President Obama introduced legislation that establishes the aim of improving fuel economy in trucks by as much as 20% by 2018. Commercial trucks use approximately 22 billion gallons of diesel in a year and experts are suggesting that that volume could possibly be cut significantly. While finding more efficient means to utilize present diesel fuels can be a major step forward you will find likewise a lot of other initiatives for finding alternative truck fuels currently underway. A long term job in California relating to the supermarket chain Raley’s3 has been studying the utility of using LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) in comparison to the usage of normal diesel engines. After sorting out some initial difficulties…
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Petroleum has been the fuel of choice for powering ships for more than a century now, supplanting coal as a source for operating steam boilers just as diesel engines have mainly replaced steam engines. The term bunker refers to the containers used to store the oil aboard boats. Increasing fuel costs have led to greater attention being given to fuel management techniques and improvements in technology have allowed greater oversight to be possible. Bunkers are now supplied with sensors that constantly monitor fuel use and enable the crew to make decisions on motor speed and course corrections that may impact fuel usage rates. These instruments also allow authorities to closely monitor any spillage that may happen. The system has substantially reduced loss and pollution that used to result from overfilling tanks and has also cut down on pilferage. Boat exhausts constitute a vital generator of global totals for emission of both nitrogen oxides and sulfur oxides, two frustrating pollutants. The sulfur content in bunker fuel tends to be large, offering port cities significant problems regarding air quality and health taking into consideration the adverse effects sulphur has on respiratory systems, especially of the young and the very old. This removes…
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Container cranes have become such a critical component for handling cargo a port’s capacity for transferring cargo is regularly measured by the amount of cranes it’s available for use. They must be housed within a metal framework that allows the crane to move the span of the yard where it will be hoisting cargo. A stage known as a spreader descends from the crane onto a container. There it locks on the corners through links called corner castings. Ordinarily, cranes lift only one container at a time, though some will lift 2, and a couple can carry up-to four at once. These cranes are categorized by size based on the kind of vessels that they will adapt. A Panamax can unload a boat little enough in size to pass through the Panama Canal. This really is all about a dozen containers extensive. Post Panamax units can reach the breadth of 18 containers. There’s also a Super Post Panamax that will reach across 22 containers. The load capacity for these is usually around 65 tons which allows the lifting of a single 40 foot container or two 20 foot containers. Some versions have twice this capacity. The assemblages can weigh from…
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