Winners and Losers in the Intermodal Shipping Boom

The entire intermodal freight network in North America has been going through a course of restructuring in the past decade that has seen and certainly will continue to see sweeping shifts within the way that goods are transported across the continent. Other factors like rising fuel prices are forcing many transport companies to find the best method to transport goods. To complement this infrastructure improvement there’s been a corresponding investment within the rail networks over the United States that is aimed toward increasing the efficacy of the freight transport community. These changes mean that there are going to be some companies that are set to benefit from the new interest in intermodal services but there’ll also be many losers who cannot compete using their present methods. For the large part the companies that will gain the most are the railways which have earned themselves the most suitable for intermodal transportation strategies. Large railroads like Union and CSX Pacific have dealt in much of their coal – replaced it with container cars and taking rolling stock as a long term strategy of diversification. At once, many of the larger trucking companies that have focused on finding a market in the intermodal… read more »

Panama Canal Expansion Will Lead to Improved Warehouse Investment in American Ports

The Panama Canal is one of the world’s busiest waterways, managing approximately 5% of the world’s cargo each year. Since its completion in 1915 there have been some small exertions to improve the 48 mile-long canal. These were restricted to efforts prior to WORLD War Two of constructing a few new locks to enable the canal to manage bigger warships as well as the construction of the Madden Dam to increase the water supply to the canal. The entrances to the canal are being enhanced too with the building of numerous new locks at both the Atlantic and Pacific ends. The most important feature of these developments is that it will start a new lane and double the capacity of the canal by 20253. One of the major impacts that this increased capability is expected to have is that it’s going to make a heightened need for warehousing of cargo that has passed through the Panama Canal over the Gulf Coast and also the eastern seaboard of the USA. This anticipated increase in traffic has seen capital investment being poured into gearing up the intermodal freight infrastructure from Texas to NYC where in fact the Bayonne Bridge has been raised… read more »

Major Investment Strategies for American Railroad Networks

With predictions of significant growth in the amount of products which will be transported within the coming years it is crucial the intermodal freight networks continue being developed and upgraded in order to really be able enough to accommodate that growth. After enduring a amount of decline the American rail network has found a go back to relevance in modern times since the road transportation that had largely displaced rail became substantially more costly. This focus on efficiency in freight transport has inspired redevelopment and growth of the American rail systems as the cost effectiveness of rail freight proceeds to surpass trucking costs. This development of the American rail networks and cargo handling facilities has been backed by means of an investment of $24.5 billion inside the rail networks by the nation’s leading freight railroad companies. This expense will be found in part to form more intermodal freight terminals to facilitate an ever greater efficiency of train to truck transfers. There are also significant investments being made by many businesses in new rolling stock together with the aim of increasing the overall capacity of the rail systems for transporting freight. Unlike many other transport networks, rail freight networks aren’t typically… read more »

The Importance of Optimizing the utilization of Road Freight Transport

As freight transportation has become much more sophisticated it has become less-common for cargo to be shipped from point to point and often loads are utilizing several intermodal methods in one trip. As the cost-effectiveness of train and transportation systems has continued to boost, the cost of using trucks for transport has spiraled upwards. There’s a growing need to get the most effective ways to move goods from place to place since the quantity of freight which is sent expected to increase by up to 130% by 2030 in several places1. Portion of the solution to these growing volumes of cargo has been to raise the measurement of the trucks that carry it. Nonetheless, that is becoming increasingly impractical as many urban areas restrict their entry. At the same time trucks will remain a vital part of the transportation chain and also the focus of most studies has been to find the best way to use these trucks within the larger context of the intermodal transportation networks. The latest thinking is that the use of modern technologies can be a way to improve the efficient management of cargo through a more precise tracking of cargo. That’ll let its transportation to… read more »

Amazing Facts about Container Ships

Container ships are the largest ships that sail the seas now. Only oil tankers are at the moment, and larger, with dwindling oil supplies, the largest oil tankers have been broken up for bit. Presently, the longest ships which are traveling the seaways would be the Maersk E Class container ships, which at 397 meters1, is 64 meters longer than a Nimitz Class aircraft carrier. Container ships are among the most incredible things that have ever been constructed, and some of the details about these mass transportation vessels are staggering for the imagination. The largest container ships in the whole world, the Maersk E Class ships, are capable of carrying 15,000 containers at a time. The CMA CGM Marco Polo, which is somewhat smaller, has an even greater capacity at over 16,000 twenty foot containers. If each of the containers around the average sized container ship were loaded onto a train, it would be 44 miles long4. Container ships also often carry passengers, and there are currently around 350 freighters that carry passengers, more than the absolute number of cruise ships in the world. The engines that generate these huge ships make around 1000 times as much strength as the… read more »