As the demand for oil continues to increase around the world, oil transport companies are increasingly competing with freight companies for space on the railroads. Oil demand is only continuing to rise as is the demand for reliable freight transportation. As a result both industries are left fighting for the same space.In North America, railway companies are experiencing a boost thanks to the competition which has mainly been caused by the lack of oil pipelines. Oil producers in Canada and the United States have limited options as existingpipelines are currently at full capacity. In addition, the producers are having trouble getting authorization from regulatory bodies to install additional pipelines such as the current Keystone XL project which is currently on hold. As a result, oil producers are increasingly looking to the railways and are raising prices for freight carriers in the process. Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway is one of the largest railway systems in the United States and maintains more than 32,000 miles of railroad. From 2011 to 2012 alone,BNF demonstrated a 22 percent increase in revenuethanks to the revenue from transporting shale and tanks containing crude oil. Other railway companies such as Union Pacific and CSX saw similar…
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Rising fuel and labor costs have made it increasingly hard to squeeze a gain out of road transportation in the last couple of years, but the price per mile of trucking has always been more complicated than simply paying the fuel bill and the motorist. Figures released by The Truckers’ Report places the operational cost per mile of truck transportation at $1.38 but anecdotal evidence suggests it is closer to $1.50 per mile. With the tendency in recent years for this particular cost to increase by around 10c per mile each year, it may oftentimes be profitable to reevaluate using road transportation to be certain it is still cost effective. When the basic transport rate for a truckload of products provides $ 1, 500 per 1,000 miles then your sale price of the goods potentially must be large enough to cover that expense and more. For a few goods, particularly principal goods, this expense makes road transport less affordable than other alternatives like rail or sea. Another factor that really needs to be taken into consideration is the location to which the cargo will be delivered. This can increase transport costs due to the necessity to get loads from docks…
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All economists concur that commerce is a crucial element in almost any economy, but the value of global trade to local economies is generally overlooked because the benefits are frequently hidden. The dollar value of exports and imports are hard to record if the supply system runs through a lot of stages. It truly can be hard to tell exactly what constitutes an import or an export when a product includes pieces of both. Cars are an outstanding case of this. The disruption resulting from the tsunami and Japanese quake stopped production for a lot of Japanese parts manufacturers, but its results were also felt by many local economies in the United States that were related to these materials. The supply chains of many industries have become worldwide, so even distant events can cause dislocation of local economies. The market of Yokohama suffered as a result of the weather event a huge number of miles away. That is certainly how essential global trade is now to company in virtually any special area. Countries willing to make a commitment to expand global trade are really making a commitment to their local economies too. Singapore provides proof of the. Virtually without natural…
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At the conclusion of 2011 the Government passed legislation that required the regulation of the amount of hours each truck driver can spend on the road. Rigid rules determining rest breaks, nighttime driving and time-off from driving have reduced the amount of hours that truck drivers might be to the street along with the changes have set new pressures on the business to figure out approaches to stay cost effective while staying with the new laws. Truck owners, especially owner operators, know that their automobile isn’t earning money for them if it’s off the road. The increasing cost of both labor and fuel makes it critical for trucks to be functioning for the maximum possible amount of hours per week. As a result, many in the trucking industry think that the new legislation will impact on their income. The decreased number of hours that existing drivers could work before having to take a legislated break means that companies must find new drivers to keep their trucks rolling. All of it’s the road transportation industry worrying about the future viability of their business. On the other side of the problem, the government’s latest studies of the social and financial effect of…
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Increases in global trade have prompted both new port development projects together with expansion of present harbors. While these trends are occurring worldwide, several special areas have recently announced important new developments. These include new construction efforts in the Middle East, North America, Eastern Europe, and East Asia. Within the Middle-east, Iraq is constructing new facilities for its recently reconstituted navy in the Umm Qasr Naval Base. The facilities are made to supply berths for warships that may give protection for your country’s essential oil exports. Securing the myriad parts of the oil industry is recognized as essential for the country’s recovery from recent wars. In The United States, growth of the Port of Anchorage, AK faces special challenges as a result of region’s high tides and seismic activity. Extensive quantities of berms are really required to channel the currents that can otherwise surge along any pier that might be created. Altogether 135 acres of property are being developed to handle the expansion intended to serve cargo and tanker vessels. In Los Angeles, port growth must take into account the region’s demanding controls on air pollution. Poland is preparing a substantial upgrade for the port of Stettin. German and Dutch…
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It is well known that the intermodal network is the most efficient and cost-effective way to handle long distance freight. The maximization of energy efficiency that comes from the massive volumes of containers that can be moved by a single train or container ship takes advantage of the economy of scale, but this efficiency has always been seen as applying mostly to freight that is being transported over long distances. It is still widely perceived that for cargo that is traveling 1,500 miles or less, it is still more cost effective to use more direct methods to move goods. Part of the reason for this is the perception that once a container goes into the intermodal network, it will spend time being loaded and unloaded, waiting in terminals and may take a less direct route than more direct transport methods. This means that the vast majority of cargo that is shipped within the US is still riding on the back of a truck. This transport method is seen as more effective because of its directness, which sees cargo being picked up from its source and delivered straight to its destination, and the simplicity with which it can be tracked on…
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Plans to create a mega terminal at the Port of Long Beach at a cost of $1.2 billion that were set in motion early in 2013 have shown signs of blowing that budget by as much as $85 million. The project which aims at combining two aging terminals into a single, large container handling facility designed to handle the new fleet of ultra large container ships, has encountered some unexpected costs involved in the relocation of utilities and other unforeseen construction costs. The new estimates come after the port hired risk analysis experts to survey the accuracy of projections for phase two of the project. It was found that relocation of the oil fields, the actual cost of a battery exchange terminal and other construction works required for connecting the port to the rail network had been under funded in the original budget for the project. As the second busiest container port in the United States, the Port of Long Beach has 76 feet of draft in its main channel, allowing the new fleet of ultra large ships easy access to its terminals. As many of these larger ships will not be able to use the Panama Canal even after…
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Since their development in the 1950s, shipping containers have become a ubiquitous part of modern life. They are scattered around the major cities of the world, stacked in freight yards, carried on the back of big rig trucks and loaded en masse onto ultra large container ships for transport around the world. In the sixty years since they were first used to simplify the handling of cargo, these solidly constructed steel boxes have found their way out of the intermodal network into a diverse range of other uses. Among the most popular alternate uses for shipping containers is as domestic storage, or even living space, and this has brought the focus of many local building authorities squarely onto containers and their use in domestic situations. While many people see shipping containers as ready built, weather proof storage options, just as many see them as eyesores that they don’t want as a part of their suburban landscape. In many cases local building authorities agree and, in some places, they are beginning to place restrictions on the use of shipping containers as domestic storage spaces. Recently, the Californian city of Menifee has been working on legislation that would ban the use of…
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One of the most important metrics in the intermodal freight industry is the accurate tracking of goods as they move through the system. Knowing when freight will arrive at its destination is a vital part of choosing the mode of transport that businesses use either for shipping their products or for ordering goods. A greater part of the appeal of using truck transport is the relative ease and accuracy of the ability to track the progress of goods in transit. Being able to mirror these metrics for other modes of transport has been an important part of the development of the world’s intermodal network. One company that understands this is the UK firm Freight Arranger who has spent two years developing a cloud based cargo tracking platform that provides real time reports on the progress of goods in transit across Britain’s rail networks. This important development in multimodal transport efficiency has been funded by both the British government’s Technology Strategy Board as well as a number of private investors. Freight Arranger has just completed their first closed trials of their new application. Their Sales & Marketing Director, John G. Russell has reported that these were a success, saying, “Freight Arranger…
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The increase of the US economy was tied to freight transportation, ever since the past spike was driven to the trails of the very first American transcontinental railway in 1869. The current development of the intermodal capabilities and also the general renovation of America’s railway systems have had a similar rejuvenating influence of the nation’s economy. Many analysts have pointed to recent development in the transport industry as an index of the rapidly recovering economy, and with the anticipated upsurge in business in the eastern states as a result of conclusion of the Panama Canal in 2015, the destiny of the economy continues to seem very good within the longer term as well. Transport could be the fourth-largest contributor to the economy behind food, healthcare, and home, and it’s also a major contributor to the employment market with its fiscal impact extending indirectly to any or all sections of the economy as a whole. The improved efficacy of freight handling the renovated intermodal systems will deliver will further encourage increase in job and keep transport costs down. This, in turn, is anticipated to fuel growth in consumer products that may further raise the demand for transportation services1. Some estimates are…
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