Monthly Archives: September 2013

Improvements to Europe’s Intermodal Network

The European Commission has been developing the transportation networks in parallel with upgrades to other networks such as telecommunications1 and as these various jobs approach their end, they are already having an impact on the intermodal cargo industries across Europe. These improvements have linked the twelve major ports in Europe with an effective network of transportation options that rely heavily in using the renovated and modernized trans European train network2. These highways have also been upgraded to make them much more efficient transportation arteries and this is inspiring some substantial transport companies to adapt their own operations to use the developments. The dearth of room in Europe for sustained expansion of the networks is motivating many transport businesses to analyze alternative means to keep their levels of service and profitability. The impact on the atmosphere of mass-transit is also coming under closer examination, with smaller nations looking at means of using technology to model the most efficient and environmentally friendly methods of carrying different types of freight across Europe4. The application of computers to handle the movement of freight through Europe’s important transport hubs is viewed as a way to both improve the efficiency and thus the profitability of intermodal… read more »

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 »

The Secret to the Cost Effectiveness of Intermodal Transport

Intermodal shipping is undeniably the most cost effective strategy to transport bulk cargo due to its integral usage of truck, rail and sea transport to deliver items in the fastest, most direct way possible. Since their world-wide acceptance in the ’70s, transport containers have increased the effectiveness of transporting goods by decreasing treatment times when unloading ships and reloading exactly the same cargo onto trains or trucks. The containerization of bulk cargo made it possible to create port facilities that can handle vast amounts of containers within a day, together with the world’s biggest port, Shanghai, estimated to get handled 31.7 million containers in 2011 alone1. Along with the development of increasingly efficient infrastructure in modern ports, the growth within the size of container ships has seen the typical transport vessel capable to carry 8,000 containers at once, and may transport as much as 200,000 containers within a year2. Obviously the key to all this efficiently handled cargo lies together with the basic source of the machine, the containers themselves. Additionally it is likely that containerized transportation will persist to eventually become a far more effective manner of transportation for bulk cargo in the foreseeable future as well. Networks in… read more »

The History of Shipping Containers

People have been shipping cargo across the world for thousands of years, and the logistics of loading, unloading, and reloading products, has always proved to be time intensive, expensive and wasteful. The enormous rise in the number of cargo throughout the twentieth century meant that alternatives had to be found for the problems of cargo handling, which drive towards greater efficacy and cost-effectiveness led to the development of the intermodal freight systems that crisscross the world. The key to the progression of the very most efficient cargo handling system ever conceived, nevertheless, was the invention of the shipping container. Contrary to popular belief, the shipping container wasn’t devised by the Chinese. In fact, the very first delivery container design was patented in the us by Malcolm McLean1 in 1956. McLean was the person who owns the fifth largest trucking company in America, and he saw the truck loading and unloading process to be expensive due to its inefficiency. This caused his development of preloadable containers which can be set onto trucks as a device, considerably reducing handling time, and so costs. Early attempts at building this into a standardized system for freight management were unsuccessful until the U.S. Navy adopted… read more »

The Port of Dubai Establishes the Standard for Modern Freight Handling

Since its beginnings in 1799, the Port of Dubai has resulted in a cosmopolitan center of trade and tourism that possesses among the busiest ports on earth. In recent decades, Dubai has created as a leading tourist destination because of its central geographic location and warm-climate with white sandy beaches. Its geographic area has also made it a vital link within the global intermodal transportation chain at once. The majority of the increase of Dubai has occurred within the past decade with tremendous increases in the total amount of cargo being handled by the Port of Dubai’s controlling authority, DP World. During the interval 2000 2005, there is an increase of 155% in the number of automotive parts passing through the port annually alone. The achievement is attributed to the support that the Port of Dubai receives from the stakeholders, customers, local government, as well as the employees which have made it one of the most efficient ports in the whole world. Because a lot of Dubai is still quite new and was purpose-built like a modern transportation hub, it’s establishing a standard for economically and effectively handling cargo that many older ports with aging infrastructure will find hard to… read more »

Intermodal Shipping Reduces the Carbon Footprint of Transport

Among the major concerns for a lot of consumers now is the environmental impact which their options are having. The energy that is employed to transport goods around the world has come under the spotlight and this has inspired studies to the carbon footprint that various transportation methods produce. Among the most effective ways to transport items is to use intermodal freight systems. These transportation networks are designed specifically to make transporting bulk goods better but they’re also starting to show this efficiency is also, translating into a smaller carbon footprint. At the same time, this study has confirmed and, to some degree, validated the tactics used at the present time to gauge the carbon emissions utilized to transport particular amounts of cargo. Nowadays there are some really precise estimators for computing the carbon footprint of varied methods of carrying freight that enable users to make informed choices in regards to the simplest approach to move their products. Whilst the carbon emissions that are produced in the transfer of goods are not the only determining factor in the transport system that is better suited to everyone’s needs, it is becoming an important factor within the decision making process. With many… read more »