Monthly Archives: December 2012

Port Pollution Addressed Through Innovation

Ports are a major source of pollution, not only from the ships entering and leaving the harbor, but also from the numerous vehicles that service the port and handle the cargo coming in and going out. The latest ship designs can handle over ten thousand containers and that will often translate into an equal number of trucks needed to haul all of the containers away. Moving some of that load onto rail cars is but one of the many ways that port managers are employing to cut down on air pollution. The need for such reductions is becoming ever more apparent. Until now, few ports were obliged to meet air quality standards, but that has begun to change, spurring new efforts to cut back on the emissions spewing from these vital transit centers. Southern California is notorious for its smog and has waged a long and costly battle against it. The Los Angeles – Long Beach port complex is the largest single source of air pollution in the region and is now a target for reductions. The amount of cargo handled by this port complex has tripled in the last decade with a corresponding increase in emissions. Higher standards for… read more »

Alternative Truck Fuels to Replace a Dwindling Resource

Trucks carry over two thirds of all of the freight that is transported across America and in doing so they consume almost 70% of all of the energy that is consumed1 for our total transport needs. Fuel is the single largest operating expense for trucks and a single commercial truck can consume as much as 20,000 gallons of diesel per year costing around $70,0002. This is a huge amount of resources especially in an environment where fuel is becoming more expensive as the reserves become increasingly depleted. With an estimated 750,000 interstate motor carriers in the US, finding ways to reduce fuel costs has become an important issue. Late in 2011 President Obama introduced legislation that sets the goal of improving fuel economy in trucks by as much as 20% by 2018. Commercial trucks use around 22 billion gallons of diesel in a year and experts are suggesting that that volume could be cut significantly. While finding more efficient ways to use existing diesel fuels is a significant step forward there are also a number of other initiatives for finding alternative truck fuels currently underway. A long term project in California involving the supermarket chain Raley’s3 has been studying the… read more »

The Big Pinch: Oil Prices, Fuel, and International Shipping

Oil has been the fuel of choice for powering ships for over a century now, supplanting coal as a source for running steam boilers just as diesel engines have largely replaced steam engines. The grade used is commonly called bunker fuel and can quite literally be termed bottom of the barrel, since it is the densest form of liquid found in petroleum and tends to sink to the lowest levels during the refining process known as cracking. The term bunker refers to the containers used to store the oil aboard ships. Increasing fuel costs have led to greater attention being given to fuel management systems and advances in technology have permitted greater oversight to be possible. Bunkers are now equipped with sensors that continually monitor fuel use and allow the crew to make decisions on engine speed and course corrections that will impact fuel usage rates. These instruments also allow authorities to closely monitor any spillage that might occur. The system has greatly reduced loss and pollution that used to result from overfilling tanks and has also cut down on pilferage. Ship exhausts constitute a significant source of global totals for emission of both nitrogen oxides and sulfur oxides, two… read more »

Cranes for Containers Erected Everywhere

Container cranes have become such a critical component for handling cargo that a port’s capacity for moving freight is often measured by the number of cranes it has available for use. They must be housed within a metal framework that allows the crane to move the length of the yard where it will be hoisting cargo. A platform known as a spreader descends from the crane onto a container. There it locks onto the corners through links called corner castings. Normally, cranes lift only one container at a time, though some will lift two, and a few can carry up to four at once. These cranes are classified by size according to the sort of vessels that they can accommodate. A Panamax can unload a ship small enough in size to pass through the Panama Canal. This is about a dozen containers wide. Post Panamax units can reach the width of 18 containers. There is also a Super Post Panamax that can reach across 22 containers. The load capacity for these is generally around 65 tons which permits the lifting of a single 40 foot container or two 20 foot containers. Some models have double this capacity. The entire assemblages… read more »

Can Maritime Logistics Keep Up with the Demand?

In the past two decades there have been enormous changes in both the volume of world trade and the direction of its flow. Newly expanding economies in Asia, especially goods from China, have led to significant increases in the amount of cargo that is coming into the US, up as much as 280% in Californian ports. This has put pressure on port services across the board and caused many to question how ports can improve their performance to keep up with the pace that is being set by the huge growth in containerized imports. Part of the problem has been a lack of infrastructure, which has contributed to a serious congestion of the supply chain for these newly imported goods. Every delay in the flow of freight adds to its overall handling costs. As the congestion in our ports increases the pressure that is exerted on the existing infrastructure also increases all of the way down the supply line. There are even growing shortages of trucks to remove containers from the storage facilities in our ports. Further exacerbating the problem is that in systems which are already operating at capacity, there is inadequate redundancy and few alternatives in the event… read more »

Port Congestion a Growing Problem

Port congestion can be compared to the sort of stop and go conditions that take place when too many cars crowd onto a single stretch of road. Traffic slows, the line of cars keeps backing up further. Everyone’s time is wasted. The same thing happens with ships in ports that are congested. They have to line up and wait for a spot to open where they can dock and unload their cargo. Ports have more limitations than highways, however, when it comes to congestion. They cannot simply expand to accommodate more ships the way highways can handle more cars. Creating more docking space will not help if the cranes and the crews that operate them do not also increase at a similar rate. The bottleneck may lie in inadequate access roads or rail lines to move freight in and out of the port. Lack of warehouse space seldom seems to be the problem, but numerous other infrastructure shortfalls can be involved. Port congestion can be temporary in nature if a calamity of some sort has affected the port’s normal operation. Storms and other weather events can damage the facilities, which will slow cargo handling until repairs are completed. Industrial accidents… read more »

In It for the Long Haul, Logistics and Truck Freight

The trucking industry is divided into several categories, depending on the type of freight and the distance moved. For the long haul, the type of truck used is referred to as a semi truck. These vehicles are a key element in business for moving raw materials and works in progress as well as finished goods. In the United States, trucks haul the majority of merchandise moved over land and are essential to virtually all elements of the economy. Keeping track of what is going where is formally known as logistics. While the trucks themselves continue to show improvements in such vital areas as safety and fuel economy, it is the logistical end of the business that has seen the greatest advances in the last several decades. Computers, GPS units, and mobile communication devices have revolutionized how goods are tracked, and have streamlined the billing end of the business. The Motor Carrier Act passed in 1980 did much to reform and energize the industry, which had fallen on hard times in the late 1970’s primarily due to the high costs of fuel in the era. The industry continues to be pressured into complying with ever stricter restrictions on emissions and higher… read more »

High Speed Rail: Getting America Back on Track

On April 2009 President Obama announced his economic stimulus package that was to put the American economy back on the road to recovery. The plan included $8 billion for the development of high speed rail networks to service the busiest commuter routes in the country. In the intervening years that budgetary allowance has become less certain until finally Congress decided to eliminate it altogether in November 2012. While this is obviously a major setback to the plan it is by no means the end of the project. Currently there is a bullet train network being built in California linking Fresno and Bakersfield which is just the beginning of the developments nationwide. At first it might seem like high speed rail is something of a luxury toy for first world countries but the real rationale is actually much deeper. By creating reliable alternatives to air and road travel along the busiest travel routes high speed rail contributes to the reduction of congestion, reduces fuel consumption and carbon emissions and frees up resources like fuel and rolling stock for other forms of cargo. With all of the added time that now goes with air travel it can even be quicker to travel… read more »

Intermodal Freight Transport and Environmental Sustainability

The whole world has been opened up by the expansion of transport networks including ports and shipping, railways and modern highways, so that it is now commonplace for produce from one part of the world to make its way to a market on the other side of the globe. The widespread use of containers for shipping goods has allowed for the development of a huge intermodal freight transport network that we have all come to rely on. While this has increased the variety of goods available to everyone it has also significantly added to transport costs and the amount of energy that it now takes to bring goods to the consumer who wants to buy them. The American transport networks are the busiest in the world and US railways alone carry more cargo than all of Western Europe’s network combined. In fact two-thirds of all of the oil that is used in the US is consumed within the transport sector while container and bulk cargo ships make up almost 3% of the world’s entire carbon footprint. With rising operational costs, dwindling fuel reserves and the introduction of carbon taxes in many countries, transport companies have been developing more sustainable operational… read more »