Intermodal Transportation and Terminal Operations

1. Intermodal Transportation and Terminal Operations Transportation Logistics Spring 2008

2. Intermodal Transportation • Transportation that includes more than one mode (air, rail, road, water) • Typically refers to containerized goods (as opposed to bulk or general cargo) • Capital intensive but requires less labor than traditional freight handling • The majority of the costs incurred with intermodal transportation are incurred when handled in terminals (between modes)

3. Bulk Cargo Wet bulk cargo refers to fluids like oil Dry bulk cargo refers to non-fluids such as grain, coal, etc.. Many goods that used to be shipped as bulk cargo (grain, bananas, coffee beans)are now shipped in containers

4. General Cargo • Whatever needs moving • Flatbed trucks for odd-shapes • General cargo vessels

5. Containers • Containers have become the box of choice

6. There are approximately 18 million containers worldwide

7. There are many varieties of containers…. • Standard containers (20’, 40’, 45’ height 8’6’’) • Hard top containers (removable steel roof) • Open top containers • Flat racks • Domestic containers (53’) • Refrigerated containers (require clear space) • Tank containers • High cube container (9’6’’ tall) • One 20’ container is a Twenty foot Equivalent Unit (TEU)

8. Intermodal Issues • Single-carrier transfers versus interline transfers (between two carriers) • Shipper – the person who wants the freight moved • Intermodal containers existed prior to the intermodal containers we see in use today (a box is an intermodal container), but were typically smaller than a truck or rail car load

9. Intermodal issues • Transportation agencies are still structured around modes • Transportation companies are still structured around modes, in fact they had to be during regulation • There has been much growth in intermodal transportation companies since deregulation (3PLs, IMCs, and to some extent Steamship lines) • Transportation infrastructure is build by modal agencies that historically did not interact

10. The view from an intermodal container • http://www.forbes.com/home/logistics/2006/04/13/containers-worldwide-movement-tracking-cx_rm_0417contain.html • We will discuss containerization and deregulation further in future class sessions

11. Terminal • A station where freight is received or discharged • Situated at the end • Placed at a boundary • A point or part that forms the end • From terminus (end) • The name reflects their historic role • In the intermodal world we usually refer to intermodal yards rather than terminals

12. Terminals or interchanges occur in all modes • Airports • Bus terminals • Marine terminal or port • Ferry terminal • Train station • Rail yard or terminal • Cross-dock facility • Distribution center • Intermodal yard • They have common characteristics, I’ll focus today on marine ports and intermodal yards

13. US Port Throughput (TEU)

14. Quay Crane Local Storage Vessel Chassis Port Operations Discharging container flow Loading container flow

15. Wheeled versus Grounded

16. Port productivity metrics • TEUs per hectare • TEUs per annum • Dwell time • Crane productivity • Crane cycle time • Lifts per hour • Moves per hour

17. Port Characteristics • Hong Kong and Singapore, the traditional Asian hubs are trans-shipment facilities • New Asian ports in China are export facilities • US Ports have historically served as storage facilities, storage has been cheap (sometimes free) • Land has historically been inexpensive in the US but labor has been costly

18. US Port Throughput (TEU)

19. Increasing productivity of West Coast Terminals • In recent years West Coast Ports have experienced congestion and marine vessels have at times been unable to access the port • There have been many responses to this including pressure to increase the productivity of West Coast Terminals

20. While throughput has increased dramatically density has not

21. West Coast Terminal Area has increased

22. Primarily at California ports

23. Similarly with berth length

24. Throughput density (TEUs/acre) variation across west coast ports

25. Berth length (TEUs/ft) utilisation at west coast ports

26. West Coast Throughput

27. Market share among the west coast ports

28. Operational Improvements • Technology implementations • RFID, GPS, OCR, automation • Land area utilization (stacking) • Rail mounted gantry cranes • Extended gate hours • Truck appointment systems • Crane Utilization • Double cycling • Increase Intermodal Percentage • containers typically have shorter dwell times

29. Container movements • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMuuNpBnKA4 • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PeMHYX4LxEc • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81ZcRsA29NU

30. Productivity Improvements • As is true across the board in transportation, infrastructure is expensive to build, or impossible to build • Solutions must be found to manage demand and utilize infrastructure better • There is evidence our ports are “unproductive” and that we can expect better utilization of the infrastructure

31. Global Comparison

32. Comparison of characteristics of different ports across the world(2004)

33. Throughput variation at container ports across the world

34. Average crane productivity at different container ports

35. Transhipment percentages at Asian ports

36. Comparison of productivity measures of different ports across the world(2004)

40. The Freight Transportation System • With improvements in port productivity we are starting to see the bottleneck move away from the port and onto the landside infrastructure • Truck congestion around ports (Alameda Corridor) • Rail infrastructure delays and expansion • The infrastructure view needs to be mindful of corporate operations • Moves to internalize all costs (emissions)