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Freight Terminals: Characteristics

Freight terminals require specialized equipment to handle different cargo types. There are three main cargo types - bulk, general cargo, and containers. Bulk cargo includes liquids and dry materials handled in large quantities using pumps, pipes, cranes and conveyor belts. General cargo consists of variously shaped goods handled with more labor. Containers standardized shipping, reducing labor but requiring large storage areas and cranes. Terminals also provide storage and transloading between transport modes to consolidate shipments and reduce costs. Throughput is measured by weight for bulk terminals but value is a better comparison between cargo types.

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83 views

Freight Terminals: Characteristics

Freight terminals require specialized equipment to handle different cargo types. There are three main cargo types - bulk, general cargo, and containers. Bulk cargo includes liquids and dry materials handled in large quantities using pumps, pipes, cranes and conveyor belts. General cargo consists of variously shaped goods handled with more labor. Containers standardized shipping, reducing labor but requiring large storage areas and cranes. Terminals also provide storage and transloading between transport modes to consolidate shipments and reduce costs. Throughput is measured by weight for bulk terminals but value is a better comparison between cargo types.

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kim jeon
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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4.

Freight terminals
Freight handling requires specific loading and unloading equipment. In addition to the
facilities needed to accommodate ships, trucks, and trains (berths, loading bays, and
freight yards, respectively), a wide range of handling gear and storage are required, which
is determined by the types of cargo handling. Freight transport terminals have a set
of characteristics linked with core (terminal operations) and ancillary activities (added
value such as distribution). The result is that terminals are differentiated
functionally both by the mode involved and the commodities transferred. A basic
distinction is that between bulk, general cargo, and containers:

 Bulk refers to goods that are handled in large quantities that are unpackaged and
are available in uniform dimensions. Liquid bulk goods include crude oil and
refined products that can be handled using pumps to move the product along with
hoses and pipes. Relatively limited handling equipment is needed, but significant
storage facilities may be required. Dry bulk includes a wide range of products,
such as ores, coal, and cereals. More equipment for dry bulk handling is needed,
because the material may have to utilize specialized grabs and cranes and
conveyor-belt systems. For specific bulk cargoes, some changes in their
characteristics may be required to ensure the continuity of the transportation
process, such as its load unit or its physical state (from solid to liquid or gas, or
any combination).
 General cargo refers to goods that are of many shapes, dimensions, and weights,
such as machinery, processed materials, and parts. Because the goods are so
uneven and irregular, handling is difficult to mechanize. General cargo handling
usually requires labor.
 Containers are standard units that have had a substantial impact on terminal
operations. Container terminals have minimal labor requirements and perform a
wide variety of intermodal functions. They, however, require a significant amount
of storage space, which are simple paved areas where containers can be stacked
and retrieved with intermodal equipment (cranes, straddlers, and holsters).
Depending on the intermodal function of the container terminal, specialized cranes
are required, such as portainers (container cranes).
Main Characteristics of Intermodal Transport Terminals

Containerization and the Changing Operational Characteristics of Transport Terminals


Types of Intermodal Terminals
Steel Wires in a Warehouse, Port of Halifax
Container yard, Port of Le Havre

A feature of most freight activity is the need for storage. Assembling individual bundles
of goods may be time-consuming, and thus some storage may be required. This produces
the need for terminals to be equipped with specialized infrastructures such as grain silos,
storage tanks, and refrigerated warehouses, or simply space to stockpile, such as for
containers or bulk commodities. Containerization, because of its large volumes, has
forced a significant modal and temporal separation at terminals and thus the need for a
buffer in the form of storage areas. In addition, a variety of transloading activities
(transferring cargo from one load unit to another) can take place in the vicinity of
terminals, particularly if long-distance inland transportation is involved. Transloading,
when suitable, reduces transportation and inventory costs by placing the cargo on the
most suitable transportation mode.

Measurement of freight traffic through terminals is more complicated than for


passengers. Because freight is so diverse, standard measures of weight and value
are difficult to compare and combine. Because bulk cargoes are inevitably weighty,
terminals specialized in such cargoes will record higher throughput measured in tons than
others more specialized in general cargoes. This is evident in the world’s two leading
ports, Singapore and Rotterdam, which are dominated by petroleum. The reverse may be
true if the value of commodities handled is the measure employed. The problem of
measurement involving weight or volumes becomes very difficult when many types of
freight are handled because one is adding together goods that are inherently unequal.
Interpreting the significance of freight traffic totals is thus subject to caution. For
container terminals, a common measure of productivity concerns the number of lifts per
container gantry crane-hour, which are usually 25-40 moves per hour for quay cranes and
40-60 for rail cranes.

The difficulty of comparing traffic totals of different commodities has led to attempts to
weigh cargoes based upon some indication of the value-added they contribute to the
terminal. The most famous is the “Bremen rule” developed in 1982 by the port of
Bremen and based on a survey of the labor cost incurred in the handling of one ton of
different cargoes. The results found that handling one ton of general cargo equals three
tons of dry bulk and 12 tons of liquid bulk. Although this is the most widely used
method, other ‘rules’ have been developed by individual ports, such as the Antwerp and
Rotterdam rules. The “Antwerp rule” indicates that the highest value-added is the
handling of fruit. Using this benchmark, forest product handling requires 3.0 tons to
provide the same value-added as fruit, cars 1.5 tons, containers 7 tons, cereals 12 tons,
and crude oil 47 tons. The “Rotterdam Rules” are more recent (2009) and relate to
common practices to ensure the transport of freight “door-to-door” with a sea transport
leg.

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