Intermodal Shipping Research Articles

Generalized transport costs in intermodal shipping: the context of the Northeast Passage

Intermodality is regarded as one way of achieving more sustainable transport solutions. To make intermodal transport the preferred solution among shippers, it must be attractive according to the concept of generalized transport costs. An extended model for generalized transport costs is developed which includes elements important for comparing maritime transport solutions in the Artic. This framework forms the basis for a principal discussion on the conditions that make one transport solution preferable to another within the context of maritime logistics. This model is then applied to the context of the Northeast Passage to discuss the necessary requirements for making an intermodal transport solution attractive relative to the current main route from Northeast Asia to Northwest Europe through the Suez Canal. Even though intermodality could be preferable in principle, current solutions cannot compete with either Arctic routes using unimodal solutions with high ice-class vessels or with the Suez route. Due to uncertainty and limited empirical evidence, a sensitivity analysis is conducted, focusing on the variables with the greatest impact on the result. Policymakers and stakeholders can consider the findings to improve transport competitiveness via the Northeast Passage.

Rapid cargo verification with cosmic ray muon scattering and absorption tomography

Cosmic ray muon tomography is considered a promising method for the non-invasive inspection of shipping containers and trucks. It utilizes highly penetrating cosmic-ray muons and their interactions with various materials to generate three-dimensional images of large and dense materials, like inter-modal shipping containers, typically not transparent with conventional X-ray radiography techniques. The commonly used methods for imaging with muons are based on muon scattering or absorption-transmission data analysis. Due to large thickness of cargo material in shipping container substantial scattering and absorption occur when muons are passing through cargo. One of the key tasks of customs and border security is to verify shipping container declarations to prevent illegal trafficking, and muon tomography could be a viable choice for this task. In this paper, we demonstrate through Monte Carlo simulations using the GEANT4 toolkit that a combined analysis of muon scattering and absorption data can improve the identification of cargo materials compared to using scattering or absorption data alone. The statistical differences in scattering and absorption data for several cargo materials are quantified. For a particular smuggling scenario where tobacco declared as paper towel rolls, it is demonstrated that the combined analysis can accurately distinguish between tobacco and paper towel rolls with 5.5σ accuracy for detector spatial resolution (FWHM) of 0.235 mm, 4.5σ for 1.175 mm resolution (FWHM), and 3.9σ accuracy for 2.35 mm spatial resolution (FWHM), in a short scanning time of 10 seconds. This rapid detection capability has significant implications for anti-smuggling efforts and cargo inspection.

Effect of recycled fibers and shredded intermediates variation on the mechanical properties and energy absorption of fiber‐reinforced composite panels

AbstractThe global composite industry generates large quantities of waste which mostly ends up in landfills due to a lack of established end‐use applications for multiple waste streams. The scrap from end‐of‐life (EoL) includes manufacturing waste such as dry chopped fiber tows, loose fibers, shredded fibers from fabric textile operations, cured/semi‐cured prepregs, and fully cured composite structure waste from aircraft, automobiles, wind blades, boats, and pressure vessels. In this work, different composite waste streams were reduced to shredded intermediates, followed by simple blending, and subjected to wet compression molding to produce composite panels. The panels/plaques were tested for mechanical properties (flexure and impact), fiber‐matrix wet‐out, and property bounds. It was found that wet‐compression molding was a viable and scale‐able approach to produce recycled panels from EoL composites shredded scrap. Furthermore, full‐scale size panels for use in truck bodies and intermodal shipping container flooring were manufactured and their impact resistance was tested using a drop weight impact test. They were tested both for high‐ and low‐velocity load. In the case of high‐velocity load, the average impact load was 14,673 N; the average absorbed energy was 101.6 J; the average elastic energy was 11.7 J and the impact resistance was 1065 J/m. In the case of the low‐velocity drop weight impact test, it was found that the average impact load was 7877.358 N; the average absorbed energy was 9.718 J; the average elastic energy was 9.14 J, and the impact resistance was 184.1 J/m. The shredded composite was shown to be a candidate material for the manufacture of truck bodies and intermodal containers’ flooring panels.Highlights By using shredded intermediates from different composite waste streams, it is possible to manufacture composite panels. Wet–compression process is an appropriate technique for manufacturing recycled fiber composite panels. Regardless of the source of scrap, the mechanical properties of the produced composite panels were improved. The recycling process technology can be transformed to commercial scale to produce full‐size transportation flooring panels. A product pathway is established in consideration of lower cost and improved recyclability.

Economics of Open-Source Solar Photovoltaic Powered Cryptocurrency Mining

Solar photovoltaic (PV) technology offers a promising means to alleviate environmental and electricity costs challenges for cryptocurrency miners. To analyze this promise, this study investigated the feasibility of using electricity from individually optimized PV systems to power: 1) an individual Bitcoin miner, 2) a DIY intermodal shipping container holding 50 miners, and 3) a commercial mining farm container holding 408 miners. In a controlled lab environment, miners were monitored for electricity use. Then using these values, numerical simulations of both the PV system yield and sensitivity ranges based on the Bitcoin price, Bitcoin halving events, and miner hardware were investigated for informed financial planning. In addition, sensitivity for geographic locations in North America, utility electric rates and PV capital costs were analyzed. The profitability and return on investment (ROI) varied by location primarily because of the geographic distribution of solar flux and utility rates. The ROI for using PV with Bitcoin mining was found to be negative for Toronto and Montreal because of low-cost electricity, while it was 8% for Calgary. In the U.S. cities evaluated, the ROIs were substantial and ranged from 34% in New York, to 64% in Boulder, and up to 104% in Los Angeles. Although the study is based in North America regarding energy rates, climate, and energy laws, the analysis methodology is generalizable globally and grants the average cryptocurrency business the knowledge to make an informed decision on whether to pursue this venture from a financial and environmental perspective. This study contributes to the body of knowledge in cryptocurrency mining by providing an economic means of environmental preservation by powering cryptocurrency miners with renewable solar energy.

Simulating the Impact of the Sustained Melting Arctic on the Global Container Sea–Rail Intermodal Shipping

Global warming trends and the rapid reduction of summer Arctic sea ice extent have increased the feasibility of transarctic transport. How the process of glacier melting affects the existing containerized sea–rail shipping network and container flow assignment has become a challenging economic and policy issue. This paper first examines the meteorological influences on glacier melting and the assignment of container flow over the existing sea–rail network. Then, a three-layer simulation framework is constructed, with the upper layer simulating glacier melting based on the raster grid, the middle layer combining a grid and topology analysis to simulate the evolution of the global sea–rail network and the lower layer establishing a concave cost network flow model to simulate the container flow assignment. Finally, we use MicroCity to achieve the dynamic optimization and simulation of global container flow assignment, solving the large-scale sea–rail shipping network traffic assignment problem. The simulation results show that the proposed model and solution algorithm are feasible and effective, revealing the variation of container flow assignment in the global sea–rail shipping network under different Arctic ice melting scenarios. For instance, in the summer of 2050, the Arctic routes will share the global container flows, resulting in a significant reduction of container flows in the Malacca Strait, Suez Canal and Panama Canal.

The Vulnerability and Resilience of the Global Container Shipping Industry

Intermodal shipping containers, standardized and capable of being carried on trucks, trains, barges, or ships, have transformed the global economy since they were introduced in 1959. By allowing previously separated segments of regional and global transport systems to interact, they have vastly expanded global trade and facilitated supply chains that stretch around the world. But vulnerabilities in the system became apparent during the COVID-19 pandemic. Problems at key bottlenecks in the system, compounded by an unexpected six-day shutdown of the vital Suez Canal, precipitated global disruptions leading to shortages of goods and soaring prices around the world. As the global shipping industry recovers, it will have an opportunity to transition toward a system that is more resilient.

Optimal subsidy scheme design for promoting intermodal freight transport

Waterborne transport is known to have low environmental impacts compared to other modes. This paper investigates the optimal container subsidies for shippers to promote intermodal shipping involving waterways in a regional transportation network. We consider a linear subsidy scheme consisting of a fixed-rate component and a variable component proportional to the sailing distance. The optimal subsidy design problem is formulated as a bilevel program to maximize the intermodal transport split of demand and minimize the subsidy expenditure. Faster methods are developed to solve the optimization problems of two special subsidy forms, i.e., fixed-rate and distance-based schemes. A case study of the Pearl River Delta region in China suggests that an optimally designed subsidy scheme can increase the intermodal split of container transport by 16%. Many insights are unveiled from the case study regarding the performance comparison between different subsidy schemes, the optimal schemes’ environmental impacts, and their effects on individual shippers and feeder ports. For example, the subsidy is less effective for shippers originating too far from or too close to the hub port and for highly time-sensitive or time-insensitive goods. Moreover, two commonly-used objectives, maximizing the intermodal split and minimizing the CO2 emissions, are well aligned as they yield similar solutions. These insights can assist the local governments in determining the appropriate subsidy schemes and better understanding their overall effects.

Kinship on the waterfront: logistics labour in a global port

AbstractThis article examines how kinship forms a contested element of labour under capitalist distribution. The focus of the article is on a thriving Spanish container port where the dockworker collective has been steadily growing since the multinational companies first arrived in the 1970s. In the wake of containerization – a standardized system of freight transport based on the intermodal shipping container – dock work has been revalued and become attractive in an area otherwise characterized by high unemployment rates and below‐average salaries. Drawing on ethnographic research, the article analyses how unionized dockworkers are met with stigmatization from the general public and criticized for their intergenerational access to ‘container capital’. The article contributes to current anthropological debates around the role of labour under global capitalism by tracing the links between kinship and labour in the making of a global port.

Multi-Period Optimization Model for Siting Capacitated Intermodal Facilities

The objective of this study is to design an intermodal transport network considering multiple planning periods and accounting for product volume, mode, budget, and inventory at intermodal terminals (IMTs). A mixed integer linear programming model is developed. An experimental study is conducted for the State of South Carolina using the Freight Analysis Framework Version 4.5 (FAF4) dataset. Sensitivity analyses are performed to study the impact of budget, the maximum number of IMTs allowed, and increasing demand on the intermodal network design. The experimental results indicate that Columbia as an IMT location has a significantly effects on the total network cost and intermodal shipping share. Increasing the budget and number of IMTs allowed improved the network performance non-linearly.

Patio Swings Intermodal Shipping Competition: An Inquiry‐Based Partial Information Exercise

ABSTRACTRather than providing all the required information as classroom exercises typically do, this international purchase and intermodal transportation competitive in‐class exercise intentionally holds back selected supply chain details. This inquiry‐based learning (IBL) approach simulates a real‐world Distribution Requirements Planning scenario by requiring students to identify what information they need and seek out those details from the instructor while competing with fellow student groups. In this 20‐30 minute exercise students are challenged to identify the all the necessary supply chain activities required to effectively ship patio swings from a supplier in China to a national retail chain in time for a spring sale. Generating the benefits of improved critical thinking in a fraction of the time required for traditional IBL, the approach is best described as a Partial Information Exercise. A student survey (n = 310) found that students strongly supported the inquiry approach, it generated significantly increased interest in global supply chain management roles and responsibilities, and over 91% of participants recommended the exercise continue to be part of the introductory operations and supply chain management course.

Cluster Effect of International Transport Routes

An econometric forecast to 2025 of the volume of container shipments along the Primor’e-1 and Primor’e-2 transport routes reveals the preconditions for the formation of transborder transport and logistics clusters in northeast Asia. The article argues that international transport corridors are important for inclusion of the economic entities of the Primorsky Krai in the international system of intermodal and multimodal shipping services. In addition, it concludes that the implementation of comprehensive projects is important for the integration of Russian and global multimodal operators and also for the creation of transport and logistics centers in the border regions of the Primorsky Krai.

Network assignment model of integrating maritime and hinterland container shipping: application to Central America

The authors develop a model to predict worldwide container movements including both maritime and land shipping network from the viewpoint of cargo owners, given the liner shipping network provided by shipping companies and the level of service in each port. The network assignment methodology is applied to both an intermodal shipping network and maritime shipping sub-network, by which the solution can be obtained in a huge, real-scale network including more than 150 worlds’ container ports as well as some hinterland network of the world. The developed model is applied to the Central American region, where the international maritime containers are often transported across national borders by land. It is confirmed that the model output agrees with the actual container movement in terms of the container cargo throughput for each port, land container flow, and maritime flow by shipping company in Central America. Also, the model sensitivity to key parameters included in the model is confirmed reasonable. Finally, it is also confirmed that the model can predict the volume of containers handled in the port of La Union, where no liner service had previously called and a new liner service calls.

The Packaging of Efficiency in the Development of the Intermodal Shipping Container

This paper addresses different forms of spatio-temporal ordering in the stowage and handling of cargo on board cargo vessels, as well as docksides. Whilst the introduction of containerisation profoundly altered the urban geographies of many large port cities, as well as devastating the communities built around maritime labour, the core argument developed in this paper concerns the incremental development of spatio-temporal ordering strategies and practices. In particular, it situates the intermodal shipping container within a trajectory reaching back to earlier forms of unitisation such as crates and pallets. In doing so the paper outlines a genealogy of packaged efficiencies, arguing that the central thread linking maritime cargo handling practices in the twentieth century is the unitisation of shape. However, it concludes that the intermodal container achieved global hegemony through the packaged systemic efficiencies of standardisation.

Deep-sea faunal communities associated with a lost intermodal shipping container in the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, CA

Carrying assorted cargo and covered with paints of varying toxicity, lost intermodal containers may take centuries to degrade on the deep seafloor. In June 2004, scientists from Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) discovered a recently lost container during a Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) dive on a sediment-covered seabed at 1281m depth in Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary (MBNMS). The site was revisited by ROV in March 2011. Analyses of sediment samples and high-definition video indicate that faunal assemblages on the container’s exterior and the seabed within 10m of the container differed significantly from those up to 500m. The container surface provides hard substratum for colonization by taxa typically found in rocky habitats. However, some key taxa that dominate rocky areas were absent or rare on the container, perhaps related to its potential toxicity or limited time for colonization and growth. Ecological effects appear to be restricted to the container surface and the benthos within ∼10m.

Shipping Container Mobilities, Seamless Compatibility, and the Global Surface of Logistical Integration

Recent notions of surface emanating from poststructuralist theories posit surface as an ‘event’: expressionistic, restless, turbulent. In this paper I focus on a different idea of surface: one where the multiplicity of such restlessness is apparently immobilised. This perspective is tellingly advocated by the logistically driven movement of commodities on a global scale. Steinberg has argued that postmodern capitalism utilises a spatial logic that is redolent of earlier forms of capitalism, viewing ocean space in particular as a controllable void. Building on this debate, I set out to interrogate the construction of a ‘global surface of logistical integration’: those spatiotemporal mechanisms of control employed by the commercial logistics sector, which attempt to create an integrated and continuous global surface devoid of differences between ocean and land. In particular, the intermodal shipping container and its attendant apparatus of standardisation is taken as a paradigm of producing surface compatibility.

APPLICATION OF A DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEM TO THE TRANSPORT OF HAZARDOUS MATERIALS

The transport of hazardous substances is an essential economic activity because it represents a quite relevant percentage of the total goods transportation. The risk associated to such an activity is fundamentally related to the possibility of an accident triggering that may cause negative environmental and public health consequences. A recent example is the Viareggio accident (2009), which involved the blast of tank wagons containing liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and caused more than thirty deaths. In this paper, a modified algorithm for risk evaluation and a decision support system, called TrHaM (TRansport of HAzardous Materials), are proposed in order to both quantify the overall risk due to the transport of hazardous materials via road, railroad, waterway and pipeline and help in planning transport activities. The algorithm evaluates and shows the risk distribution using a stand-alone GIS software, which also considers sensitive targets with high crowding (such as schools, hospitals, shopping malls, stadiums and camping areas). Moreover, it allows for finding the transport solution and its logistics which minimize risk distribution, including intermodal shipping. TrHaM reliability has been tested onto the circulation of hazardous materials in the Varese district (Northern Italy). The area is characterized by a high level of both population and industrial density combined with heavy road traffic. TrHaM has been used with the aim of comparing the current scenario with a potential one that introduces some mitigating interventions which may reduce risk, such as a partial conversion of haulage from road to railway.

Contagion in the Transpacific Shipping Network: International Networks and Vulnerability Interdependence

To what extent are states vulnerable to disruptions in trade networks? We investigate this question by simulating attacks on the intermodal shipping network, whose ubiquitous containers carry 80% to 90% of all global trade in goods. While this network has reduced transportation costs and spurred international trade, the dependence of modern economies on ship-borne trade means disruptions in one region may produce considerable costs for states in another region. We simulate an “optimal terrorist” that learns about the conditions under which attacks on the network in other parts of the world generate economic losses to the United States. The study illustrates that by adopting a network- and process-oriented ontology, the study of interdependence may better anticipate new sources of interstate and transnational conflict.

The Language Interoperability Portfolio (Linport) Project

ISO standards for intermodal shipping containers have dramatically improved efficiency within the shipping industry worldwide. The translation/localization industry needs an analogous standard for translation projects and tasks. There are a variety of proprietary translation formats that allow materials relevant to a translation project (the source text, various resources such as translation memory files, etc.) to be put into one or more packages and sent to a translator. The translator can then use the same format to return the requested information, such as the translation. The objective of the Linport Project is to define an open, nonproprietary format for describing translation projects and creating translation packages, plus transmission and remote-access mechanisms needed to support implementation of the format. Linport stands for Language Interoperability Portfolio, where a portfolio is the description of a translation/localization project. An important feature of the Linport Project is structured translation specifications compatible with the system of parameters in recently published ISO/TS 11669.

How different is carrier choice for third party logistics companies?

The purpose of this paper is to test whether third party logistics companies (3PLs) are different from other end-shippers with respect to how they choose their carriers. The results of carrier choice models developed in this paper suggest that 3PLs are more biased against intermodal shipping than other end-shippers. The principal conclusions are as follows: mode and carrier choice modeling needs to take into consideration differences between 3PLs and other end-shippers; and with the increasing role of 3PLs in choosing carriers, their stronger bias against intermodal shipping will present further challenges to increasing freight rail mode share.

A STATISTICAL MODEL FOR EXPECTED CYCLE TIME OF SP-AS/RS: AN APPLICATION OF MONTE CARLO SIMULATION

The elimination of international trade barriers, lower tariffs, and shifting centers of global manufacturing and consumption leads to new dynamics in intermodal shipping. Advanced technologies, and in particular, automated storage/retrieval systems (AS/RSs) for designing high-capacity automated container terminals, have been recently proposed as possible candidates for improving the terminal's efficiency and meeting the challenges of the future in marine transportation. In this article, the authors present an analytical statistical model for computing expected cycle time of split-platform AS/RS (SP-AS/RS), in order to reduce average handling time of this system. The accuracy of the proposed statistical model is validated by Monte Carlo simulation. The results show that the analytical model is reliable for the design and analysis of the SP-AS/RS.