00325468

Component

http://onlinepubs.trb.org...s/trr/1980/758/758-011.pdf

http://scholar.google.com...aley&publication_year=1980

Intermodal containers, as differentiated from piggyback trailers, have proved highly useful in international trade, primarily because they eliminate the reloading of cargo at each intermodal connection and the attendant delay, cost, damage, and opportunity for pilferage. However, physical constraints make containers less-economic transportation units per se than the individual modes that they replace-- truck trailer, rail boxcar, break-bulk ship, etc. When standard intermodal containers are included in the U.S. domestic freight transportation system, their operating shortcomings outweigh any theoretical advantages that may accrue to either shippers or carriers. Such shortcomings include relatively high tare weights, limited cubic capacities, and requirements for sophisticated loading and transfer equipment. Proposals to develop and adopt a form of domestic container raise the same questions of standardization, interchangeability, and retrieval that plagued the international container industry in its early years. Further, the proposal raises the yet more-serious question of the rationality of allocating resources to develop a separate series of domestic containers that could not be interchanged with the existing fleet of more than 1.1 million international containers, with an estimated replacement value (including interface equipment) of $12.0 billion. This paper discusses the domestic operational restraints inherent in the use of international standardized containers and applies these to similar problems that might be anticipated for a variety of different domestic containers. (Author)

Publication of this paper sponsored by Committee on Intermodal Freight Transport. Distribution, posting, or copying of this PDF is strictly prohibited without written permission of the Transportation Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences. Unless otherwise indicated, all materials in this PDF are copyrighted by the National Academy of Sciences. Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.

01489598

N763

pp 72-74

1980

Transportation Research Record

59th Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board

0309030730

Digital/other

References (4)

Alternatives analysis; Container handling; Containerization; Containers; Costs; Design; Economic factors; Freight transportation; Intermodal transportation; Loss and damage; Piggyback transportation; Standardization; Standards; Subbase (Pavements); Traffic delays

Design criteria; Subbase

Design; Economics; Finance; Freight Transportation; Highways; Marine Transportation; Railroads; Society; I10: Economics and Administration

TRIS, TRB

Feb 18 1981 12:00AM

• ANALYSIS OF BROKERAGE FEASIBILITY FOR UNIT-COAL-TRAIN SHIPMENTS TO THE MIDWEST
• ANALYSIS OF THE COSTS OF TRUCKLOAD FREIGHT OPERATIONS
• BENEFIT-COST ANALYSIS IN RAIL BRANCH-LINE EVALUATION
• CONSEQUENCES OF REGULATORY REFORM ON THE OWNER-OPERATOR SEGMENT
• COST-SERVICE MODELING: THEORY AND PRACTICE
• DETERMINATION OF THE EFFECTIVENESS OF RAILROAD-CAR- DISTRIBUTION DECISION MAKING
• Marketing Advantages of Size in the General-Freight Motor Carrier Industry
• MEASURING INTERMODAL PROFITABILITY
• TACTICAL PLANNING FOR COORDINATING RAILROAD OPERATIONS
• THE ENERGY CRISIS AND INTERMODAL COMPETITION
• THEORY FOR ESTIMATING TRAFFIC DIVERSIONS ON A RESTRUCTURED U.S. RAILROAD SYSTEM
• TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM MANAGEMENT OPTIONS FOR DOWNTOWN CURBSIDE PICKUP AND DELIVERY OF FREIGHT
• USE OF COMPUTER GRAPHICS FOR THE DISPLAY AND ANALYSIS OF RAILROAD TRAFFIC FLOWS