ROAD & RAIL FOCUS
SPACE OPTIMISATION M
Optimising space utilisation when transporting goods is the best way to reduce logistics costs. For cubes, such as pallets, the process is simple, as they are designed to fit next to one another. However, larger, ungainly items are harder to optimise inside a fixed space. If you picture a high cube container with a car parked next to it, then you can imagine how much space inside is being wasted. BMW is an example of one of the manufacturers who are seeing the benefits
aximising the use of the finite amount of space available in
of using the Silk Road. By capitalising on the available rail space,
a railcar or container is critical to reducing costs. In a time
forwarders have been able to load more than just two cars inside
where efficiencies are a necessity, reducing wasted materials
containers, using a number of methods with varying degrees of
and space is key to maintaining competitive pricing. Take for example the
success. The movement of two cars in containers is commonplace,
Silk Road rail route, which is transporting commodities between Europe
but the ability to load four or more cars safely and quickly has
and China and has been growing at an incredible rate. This is, in part,
massive commercial benefits, almost halving the transport cost
due to car manufacturers who are leading the demand for using rail over
per vehicle. One aspect of rail transport is securing cargo against
other freight methods. There are numerous reasons as to why these rail
the high forces experienced during transit and it doesn’t take a
services are gaining popularity when other shipping areas are struggling.
genius to work out what happens to an expensive BMW if another is dropped on top of it! Because of this, rather than the use of
Speed to get product to market is one of manufacturers’ key issues.
wood and string, forwarders are now turning to engineered vehicle
The transit time on the Silk Road rail link takes 15-17 days between Europe
racking systems which load multiple cars in containers securely.
and China, less than half the time that sea freight would require. The cost of using a car transporter to move vehicles on this route would obviously be excessive, even if the road infrastructure existed to accommodate such a journey, which it does not. Additionally, forwarders are often given sporadic ‘spot movements’ and the volume of vehicles is highly variable. It isn’t worth using a car transporter to move three vehicles, for example. It’s necessary to protect vehicles from damage by sun bleaching, rain, hail, dust, tree sap, bird lime, vandalism and temperature extremes in both storage and transit. Several of these issues become more prevalent in the northern hemisphere as winter approaches. Unfortunately for road freight, enclosed transporters are more expensive to operate and have a lower vehicle capacity, promoting rail as the preferable option here. It’s notable that g-forces experienced on rail are higher than those usually experienced with road freight. Trans-Rak set the established benchmark for putting cars in containers and recommend that vehicles moved on rail are lashed and chocked in all directions.
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FORWARDER magazine
November 2016