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[quote]QUOTE: Originally posted by rob_l I don't want to take away from the general thesis that we should strive to improve space utilization in intermodal trains and carload trains as a means of increasing capacity. That is a noble goal and one where progress can be made, perhaps along the lines suggested in some of the posts on this thread. But I'll poke some holes into some of the specific proposals. First, I'm afraid the idea of loading domestic boxes in Asia is not going to fly. Try to take your 53 out of an Asian port to some factory in the vicinity to get it loaded, and you will find you cannot make it around the first or second corner you come to.[/quote] I'll reiterate on this example. What is occuring now is that cargo from 40' containers just unloaded from the container ships is being transloaded pallet by pallet into 53' domestic containers and dry vans at our congested U.S. ports. What I have suggested along with others is that this same operation could be done more cheaply over at the foreign port, and the 53' domestics would then be loaded onto the container ship for transport to the U.S. port, at which point the process of moving the cargo from ship to chassis or well car goes alot quicker. I am not suggesting that drivers in China or Japan try to drive around to the factories with these containers as these places probably cannot handle that lenght of trailer. We are only suggesting that the 53's would stay within the foreign port district, wherein the transloading operation would take place. Obviously, transporting 100,000 cubic feet of "Roboslugs" on containerships in 53' containers rather than the smaller 40' containers will increase the load factor on these ships. It will decrease the total number of lifts for all 100,000 Roboslug packages if they are packed in 25 53' containers rather than 35 40' containers. Less total lifts also means faster train assembly, so the time factor also comes out favorably. In this scenario the domestic container wins out over the dry van, and if the railroads have a say in the matter, they would rather haul double stacks of domestic containers rather than spine cars of trailers since the number of paying boxes per train length of the former is relatively two to one over the latter.
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