What You Need To Know When It Comes To Transloading
When we say transloading, we are referring to a process in which shipments of goods are transferred from one mode of transportation to another. Some of its examples are the following: transferring goods from an aircraft to a truck, from a truck to ship, from ship to railroad car, from truck to railroad car, and vice versa. It is a very important function when it comes to logistics and transportation of raw materials, components as well as finished goods. In addition to that, we want you to know that this task is performed at warehouse distribution centers and other similar facilities.
Another thing about transloading that you should know of is the fact that it is most frequently used when one or more forms of transportations are required to move a load of cargo from a single point to its final destination. Let us say, transporting a shipment of finished goods from an inland factory to an airport via truck, then the cargo will be loaded onto an airplane wherein it will be shipped as an air cargo, then shipped to an airport anywhere in Asia, where the cargo will then be loaded onto a truck and delivered to its final destination. The last process will be the receiving of the cargo by the customer who ordered it or by the recipient. There are other great examples of transloading that we want you to know of like the movement of bulk materials such as grain, iron ore, or even coal. Regarding this matter at hand, the iron ore will be loaded onto rail cars at the mine, the shipped overland through a rail to a deep-water ocean port on the coast. Once the shipment arrives, it will be transferred to ship for delivery to international customers on another country or continent. The said process is also necessary at railroad break of gauge points wherein the equipment is not compatible between varying railroad lines that are using varying gauge railroad tracks.
In one particular continent, the standard gauge railroad tracks are the norm, wherein the board and narrow gauge tracks are, for the most part, already phased out in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Only a handful of narrow gauge isolated rail systems that are handful continue to operate even up to this very day. On the other side of the world, break gauge points remain as a much more commonplace. It has been said that these types of cargo transfers need additional handling of the goods, especially since they are unloaded as well as reloaded, increasing the costs and the possibility of damage. For the purpose of making sure that efficiency and speed of the transfer are improved, specialized equipment, and in several cases, specialized facilities are used.
Transloading, being a broad subject, carried various kinds of information that must be discussed. But in this article, we make sure that we point out essential parts that are necessary for your understanding of it.