Containerization involves packing goods in containers that can be easily transported via road, rail, water, or air. This method minimizes potential damage to cargo and allows for quick and easy switching between transportation modes. It also speeds up shipping and lowers costs.
Containerization is an approach to transporting goods and services in smaller quantities than the lots commonly carried by bulk carriers. The basic concept is that these smaller batches are packed and sealed in containers that can be easily stacked and transported intact, with no need to sort the contents along the way. This approach allows for multiple options to be used in actual transportation, including road, rail, water, and air transportation options.
An easy way to understand containerization is to consider the transport of many finished products from a textile plant to a customer who resides in another country. To handle the process, the fabrics are typically loaded into a container attached to a long-haul trailer. The trailer is hauled by a freight line to a waterfront dock, where the container is processed through customs and loaded onto a barge or steamer for transport via a waterway. Once the container arrives in the destination country, it is unloaded from the boat, goes through customs and is picked up again by a conveyor line which delivers the goods to the customer via a roadway. Throughout the containerization process, goods are not moved from one container to another, making switching from one mode of transport to the next a quick and easy process.
There are a number of benefits associated with containerization. One has to do with minimizing the potential damage to the cargo being transported. Other methods involve loading and unloading packing cases or pallets of goods at each point of the intermodal exchange. Whenever goods go through this process, there is some potential damage. By loading goods in a container that is used for the duration of transport, there is less movement of the actual goods during transport and less chance of those goods being damaged.
In the case of transporting cargo to an international location, there are many container ships plying regular routes to a wide variety of destinations. This can help speed up the shipping process, allowing the customer to receive their order in less time. The costs associated with containerization are often lower than using other shipping methods, as there are fewer worries about proper storage, and it even impacts inventory costs that may be shipping-related. The fact that many containers are airtight and airtight also helps protect cargo to a degree that is difficult to achieve with other shipping methods.
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