Maritime Transport System: Goods

3. Goods

The next element of the conceptual system model deals with the types of goods, being typically transported with the presented mode of transport. We will show you on this page, what types of goods are typically transported by maritime transport.

Mindmap — Maritime transport system model - Goods von Prof. Dr.-Ing. Heike Flämig, Dorothee Schielein (CC BY-SA)

The following figure „Categories of goods“ shows the different kinds of cargos, that are or could be transported by water based transport systems.
The goods can be divided into three categories:

bulk cargo,
container cargo and
roll on / roll off cargo.

For the transport of goods, the figure "Load carrying devices" shows, what different kinds of loading devices can be used. Those load carrying devices can be differentiated in the categories supporting, enclosing and locking.

Pallets and flats are examples for supporting devices while pallets with collars and containers are having an enclosing function. Examples for locking load carrying devices are inland containers, ISO-containers, air freight containers and swap bodies.

If the goods can‘t be transported directly on the vessels, locking devices like ISO-containers can be used to ease the transport of goods. The figure "Container types" shows the two different groups of containers.

Containers can be divided into ground traffic containers and air traffic containers.

For maritime transport, the ground traffic containers are the type of containers being used.

In the group of the ground traffic containers, we differentiate between general cargo containers, special goods containers and tank containers.

For those ground traffic containers, the standard measure is in feet (1 foot = 0,3048 m). An ISO-container is 20‘ or 40‘ long.

For container transport, the transport volume is usually measured in TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit). One 20‘ container is equivalent to 1 TEU. A 40‘ container is equivalent to 2 TEU.

The following figure "Container equipment" shows different kind of ground traffic containers. The kind of goods being transported influences the decision about the container type being used.

Mostly standard containers or high-cube containers, which are a little bit higher than the standard containers, are used as standard equipment.

When the goods need to be cooled during transport, the chosen container type is a reefer container. These containers are connected to the power supply, cooling down the container to the desired temperature.

In order to identify the container, a unique container number is placed on all outer walls and additionally on the inner side of the container wall.

This container number consists of 11 characters.

According to the ISO-Norm 6346, a container number consists of 4 elements with 11 characters in total.

numbers — Container number von Prof. Dr.-Ing. Heike Flämig (CC BY-SA)

The first three letters are showing the owner of the container.
The fourth letter shows the product category, the U stands for container.
The first six numbers are the serial number of the container.
The last number is the check digit.

Containers can be provided by different stakeholders:

shipowning company provides container
forwarding company provides rented container or
shippers own container (SOC)

In Maritime Transport, a differentiation is made between Full Container Load (FCL) and Less than Container Load (LCL).

FCL

volume of freight has sufficient volume for a complete container load
shipper organizes loading and securing
containerized transport at least to the port of destination

LCL

volume of freight has insufficient volume for a complete container load
transport of container part load to Container freight station (CFS)
consolidation and transport to the port of destination
LCL service surcharges due to additional handling processes

The ISO-container is a good example for standardization. Advantages of standardization are for example, space utilization, easy handling and safety.

A transport chain with containers has various value-adding roles:

uniformly unit load (standard size, reusable, stackable)
high velocity of transhipment process
internationalization
reduction of packaging
suitable for all means of transport
suitable for inland and overseas transport

If you are interested in the influence of containers on logistics strategies, transport systems and transport chains, feel free to check it here.

Influence of containers by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Heike Flämig (CC BY-SA)

The total costs per TEU are shown in the figure "Total costs per TEU" and are composed of three different elements costs at sea, operating costs and capital costs and costs at the ports.

The relation between goods and vessels is called transport.

Transport

There are various operating models in maritime transport.

Liner service operators

A liner service consists of a fleet of vessels, under a common ownership or management, that provide fixed service between designated ports at regular intervals and offer to carry any cargo in the catchment area served by those ports and ready for transit by their sailing dates. A fixed itinerary, inclusion in regular service, and the obligation to accept cargo from all customers and to sail, whether filled or not, on the date fixed by a published schedule are what distinguished the liner from the tramp.

Charterer (Tramp Operator)

Tramp operators offer ships for rent and charter and are closely linked to the tramp vessel market.

They are very small organizations compared to liner service operators.

The charterer deals with:

operational business
maintenance/survey/storage/supply of vessels
accounting and market intelligence/viewing
retail and other business

When organizing container transport chains, different contractual responsibilities for pre-carriage and on-carriage are possible.

Carrier’s haulage

Handling of door-to-door transport by carrier on behalf of client.
Approximately 2/3 of the worldwide transport.

Merchant’s haulage

Independent handling of pre- and subsequent-leg by shipper/recipient or by forwarder on behalf of shipper.
Normally only pier-to-pier transport.
The shippers/consignees themselves remain in control and subcontract all involved transport operators. If it's necessary also pier-to-door or door-to-pier transport is possible.

Carrier’s and Merchant’s haulage are shown in the next figure "Carrier's and merchant's haulage".

The transport options differ in terms of transport legs included:

Door-to-Door Transport (FCL):

empty container from container yard -> pre-leg from shipper -> Port of origin -> sea transport -> Port of destination -> subsequent-leg to recipient -> empty container to container yard

Door-to-Pier Transport:

FCL transport from shipper and deconsolidation at port of destination or container freight station (CFS) -> subsequent-leg to different recipients (very often in trading)

Pier-to-Door Transport:

different suppliers transport to factories

Pier-to-Pier Transport:

consolidation at container freight station e.g. Integrator, e.g. parcel services

Partners in transportation business
For organizing and operating maritime transport, different stakeholders are necessary.
Some examples for the partners are:

forwarders
authorities
export companies
import companies
hauliers
stevedore companies
tally
agents

Literature
Biebig, P.; Althof, W.; Wagener, N. (2008): Seeverkehrswirtschaft: De Gruyter Oldenbourg.

Bloech, J. & Ihde, G. (1997): Vahlens großes Logistiklexikon. München: Beck.

Branch, A. (Hg.) (1996): Elements of Shipping. London.

DSV (2023): Break Bulk. URL: https://www.dsv.com/de-de/unsere-loesungen/transportarten/seefracht/breakbulk (last access: 08.05.2023)

Heidenblut V., Hompel M. (2011): Taschenlexikon Logistik

International Forwarding Association (2019): Types of Cargo Shipped by Sea Freight Transport. URL: https://ifa-forwarding.net/blog/sea-freight-in-europe/types-of-cargo-shipped-by-sea-freight-transport/ (last access: 08.05.2023)

ISO (1999): ISO 830:1999-09. Beuth-Verlag, Berlin, 1999.

ISO (2013): DIN EN ISO 6346/A3:2013-03, ISO-Container-Kodierung, Identifizierung und Kennzeichnung. Beuth-Verlag, Berlin, 2013.

Hapag Lloyd (2016): Container Specification. URL: https://www.hapag-lloyd.com/content/dam/website/downloads/press_and_media/publications/15211_Container_Specification_engl_Gesamt_web.pdf (last access: 30.03.2022).

Flämig, H., Sjöstedt, L., Hertel, C. (2002): Multimodal Transport: An Integrated Element for Last-Mile-Solutions? Proceedings, part 1; International Congress on Freight Transport Automation and Multimodality: Organisational and Technological Innovations. Delft, 23 & 24 May 2002. (modification of Sjöstedt 1996)

Grig, R. (2012): Governance-Strukturen in der maritimen Transportkette. Agentenbasierte Modellierung des Akteursverhaltens im Extended Gate. Zugl.: Berlin, Techn. Univ., Diss., 2012. Berlin: Univ.-Verl. der Techn. Univ. Berlin (Schriftenreihe Logistik der Technischen Universität Berlin, 19).

Ihde, G. (2001): Transport, Verkehr, Logistik. Gesamtwirtschaftliche Aspekte und einzelwirtschaftliche Handhabung. 3., völlig überarb. und erw. Aufl. München: Vahlen (Vahlens Handbücher der Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften).

Jünemann, R. (1989): Materialfluss und Logistik. Systemtechnische Grundlagen mit Praxisbeispielen. Berlin, Heidelberg, New York, London, Paris, Tokyo, Hong Kong: Springer (Logistik in Industrie, Handel und Dienstleistungen).

Pawlik, T. (1999): Seeverkehrswirtschaft. Internationale Containerlinienschifffahrt Eine betriebswirtschaftliche Einführung. Wiesbaden: Gabler Verlag (Springer eBook Collection Business and Economics).

Schönknecht, A. (2009): Maritime Containerlogistik. Leistungsvergleich von Containerschiffen in intermodalen Transportketten. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer Berlin Heidelberg (VDI-Buch).

Veenstra, A. (2005): Empty container reposition: the port of Rotterdam case. In: Simme Douwe P. Flapper, Jo A.E.E. van Nunen und Luk N. van Wassenhove (Hg.): Managing Closed-Loop Supply Chains. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer Berlin Heidelberg, S. 65–76.

Voth, M. (Hg.) (2001): Speditionsbetriebslehre. Herne.