Container transportation

Container transport is a popular form of transport in modern freight forwarders. Advantages of safety, quality assurance inside, easy to move through many methods from trailers loading and unloading on warehouses, boarding ships / rivers,. Ensure quality control, avoid loss of goods.

2.1 What is container shipping?

Container shipping is the activity of transporting goods on containers to the receiving location or loading area depending on the delivery requirements. Thus, the container transport goods are usually larger items, or combine many packages.

Particularly for Container transport, the shipper is responsible for packing the goods, and the receiver will unload the goods from the Container. Container packing is usually homogenous goods, packed enough to have the highest economic efficiency.

Containers have dimensions defined by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). Containers have many types, but standard Containers have the following sizes:

– 8 feet wide (about 2.4 m)
– Height 8 feet 6 inches tall (about 2.6 m)
– Length 12m

With the unique characteristics of the form of container transport requires a lot of manpower involved. In addition to shipping lines, ports and container leasing companies, there are also very important intermediary companies that act as freight forwarders or ship owners (NVOCCs) and trucking companies that use tractors to transport trucks. towing containers.

Advantages of container shipping

Container shipping has many advantages and benefits, for shippers and freight forwarders. This is also the reason why domestic and international container transportation is always the first choice. Specifically, the advantages and benefits of container shipping:

– Minimize shipping costs

Transporting goods by container is usually applied to shipments with large quantities and volumes, which must use the whole vehicle. But this order often has a cheaper price than retail or combined orders.

At the same time, for container shipments, insurance and packaging costs can be reduced. Because the container is a device for storing goods with high safety.

– Ensure the safety of goods during transportation

The containers are designed with strong steel material, thus can enhance the level of safety for goods during transportation. The container has 4 sealed corners and only one door, when transporting the containers will be sealed by the transport company to protect the goods from being contaminated, stolen, damaged due to the impact of the external environment.

In addition, container transport service is also a form for customers to transport their own goods, not using the same means of transport with other shippers. Therefore, the sender’s container is independent, not combined with other orders, and the transportation process can go through the whole process from the point of loading to the point of delivery.

Each container is transported by a specialized container transport vehicle, which is a container tractor, which can transport up to 2 small containers or one large container in the transport route.

– Container transport helps to be flexible in terms of shipping time

With the current forms of general cargo transportation, the transport unit often has a long delivery time for intercity travel routes after having gathered enough goods for a transport route. As a result, sometimes the delivery time to the recipient will not correspond to the time the sender wants to ship, leading to delays compared to the customer’s cargo plan.

2. Forms by containerCurrently, the form of container transport is being applied with the form of domestic transport and international transport. Accordingly, shipping units can apply the 4 most common forms including:

   + Transporting containers by sea (using ships at sea)
   + Transporting containers by road through tractors.
   + Transporting containers by plane.
   + Transporting containers by rail.

   Besides, with the current trend of container transport, which is developing rapidly with diverse forms of transportation with 7 types of goods allowed to be transported by containers such as:

   – Thermal containers: suitable for items that are easily damaged by the effects of temperature and weather

   – Department store container: has a single door structure, suitable for dry goods.

   – Container premises: specialized in transporting large machinery or steel materials…

   – Bulk cargo container: With a design with an opening lid on the top and a door on the side, when transporting, the goods will be transferred to the upper door and retrieved through the side.

   – Open-roof container: specialized for transporting machinery and electronic equipment

   – Container tanks: specialized for alcohol or chemical products
   

3. Process of transporting goods by Container

The current container shipping process, which is generally applied to all forms of container shipping, includes 5 steps:

• Step 1. Receive the customer’s shipping request, quote the exact cost and then sign the shipping contract
• Step 2. Pick up the goods directly from the customer’s warehouse and move to the transport unit’s warehouse.
• Step 3. Carry out the necessary procedures and papers, then arrange the cargo containers onto the ship/airplane/vehicle and start shipping.
• Step 4. When the goods arrive, unload the goods to check the condition of the goods.
• Step 5: Deliver the goods to the warehouse or receiving location, at this time the consignee will sign that the goods have been received intact.

Types of goods that are prohibited from being transported by containers

International and domestic shipping by container requires some of the following prohibited items:

– Transporting cars, motorbikes and assembled parts that have been erased, chiseled, repaired, and re-closed with frame numbers, engine numbers (Some industrial park products according to regulations)

– Weapons, ammunition, explosives, drug chemicals, harmful chemicals, smuggled drugs

– Rare plants and animals need to be preserved

– Fisheries banned from exploitation, aquatic products with toxic residues exceeding the allowable limits, affecting human health

– Plant varieties that do not cause harm to production and human health, the environment and the ecosystem.

In addition to goods that are prohibited from being transported by container, shippers also need to pay attention to a number of product lines that should be limited or should not be transported in this form to ensure the safety and quality of goods in the process. transport:

+ Items of great value, need to be shipped quickly, such as jewelry, fresh flowers.

+ Items that are too few or have a large volume (several tens of thousands of tons or more) such as rice, ore, lime, and fertilizer.

+ Goods that need to be transported by specialized ships: crude oil, liquefied petroleum gas, automobiles, etc.