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Broadly, transportation systems are the most important component of a logistics value chain that connects suppliers, distributors and consumers by allowing efficient material flow. These systems are a complex set of relationships between demand, the customers served and the networks that support the movement of goods. Globally, ships transport 90 percent of the international commercial freight.1 According to the World Trade Organization (WTO), the value of global merchandise trade in 2003 rose by 16 percent to $7.3 trillion, with U.S. exports and imports accounting for approximately $1.9 trillion.2 In 2003 $807 billion of U.S. goods were transported using marine transport, and two-thirds, about $491billion, were transported using liner shipping - mainly containerized cargo.3 That represents roughly $1.35 billion per day.
Liner shipping is unique in that it operates on a regularly scheduled service between a well-known set of ports. This, in itself, is an important tool for logisticians to plan material flow. The liner trade operates on the principle of common carriage, which allows for the transportation of various cargos from many diverse shippers on the same vessel/voyage. This differs from the tramp shipping industry, where such transport is unscheduled and allows for only a limited number of shippers with compatible cargo. In the early years general cargo ships carried liner cargo. However, due to extensive handling time ships spent more time at port than at sea, creating excessive costs for ship operators. Alternate methods of handling cargo efficiently were needed.
Unitization was one solution. Palletization was the first method used to increase handling efficiency and soon led to the birth of containerization, the brainchild of Malcolm McLean. A North Carolina truck operator, McLean entered the container-shipping arena in 1955 with the sale of McLean Trucking and subsequent purchase of the Pan Atlantic Tanker Company and Waterman Steamship Company. Eventually, McLean founded one of the world's leading containerized shipping companies, Sea-Land Service (now owned by the A.P. Moller - Maersk Group).
Labor-intensive industries are moving overseas to developing countries to take advantage of low wages. During the last two decades (between 1980 and 2000) the share of manufactured goods exported from developing countries has grown from 20 to 70 percent.2 Trade in manufactured goods increasingly requires door-to-door transport services and Just-in- Time deliveries to...