Benefits of Liner Shipping : Efficiency
Liner shipping is the most efficient mode of transportation of goods. In one year, a single large containership could carry over 200,000 container loads of cargo. While individual ships vary in size and carrying capacity, many container ships can transport up to 8,000 containers of finished goods and products on a single voyage. Similarly, on a single voyage, some car carrier ships can handle 7,600 cars. It would require hundreds of freight aircraft, many miles of rail cars, and fleets of trucks to carry the goods that can fit on one large liner ship.
Consider this…
- Containerships have the capacity to carry several large warehouses worth of goods on a single journey.
- A large containership engine weighs up to 2,300 tons has about 1,000 times more power than a family car.
- Large containerships can be operated by teams of just thirteen people utilizing sophisticated computer systems.
- The ships’ computer systems are highly advanced, enabling the precise routing, transport, loading and unloading of thousands of containers for every voyage.
- If all the containers from an 11,000 TEU ship were loaded onto a train, it would need to be 44 miles or 77 kilometers long.
- In an average year, a large container ship travels three-quarters of the distance to the moon. That means in its lifetime it travels to the moon and back nearly ten times.
- A container of refrigerators can be moved from a factory in Malaysia to Los Angeles — a journey of roughly 9,000 miles or 14,484 kilometers — in just 16 days.
- The cost to transport a bicycle from Thailand to the UK in a container is about US$10. The typical cost for shipping a DVD/CD player from Asia to Europe or the U.S. is roughly US$1.50; a kilogram of coffee just fifteen cents, and a can of beer – a penny.
