Cargo

This article is about transported goods. For other uses, see Cargo (disambiguation).

Cargo is a term used to denote goods or produce being transported generally for commercial gain, usually on a ship, plane, train, van or truck. Nowadays containers are used in most intermodal long-haul cargo transport.

Cargo represents a concern to U.S. national security. It was reported out of Washington, DC that in 2003 over 6 million cargo containers are entering the United States each year.Murray Unveils First-in-the-Nation Port Security Demonstration After the terrorist attacks of September 11th, the security of this magnitude of cargo has become highlighted. The latest US Government response to this threat is the CSI: Container Security Initiative. CSI is a program intended to help increase security for containerized cargo shipped to the United States from around the world.http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/border_security/international_activities/csi/ CSI: Container Security Initiative]

Marine Cargo Types

Container ship at Helsinki Port

There is a wide range of marine cargoes at seaport terminals operated. The primary types are these:

• Containers are the largest and fastest growing cargo category at most ports worldwide. Containerized cargo includes everything from auto parts and machinery components to shoes, toys, and frozen meat and seafood.

• Automobiles are handled at many ports.

• Project cargoes and heavy lift cargoes may include items such as manufacturing equipment, factory components, power equipment such as generators and wind turbines, military equipment or almost any other oversized or overweight cargo too big or too heavy to fit into a container.

• Break bulk cargo is typically material stacked on wooden pallets and lifted into and out of the hold of a vessel by cranes on the dock or aboard the ship itself. The volume of break bulk cargo has declined dramatically worldwide as containerization has grown.

• Bulk Cargoes, such as salt, oil, tallow, and Scrap metal, are usually defined as commodities that are neither on pallets nor in containers, and which are not handled as individual pieces, the way heavy-lift and project cargoes are. Alumina, grain, gypsum, logs and wood chips, for instance, are bulk cargoes.

Plane Cargo

Air cargo is commonly known as freight. There are many businesses which collect freight and deliver it to the customer such as Nightfreight or UPS. Aircraft were first put to use carrying mail as cargo in 1911, but eventually manufacturers started designing planes just for freight. There are many commercial planes suitable for carrying cargo such as the Boeing 747, which was purpose built to be easily converted to a cargo aircraft. Such very large aircraft also employee quick loading containers known as unit load devices much like containerized cargo ships.

The military of most nations own and utilize large numbers of cargo planes such as the C-17 Globemaster III, for airlift logistics needs of such operations.

Train Cargo

Trains are capable of transporting large numbers of containers which have come off the shipping ports. Trains are also used for the transportation of steel, wood and coal. Trains are used as they can pull a large amount and generally have a direct route to the destination.

Van or Lorry (Truck) Cargo

There are many businesses which transport all types of cargo, ranging from letters to houses to cargo containers. These businesses such as Parcelforce or Federal Express which deliver fast and sometimes same day deliverly services. A good example of road cargo is for supermarkets, these reqiure deliveries every day to keep the shelves stacked with goods for sale. Retailers of all kinds rely upon delivery trucks, be they full size semi trucks or smaller delivery vans.

See also

Look up cargo in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Bulk cargo
• Containerization
• Cargo ship
• Cargo airline
• Cargo cult
• Cargo scanning
• Freight
• Goods train
• Less-Than-Truckload (LTL) Shipping
• Packaging
• Products
• Goods

External links

• The Gallery of Transport Loss -- Photos & Lessons of Disaster

References

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from Wikipedia