Exploring International Transportation Options

Ocean Cargo Services

Forum Review the lecture notes, the recommended chapters of the textbook, and any additional items relevant to the module Lecture 5 course themes. Select one of the suggested topics (see below), and contribute with

(i) An initial posting of about 250 words, and

(ii) Comments and responses of about 100 words each to two or more existing posts made by your peers (at least two responses to two separate peers). Lecture 5 What two different types of ocean cargo services are there? Describe three different types of ships used in international ocean transportation. What type of cargoes are they used for?

(iii) Explain the concept of flag. Why does a ship need a flag?

(iv) What are the major initiatives of the world governments in terms of cargo security? Briefly describe the different types of air cargo services available. How does an air carrier determine how much a shipment will cost? What can a shipper do to reduce the costs of shipping a light but voluminous package?

(v) What is the purpose of an open-skies agreement? How different are the ground transportation alternatives in different areas of the world? Choose three different types of ocean containers and explain how they are used.

1. Deadweight Tonnage: the maximum weight that a ship can carry.

2. Bunker: the fuel that a ship carries onboard and that it needs to operate.

3. Stores: all the supplies that a ship needs to carry in order to operate.

4. Volumetric cubic capacity (Grain): cargo space available for loading directly onboard flowing cargo, without packing, such as grain (wheat, corn, sugar) or ore (iron, nickel, etc).

5 .Cubic space capacity (Bale): total volume of space available for loading of cargos such as bales and boxes.

6. Gross Tonnage (GT): total volume capacity of a ship, expressed in tones loaded below its deck; used for regulatory purposes to determine how much a ship owner will have to pay in taxes to the country in which the country is registered, or tolls to the authorities of visited ports or canals.

7. Gross Registered Tonnage (GRT): is the calculated by a particular authority net tonnage.

8. Net Tonnage: the volume capacity of a ship, after subtracting the space used for the operation of the ship.

9. Displacement tonnage: total weight of a fully loaded ship, measured by the weight of the water displaced.

10. Light tonnage: total weight of a empty ship, measured by the weight of the water displaced.

11. Load lines: marks on the site of the ship that indicate how low a ship can be in the water, depending on the season and conditions, where the deepest draft is the ‘Tropical line’ (T), then ‘Summer’ (S), ‘Winter’ (W), ‘Winter North-Atlantic’ (WNA).

1. Combination Aircraft A type of airline that is designed to carry both cargo and passengers at the same time on the main deck main deck is the largest deck on an aircraft (in a passenger aircraft where the passenger travels) lower deck is designed to carry cargo and luggage, located underneath the main deck of an aircraft.

2. Quick-Change Aircraft A type of airline that can be quickly converted from all-passenger service, with the use of palletized seat sections.

3. Airfreighters A type of airline dedicated to carrying cargo.

4. Roller deck A deck designed to carry cargo, and equipped with rollers and bearings that allow the cargo to be moved in any direction without much friction.