Transloading facilities Container cranes are used to transfer containers to/from container ships. The modern distinction between transloading and transshipment was not well codified in the period of the mid-19th through mid-20th centuries, when discussions of break of gauge often used the word transshipment for what today's careful usage would call transloading, or for any combination of transloading and transshipment. If this is specified as two shipments, then the goods are transshipped, but no transloading has taken place. Conversely, a load on a truck can be taken in one (legal) shipment to an intermediate point and then to its ultimate destination without ever leaving the truck. Or consider a package shipped through a package delivery service or by mail: it may change shipping mode several times along the trip, but since it is (from an external point of view) conveyed as a single shipment regardless of how it is conveyed or what else travels with it on the legs of its journey, it is not considered to be transshipped. It thus cannot be said to be transshipped. Consider a load of grain that is transloaded at an elevator, where it is combined with grain from other farms and thus leaves on the train as a distinct shipment from that in which it arrived. Transloading concerns the mechanics of transport, while transshipment is essentially a legal term addressing how the shipment originates and is destined. Transloading may be confused with transshipment, but in modern usage they represent different concepts. Intermodal transport limits handling by using standardized containers, which are handled as units and which also serve for storage if needed. For bulk goods, specialized material handling and storage are typically provided (as, for example, in grain elevators). Due to differing capacities of the different modes, the facilities typically require some storage facility, such as warehouses or rail yards. Therefore, transloading facilities are designed with the intent of minimizing handling. Since transloading requires handling of the goods, it causes a higher risk of damage. Transloading is also required at railroad break-of-gauge points, since the equipment can not pass from one track to another unless bogies are exchanged. Such a trip might require transport by truck to an airport, then by airplane overseas, and then by another truck to its destination or it might involve bulk material (such as coal) loaded to rail at the mine and then transferred to a ship at a port. It is most commonly employed when one mode cannot be used for the entire trip, such as when goods must be shipped internationally from one inland point to another.

Transloading, also known as cross-docking, is the process of transferring a shipment from one mode of transportation to another. JSTOR ( May 2009) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message)Ī transloading facility in Texas, between rail and road transport.Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. This article needs additional citations for verification.

Rail to truck transloading