Fullen Dock & Warehouse

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Containers Moving On Inland Waterways

Barge lines offer alternative to rail congestion

by Einat Paz-Frankel

MEMPHIS, Tenn.—(Aug. 4, 2006)—Moving intermodal containers by barge is gaining momentum. Rising fuel prices, full-to-capacity trains and congested highways and seaports have made moving containers on inland waterways an alternative for some shippers. This route bypasses three major bottlenecks -- West Coast seaports, East Coast seaports and U.S. rail systems.

"Rail congestion is so great all over the country," says Debra Thomas, vice president of traffic for cotton merchant Reinhart. "Containers-on-barge are alleviating the need for rail."

Swiss Reinhart, with U.S. headquarters in Dallas and a West Memphis warehouse, loads cotton from the Memphis area onto barges at the Fullen Dock and Warehouse terminal in North Memphis. From Memphis, the cotton containers travel to the Port of New Orleans and from there to mills around the world.

"We've shipped a tremendous amount of volume this year," she says. "January through July is our busiest season."

Declining to reveal volume figures, Thomas says Reinhart also uses intermodal services and that containers-on-barge is still a small part of its business.

"But it's beneficial and cost effective," she says. "My product is not perishable; what I'm concerned about is getting it loaded. Once it's moving, my needs are satisfied."

Thomas can move more containers simultaneously on a barge with smoother logistics. Containers that move from rail to steamship lines are handled many times and may arrive at seaports in increments, which causes delays in export.

A standard river barge can hold up to 81 containers, or 20 Foot Equivalent Units (TEUs), says Lanny Chalk, terminal manager at Fullen Dock and Warehouse. Launching a container-on-barge service in 2004 with one barge per week, Fullen Dock now loads three to 15 barges with containers weekly, he says. Fullen Dock provides local terminal services for Osprey Line, a Houston-based barge line.

"People ship all over the world by containers," Chalk says. "Their first thought is truck or rail. We've given them an alternative."

Time is a factor, so not every product may be shipped by barge. According to Chalk, it takes a barge three to five days to cruise from Memphis to New Orleans; the trip to northern destinations takes three additional days. In comparison, a truck or a train will haul a container between the Bluff and Crescent cities in eight to 10 hours.

However, barges are so much more fuel efficient, companies may soon realize they're worth the wait: one gallon of diesel fuel, which costs about $3, carries one ton of cargo 60 miles by truck, 202 miles by rail and 514 miles by barge, according to the Gulf Intracoastal Canal Association.

Declining to disclose exact numbers, Osprey Line president Christian O'Neal says the line's container-on-barge business has seen "a nice, steady increase" lately. He points out that whereas other modes of transportation are highly congested, the inland waterway system is underutilized, with abundant opportunities.

Don McCrory, executive director of the International Port of Memphis, says barges are mainly used to send back empty containers for reload. He estimates that of the 18 billion tons of cargo handled annually at the port, about 1% currently is container-on-barge.

Even though barges are fuel-efficient and environmentally friendly, there's considerable room for improvement, McCrory says, referring to the state of barges nationally.

"A lot of barges have reached their life maturity," he says. "The barge fleet needs to be built up again."

O'Neal says container-on-barge still holds untapped potential.

"As fuel prices skyrocket we'll see more people looking for barges as an alternative," he says.

According to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, O'Neal has reason to be optimistic, if recent trends persist. Domestic waterborne container traffic increased 41% from 5.16 million TEUs in 2003 to 7.3 million TEUs in 2004, the last year data is available.

The original article can be found at Memphis Business Journal.

Overview for Reporters and Editors

Fullen Dock and Warehouse is a full-service intermodal river terminal and warehousing facility located at Mile 740 of the lower Mississippi River, immediately north of Downtown Memphis. Fullen Dock clients include barge brokers, freight forwarders, and manufacturers requiring barge services, harbor and tug services, transshipment, trucking and storage within the Mid-South (Memphis, Tenn.) and to other continental U.S. regions. Fullen Stone stores, sells and transports a wide variety of aggregate products to the regional construction trade. Founded in 1979 in Memphis, "America's Distribution Center," Fullen is located near the junction of I-40 and I-55, with open rail access to CSXT, Burlington Northern, Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern. For more information on Fullen Dock and Warehouse or Fullen Stone, visit www.fullendock.com or call 800-467-7104.

Expert interview contacts and guest columnists

Fullen Dock provides expert interview contacts and guest columnists to trade publications and other press, as well as panelists for trade conferences. Their areas of expertise include inland waterways, doing business and working on the Mississippi River, the steel industry (distribution and logistics), intermodal logistics, homeland security (as it relates to inland waterways), and Memphis as a distribution center.

Press Contact: Brad Carmony, inferno, 901.278.3773, 980-429-0189 (cell), brad@creativeinferno.com

Photos: High-resolution versions of many of the photos on this site are available for publication, along with images of Fullen Dock and Warehouse officials.