Cargo Transport

Lord High Munchkin said:

Hey yourself!

rust said:
ई वोउल्द् प्रेफ़ेर् अ मोरे चुल्तुरेद लङ्गुअगे.

Bing Hindi translator kinda puked on that one, but using the ol noggin I read that as "I would prefer a more cultured language"?

By the way, Esperanto IS a more cultured language. It's got all KINDS of culture in it!!

Condottiere said:
Th' engines cannae tak' it anymair, Captain.

Sorry Scotty. Beam me outa this. :)
 
Didn't see it posted but here's a couple of items to ponder.

a single 20' container is about 38.5 m3 or about 2.75 dT
2 TEU would be 5.5 dT.

I could see a cargo system where you had a larger 50 or 100 dT cargo unit that was moved by shuttles to the freighter.

On planet that module would in turn be packed with multiple 5 dT units, or roughly 10 to 20 per large cargo module. That would allow the cargo to be broken down for distribution while still allowing larger payloads to be assembled for large freighters. (If we want to get precise, the actual size would have to be tweaked to allow for the volume of the containers themselves, but you get the general idea. Unless the 5dT containers magnetically locked together to form the 50 or 100 dT module, that could work too.)

A bit of quick checking, there are about 10,000 super freighter ships operating on Earth's oceans today. Each is able to carry an average of about 16,000 TEUs or about 44,000 dT of cargo in Traveller terms. If only 1% of that were available for off-world trade that would still be around 4.5 million dT of cargo per month. So for trade between high pop worlds along trade mains, there could be quite a few large cargo starfreighters operating.

One thing I've always done in my campaigns was to rule that such lucrative routes were controlled by companies who had effective monopolies on those trade routes (meaning free traders likely couldn't get cargos, or if they do it'll be low value "crumbs"). Small free traders were pushed out to the "feeder" routes where the pickings were much slimmer, which helped control how much money they could make and prevent runaway economies.
 
I've seen mention of 300 and 2000 ton containers. Either the megacorps have their individual standardized freight, or more likely, the Imperium issues a set of guidelines for interstellar trade containers.
 
Condottiere said:
I've seen mention of 300 and 2000 ton containers. Either the megacorps have their individual standardized freight, or more likely, the Imperium issues a set of guidelines for interstellar trade containers.

That large will be carrier (as in, class or maker of ship) specific. Like the 4 ton containers, they will be pre-packed awaiting a carrier. Unlike the 4 ton containers, these may well be sub-craft in their own right, or at least be able to loiter in orbit while the megacorp carrier unloads the incoming set and grabs the next set. You probably don't load these while the ship is waiting unless your schedule has gone bad.
 
Condottiere said:
I've seen mention of 300 and 2000 ton containers. Either the megacorps have their individual standardized freight, or more likely, the Imperium issues a set of guidelines for interstellar trade containers.

Keep in mind the maxim - form follows function. Containerized cargo traveling in the future will follows the same efficiencies that are followed today. Cargo being packed at the factor for delivery elsewhere (on-planet, in-system or extra-solar) will remain in the same container for as long as possible to get to the final delivery point. That's how most cargo moves in bulk today.

Cargo that doesn't move like that moves, usually, one of two other ways. The first is that packages destined for a location get loaded in bulk via containers/trucks and then are transported to a location where they get unloaded, resorted and reloaded for final destinations. This is a hub-and-spoke type form of transport. The final way is for outsized, specialized cargo's that require special transport or some other reason (for example outsized electronic drafting tables). These are packed in trucks and shipped from freight depot to freight depot, where they get mixed up in other cargo's to get to the closest depot destination, and are then loaded onto truck for final delivery. It's hub-and-spoke still, but far less efficient due to the type of the cargo. It's also more expensive.

Take for example physical mail packages. These would be collected from local points around a planetary system and collated into one shipment to the next system (assuming there isn't enough traffic to have them delivered directly to the final destination system). They would be loaded onto mail containers, sealed and then loaded onto bonded freighters (with gunz!). The freighter then jumps to the destination and unloads the containers, perhaps taking on another set and then moving again. The containers are taken to a central depot to go through customs and are then re-sorted for delivery to the planet/stations/planets in the system. At each point along the way they might get unloaded, re-sorted, then reloaded till they get to the local post offices for local delivery. What would work in the future for a package is no different than how a package is shipped across continents today, except you will substitute starships for aircraft, ships and trucks.

As GypsyComet pointed out, those large 300 and 2000 ton containers will most likely be used to transport multiple smaller containers, or bulk cargo (like grain or oversized cargo). It's faster to load/unload larger containers and then pick up new ones than it is to unload each container individually. That can be accomplished faster and cheaper and then your cargo gets pre-positioned for loading on the next scheduled transport. Today, at least in the US, there are rail cargo's called "hot-shots" that the major rail carriers schedule for cross-country trips. They are almost always high-priority cargo like mail, UPS/FedEx, or perishables. These trains only stop for fuel and crew-changes. If necessary, the engines get swapped out and the train never, ever gets broken up till it arrives at its destination. These trains are usually 10,000ft long (two US miles), carrying about 280 containers (usually 48 to 53ft each). That's somewhere in the neighborhood of 2,000 Dtons of freight.

Keep in mind that these containers will also need to get delivered to a location. So a giant 300 Dton container isn't exactly sized to be driven around town. Delivery vehicles will deliver 1-2, possibly as many as 4 semi-sized containers. Beyond that you probably will only see containers of that size being moved from shipping port to shipping port, except for special deliveries.
 
That why I was thinking 5 dT containers. That's roughly equivalent to a 40' or 2 TEU container, seems versatile enough that a variety of TL societies could move it with ground craft, ships, grav craft, etc.

I'm thinking maybe these containers would lock together magnetically to form larger cargo modules. So at the factory you have individual 5 dT containers being loaded with trade items. These containers get transported by truck, ship, barge, train, grav carrier, etc. to the down port. At the down port cargo handlers stack them into 50 or 100 dT blocks magnetically locked together. Cargo shuttles then lift these blocks to the orbital high port where they are collected and assembled into 500 or 1000 dT blocks. At the same time medium size freighters are bringing in more blocks from feeder lines (surrounding worlds that produce too little to be serviced by the big super freighters). Upon the arrival of a super freighter, its cargo of say 50 of these 1000 dT modules (50,000 dT of cargo) are quickly unloaded in less than a day. The ship is given routine service and maintenance (basic diagnostics check, life support is restocked, etc.) while the crew enjoys some shore leave. The new cargo is loaded and in maybe 3 days its headed back out to the next stop on its route. On a high pop hub world there might be hundreds of these super freighters arriving every month moving cargo about the 3I.

Meanwhile the inbound cargo is broken down into 50 to 100 dT blocks. These are loaded onto medium sized freighters that head out to surrounding worlds. The rest of the cargo is either sent down to the planet or re-bundled to be picked up by the next super freighter heading further down the line.

All this would be handled by large commercial shipping companies that have pre-arranged cargoes. So there would be little left for free traders. Maybe you get lucky and some small company needs something delivered fast, or there was a shipping error and more cargo was booked than could actually be carried, but such situations would be pretty hit or miss.

So our humble 5 dT container is actually sealed against vacuum. It makes its journey from the factory where it is packed with trade goods across continents and into space where it is taken to entirely new worlds, unloaded, shipped across still more continents before finally being delivered to its destination. After which, if its lucky, it gets repainted and reused for another cargo... otherwise it ends up sold for scrap. Or maybe some enterprising individual makes a house out of it, or a doomsday bunker, or it becomes part of a storage facility for people needing to store all that extra junk they bought on ISSN (InterSteller Shopping Network)... which reminds me, ACT NOW, get this lovely talking children's holobook explaining the adventures of Bob the Shipping Container for only 5.95 Cr and only on ISSN your shopping network... only 1,694,928,617 copies left.

Remember, trade is the lifeblood of the Imperium so do your duty citizen and BUY BUY BUY!

Thoughts?
 
matryoshka.jpg


I've never disregarded the Matryoshka aspect of containerization, which is how we do it today.

However, one reason we use rectangles is because it fits neatly on a number of transport platforms. With grav lifters, having containers that fit into a specific ground transport infrastructure becomes less essential.

For Mongoose, the 2kT may be standard because it doesn't require sectionalization. The smallest may be a cubic metre sealed box on a pallet (I doubt any shipping company would seriously entertain anything below this size, or the economies of scale may have shifted upwards in the future, in which case this goes by courier).
 
Bardicheart said:
That why I was thinking 5 dT containers. That's roughly equivalent to a 40' or 2 TEU container, seems versatile enough that a variety of TL societies could move it with ground craft, ships, grav craft, etc.

From the first appearance of the Subsidized Merchant, the 4 dton container has been the defacto standard. While this is due as much to the chosen floor grid scale as much as anything else, it is a handy size. A bit wider than our modern containers, but within the range of lengths. In that model, 2-, 3-, 5- and 6-dton containers could also appear. Anything above that is comprised of the standard sizes, and anything below that is break-bulk.
 
I think at those sizes they are more "modules", space-rated, probably available with built-in gravitics but not power unless built as a "reefer". Whatever carries them to the shipping point provides the power...

Alternately, you make a stop at 30 tons, and/or shape the 50-ton modules to fit in a Cutter (making it "fat" by 20 tons) allowing you to make use of an already documented (in GURPS Trav, granted) infrastructure and design school built around the Modular Cutter. Thirty tons is several times the size of a modern truck-mounted tanker trailer, yet still a handy size for localized loading and handling in a grav-equipped industrial center. An alternate rectangular 30-ton module is seen on the QLI "Salamander" A2 variant from "The Forgotten War" and "The Gabriel Enigma".

You can extend the model to larger sizes, extending the infrastructure to larger sizes as well. I have a 200-ton "pod" with a hexagonal cross-section (inspired by the Robotech-Genesis Climber Horizont Transport) that can be built with or without its own engines and bridge, is stackable, can be carried by dedicated ships, or used as an impromptu office building. You don't realize how big 200 tons is until you have to buy office furniture for it...

There have been ships published that use a similar model, both larger and smaller. It is suggested that the 10kton Bulk Freighter in MegaTraveller is more than a little modular, for example.
 
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