b'34American Journal of TransportationNOVEMBER 20 - DECEMBER 17, 2023(REEFERScontinued(GIANTcontinued fromall of it is managed by propri- people are driving forklifts. (NICHEcontinued from from page 32) page 30) etary software.Inahighlyautomatedpage 27)IMFBlogentitledClimateon storage. Thefirstphaseofthelargewarehouse,hesaid,year the port added Nissan as a Change is Disrupting GlobalFoodsupplychainsareLebanondevelopment,whichpeople operate the systems,Brunswick customer in 2023, Trade outlines how droughtnow all about ordering todayrecently opened, was designedmaintainthetechnologyhandling Nissan imports from hasimpactedthePanamaandshippingtomorrow,around manually loading andthat manage the flow of theJapanandMexico.CMA-Canal and threatens the mari- according to Swarttouw. Theunloading trucks, while out- warehouse,andworkwithCGMstartedshort-seaser-time infrastructure and inter- verylargefoodcompaniesgoingshipmentsarestagedcustomers.Alloftheseareviceforvehiclesbetween national trade.] thatweresupporting,heautomatically.Atthelasthigher skilled and higher paidBrunswickinJulyandGold But even with the increasedadded, need large consolida- 30feet,ahumanoperatingjobs, and we still have peopleStar started a similar Mexico-outsourcing and supply shockstionwarehouseswheretheya forklift picks up the palletthat play the very importantBreakbulk route in November.the perishable business tendsbring together food producedand loads it onto the truck,roles of loading and unload- Brunswick will add 640,000 tobeaNorth-Southtrade,at multiple factories and shipsaid Swarttouw.ing trucks, restacking pallets,square feet of auto and machin-and even with vast improve- productsinthesametrucksOncethefacilityisand correcting damages. eryprocessingspaceacross mentsinreefertechnologytotheircustomers.Thatsexpanded,theplanistoUltimately,thepointoffive buildings. About 350,000 theyarelonganddemand- moreefficientthanotheruseautomatedloadingandbuildingextra-largecold-stor- square feet of near-dock ware-ing voyages. For that reason,operations,wherethefoodunloading equipment. Wereagewarehousesistocreatehousinghasalreadybeen whether it is slow steaming,to be shipped to customers ispushingtheboundariesbystrategic transportation hubs,completed.Theportisalso blanksailings,portomis- located in 10 or 20 differentautomatingprocesseswhereaccordingtoSwarttouw.Adeveloping 122 acres dedicated sions or simply longer routeswarehouses. that makes sense for our cus- million pallets a year will goto roll-on/roll off cargo. whatever adds days to theInNewColdsLebanontomers, said Swarttouw. in and out, creating a centerTheportauthorityhas transit, ultimately impacts thefacility,conveyorsystemsHuman resources are notof gravity in the market, healso received federal approval equipment and alters the flu- automatemuchofthepalletneglectedinahighlyauto- said.Thatmakesitmoreto build a fourth ro/ro termi-idity of the supply chain. handling activities and stackermatedwarehouse,accordingefficientfortransportationnal at Colonels Island.To a degree, reefers tendcranes reach the higher levelstoSwarttouw,wheretheircompaniestopickupandTheupgradeswillbring to suffer less than dry cargoof the storage areas. The facil- impact on the flow of goodsdelivergoodsanditsmorethe Port of Brunswicks roll-in terms of being subject toityalsousesautomatedcaseishuge,andmuchlargerpossibletocombinesmalleron/roll-off capacity from 1.2 slowertransitservices.Ofpickingtofulfillordersthatthaninconventionalware- orders into one truck and sig- millionto1.4millionvehi-course,thelongerthetran- are less than full palletsandhouseswheremostofthenificantly reduce mileage.cles per year.sit,themoreequipmentis needed for any trade because oftheequipmentvelocity decreasing.In terms of reefer trades, typicallythereareservices that are kind of targeted for reefer trades that are not slow transit, but faster transit. So, they try to preserve some of those services to cater to the reefershippers,importers, and traders, Tuthill said.t her eeferr eiMagineDIt is often said that neces-sityisthemotherofinven-tionandclimatechangeis thenecessitynudging,if not pushing, invention in liner shipping.Andthereefer asafacetofthatparadigm isundergoingtechnological changes.WhenTuthillwas askedabouthowmuchthe reefer is changing as part of thequesttobemorecom-pliantwithIMOmandates, Tuthillsaid,Obviouslythe machineryisgoingtocon-tinuetoadvance.Compres-sorswillbemoreefficient; evaporators will be more effi-cient.Themachineryitself will probably continue to be designed with better technol-ogy thats tied to controllers, tomakeitmoreefficient. Onthecontainersideitself, I think theres going to con-tinuetobeadvancementin some of the insulation, foam-ingandconstructionbeing lighter, more sustainable, and more durable.Therealreadyhasbeen some other technological inno-vationsintemperatureman-agement,mostlyindomestic trades, such as running three differenttemperatureenvi-ronments in a single unit. But Tuthill points out there is the idea of trying to be more effi-cientwithtri-modal.What Imeanbythat,isbetween vessel,truck,rail,withthe goalofimprovingefficien-cies and with that addressing environmental goals over the entire supply chain.'