Terminal Functions

Definition and Function Terminals have been variously defined. In a limited sense, a terminal is simply the beginning or the end of the line for a transportation operation. The term also applies to specific structures used for transportation purposes. In this chapter terminals are considered as the sum total of facilities and their locale where road-haul traffic is originated, terminated, and/or interchanged before, during, or after the road-haul movement, including the servicing of facilities for the vehicles and equipment in which the traffic is moved. Such a grouping of facilities does, true enough, usually occur at the end of a route, but it also occurs frequently at one or more intermediate points along the route.

Other terminal functions with appropriate facilities include holding and reconsignment, storage and warehousing, classification, concentration, and loading and unloading.

Terminals are as important in the transportation picture as line haul. In fact, terminal problems often surpass those of line haul in extent and complexity. Line haul, furthermore, has significance only if there is traffic to move. A terminal is the operational origin or destination of that traffic, or the point to which it is usually brought from outlying areas for consolidation prior to road movement or for distribution to those outlying points following a road haul.

From the standpoint of time alone, terminals possess more significance than line haul. For example, in the US, the average daily movement of a railroad freight car is about 57.4 miles. This is a distance that can normally be run in 1 hour. In other words, a freight car spends only 1 hour out of 24 in road movement. Most of the remaining 23 hours are spent in or at some terminal activity or facility-in yards, at the shipper's or consignee's door, in transfer, on repair tracks, etc. Bulk-cargo carriers will spend about 15 percent of their time in port on the Great Lakes but defer maintenance and repairs to the three winter months, when they don't sail at all. General-cargo ships may spend as much as 50 to 65 percent of their time in port. Airplanes spend 30 to 60 minutes at turnaround and principal stops per two hours of flying time; longer stops are required for classified repairs and maintenance. Much motor truck operation is confined solely to terminals, and a trailer will often require as much time for stripping and stowing as to make an overnight run.

The variety of terminal facilities needed or available and the investment in them is extensive. Railroad yards, freight stations, wharves, transit sheds, grain elevators, produce terminals, icing docks, car dumpers, tank farms, coal and ore docks, and shops and servicing equipment are among the more obvious of such facilities. Parking lots provide automobile storage; servicing occurs at the corner gas station.

Types of Traffic The types of traffic passing through a terminal have important effects on the operation and the facilities required (this is also true for road haul). One may distinguish between commodity and traffic types and the particular needs of each. Perishable fresh fruits and vegetables must be moved rapidly, kept cool by ventilating or icing in summer and warm by charcoal heaters in winter. Precooling plants for cars and trucks, icing docks, and produce terminals are typical of the facilities required. Frozen foods, fruit concentrates, and meats must be kept frozen by mechanical refrigeration, both in cars and trucks and in terminal buildings. Bananas and other perishables require holding and reconsignment yards and extensive communications so that cars may be diverted, en route, to the best markets. Granular bulks require grain elevators, coal docks, car dumpers, and conveyor loaders for storage and transfer. Hulett unloaders and bridge-mounted bucket cranes unload granulars from ships. Liquid bulks such as petroleum are stored in tank farms. Manufactured goods have great variety and high value, may require lifting equipment for transfer, and frequently require specially designed vehicles for their transport. Rapid movement is usually desirable. Livestock must have wayside loading pens and intermediate or terminal unloading chutes, pens, and water and feed facilities.

Coal, grains, and other dusty products pose problems of neighborhood nuisance and the hazards of explosion and fire. The latter hazard applies equally to petroleum and chemicals. Livestock movements are accompanied by offensive odours. The list of commodities and the special problems presented by each in terminal handling could be expanded almost indefinitely.

In addition to commodity types, one may further distinguish between general and bulk cargos, especially in water transport. General cargo, as the name implies, includes all types of cargo-processed, semi processed, and manufactured goods, and small shipments of what is usually termed bulk freight. Bulk freight applies principally to raw materials being moved in quantities and requiring special facilities for handling, transfer, and storage. Coal, ore, grain, petroleum, sulphur, molasses, etc. are a major part of this category, usually handled at private docks.

A new traffic category has arisen with the introduction of containerization and trailer-on-flatcar (sometimes called flatback traffic). Special designs of terminals are required for loading and unloading trailers and containers moving by rail. Elaborate container ports serve waterborne phases of this movement.

Loading and Unloading In addition to the obvious originating and terminating functions, terminals perform a variety of other services. A principal terminal function is that of loading and unloading the transport unit. Terminals at the Upper Lake ports load ships with ore, grains, and aggregates. Those at the Lower Lake ports provide unloading facilities plus car dumpers to load coal into some of the upbound vessels. Freight and transit sheds perform loading and unloading services for cars, trucks, and ships. Grain elevators, petroleum docks, etc. carry out these functions for specific commodities.

Traffic Concentration Concentrating traffic permits efficient and economic handling. Only trucks and airplanes, because of their small individual capacity, are suitable for the individual movement of single small shipments. Even with these it is helpful if freight can be concentrated in one freight house, or passengers at one airport ramp. In this respect, every freight facility, whether in a metropolitan centre or at country cross roads performs a terminal function. The country grain elevator concentrates grain from may farms so that freight cars can be loaded and sent on their way without the delays attendant on piecemeal loading. Similarly, grain is concentrated at terminals in train loads, tow loads, or ship loads in the secondary grain markets and elevators. In addition to the grading, drying, blending, and storage functions performed, the grain elevator brings about rapid loading and unloading of ships and cars, keeping turnaround and terminal time to a minimum. Elevator storage is a prime function in the marketing of grain.

LCL freight is similarly accumulated and concentrated into large tonnages in freight houses of piggyback companies, motor freight lines, airlines, and freight-forwarding agencies. General cargo is concentrated for water movement in transit sheds and other waterfront storage areas or in loaded cars in nearby supporting and holding yards.

Another aspect of traffic concentration is the act of pickup or collection. Individual freight shipments must be brought to the freight house or transit shed by rail or highway, or barge. Local LCL freight may be brought to the freight house in the shipper’s own trucks, in the vehicle of an independent for-hire trucker, or in the vehicle of a pickup-and-delivery service provided by the line-haul carrier in its own or contracted vehicles.

Car lots moving by rail are concentrated in railroad classification yards for makeup into trains. Individual cars for loading are ordered by the shipper through the freight agent, usually from that same yard, and brought to the shipper’s door (or to a public delivery yard) by local switching service called switch runs. Switch runs also take the loaded cars back to the classification yard. In river traffic, individual barges are loaded at industrial docks or public-transit sheds and brought together to make a tow, either by small pusher tugs, or by the principal towboat. Often one industry has enough traffic to load a complete tow.

Concentrating Less Traffic Load (LTL) freight in freight houses permits rapid loading of trailers. Also, trailers may be left for loading while the tractors perform service elsewhere.

In making detailed deliveries, the reverse of the foregoing operations prevails. Inbound freight is unloaded and concentrated at transit sheds, freight houses, railroad yards, and in stock piles and tank farms preparatory to detailed distribution to the consignees by switch runs, delivery services, or the consignees' own trucks or agents. Warehouses, elevators, tank farms, and stockpiles hold quantities of goods in central locations for detailed distribution over longer periods of time as required.

Interchange Much freight reaching a terminal is destined for another point and requires transfer to a similar or different mode of carriage to complete the journey. This is a function of classification yards from which carload transfers to other railroads are made, of the transfer platforms of freight houses, and of transfer piers and lighters. Railroads coordinate the interchange of bulk granulars with ships at ore and coal docks, grain elevators, etc. Pipelines interchange with ships and barges and with railroads through tank farms and flexible nozzles at loading docks. Airports aid in the transfer between airlines and between air and ground transport. Rapid-transit stations permit transfer from one line to another.

Classification One last highly important terminal function is classification. This reaches its highest state of development in railroad classification yards, where cars are sorted into groups of like destination (or grade, commodity, or similar grouping). From there the cars are placed in trains of appropriate destination. A freight house or transit shed performs a similar sorting or classifying function for the shipments there tendered so that LCL freight of like destination is placed in a car or truck going to that destination.

Storage and Warehousing These too are terminal functions. Grain is stored in elevators. Warehouses hold imports awaiting customs inspection, quarantine periods, or being held for detailed distribution over an extended time period. Strategically located warehouses serve as break-bulk points permitting the lower rates of car-load and truck-load movement into a distribution area from which local distribution can be made in small lots. Warehouses also permit ready access to needed goods from nearby areas.

Reconsignment The final destination of goods is not always known because of a critical market or other conditions. Goods are billed to an intermediate destination and held there by the carrier until final destination instructions have been received. The shipment is then forwarded. Reconsignment, most frequently practiced by railroads, calls for holding tracks or yards, switch engines to service those tracks, and necessary communications and supervision. Reconsignment in transit may be combined with storage or milling, for example, in transit.

Servicing and Maintenance Vehicles and craft must be fueled, cleaned, inspected, and given running repairs. Water tanks and sand boxes must be filled, oil changed in the engines, and food and other supplies replenished. Terminal facilities for these operations include airplane hangers, mobile fueling and servicing units, locomotive terminals (engine houses), dry docks, garages-and the ubiquitous service station on the corner.

Interface One of the most important functions a terminal performs is making the transportation system and its services available to the shipping and traveling public. It is the interface between the user and the carrier. It is also the interface between carriers of like mode and between carriers of different modes. The interface problem of coordination is discussed later in the chapter.