NEWS BLOG

RoRo, using specialist ocean going vehicle carriers, is the cheapest method for sending cars long trans-global distances when available. It is perfect when time is not a critical factor and when it suits the sender to unload the cargo in one of the specialist port facilities that handle these vessels.

Transporting electric vehicles internationally by shipping container is difficult enough, without worrying about fires and accidents due to improperly handled lithium batteries. But after a spate of aircraft fires caused by lithium batteries igniting on board, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) brought in a series of rules in 2009, and the United Nations classified lithium batteries as Class 9A dangerous goods. Unfortunately, the interpretation of these safety guidelines is a topic rife with misconception. So, let's discuss legal compliance for companies that transport electric cars by container.

Classic, race, high-performance, and veteran cars are hot commodities in the field of international car transport. So, shipping them across the world in containers has its risks and challenges. As they are vehicles of historical interest and high technological or nostalgic value, customers often worry that they're not suitable for container shipping. Thankfully, Trans-Rak has developed a range of racking solutions to address these concerns.

As the automotive industry makes the great shift to electric vehicles - or so the meteoric rise of Tesla and NIO in 2020 would have us believe - logistics businesses are finding themselves with a transportation headache. Traditional RoRo shipping simply doesn’t work for these vehicles, but why? And will it ever change?

An unsecured car in a shipping container risks being thrown about like a glass jar inside a shoebox, with similarly damaging results. This is why it is so important to use efficient, robust, and secure car racking when transporting your vehicles by shipping container.  

When transporting rally cars from one location to another, safety, cost effectiveness, and speed are top priorities. Rally cars can be transported by road, air, or sea, and each method has its pros and cons. Road transport may be cost effective, but it’s time consuming and entails added risks for the vehicle. Air freight can get rally cars from A to B safely and in a record amount of time, but the costs are high and in most cases, it’s only an option if you’re moving one vehicle at the time.

Container shipping is a very efficient and cost-effective way to transport cars across large distances, but the topic of containerised shipping for cars is fraught with misconceptions. One of the greatest of these is the idea that wooden racking is the safest and most reasonable option for the automotive transport industry. In reality, there are far better alternatives out there than this costly and outdated option.

In a globalised economy where manufacturers and final users are tens of thousands of miles apart, getting cars moved from origin to destination usually involves using several transportation options. In the automotive industry, it’s common to use a combination of sea, train, and road transport to get products from the factory to dealership.

2022 started with worrying news for the already constrained global supply industry. During the first days of January, the Chinese city of Yuzhou went into total lockdown. This comes only a few weeks after another major Chinese city (Xian) went into lockdown in December 2021.

Although formally discovered in 1906, the search for the fabled Northwest Passage was finally ended not by human endurance, but climate change. In 2007, 101 years after it was first mapped, the famous arctic sea route was ice free and open to container traffic. However, should we really be using it for container shipping?