1 Multimodal ▪ 2 piggyback ▪ 3 intermodal ▪ 4 unaccompanied

5 Block train ▪ 6 single-wagon

a The driver does not stay with his road vehicle during transport by rail or ferry.

b Goods are transported in the same loading unit or vehicle using different modes of transport.

c A single shipper uses a whole train which is run directly from the loading point to the destination. No assembling and disassembling is required.

d Carriage of goods by at least two different modes of transport, e.g. shipping by motor lorry and aircraft.

e Train is formed out of individual wagons or sets of wagons which have different origins and different destinations.

f Combines road and rail transport: whole motor lorries, trailers or swap-bodies^* are carried by rail.

^*swap-body – знімний кузов для змішаних автомобільно-залізничних перевезень

(a-4, b-3, c-5, d-1, e-6, f-2)

Exercise 7 Read the presentation of an employee of a transport company about some container option to a potential client.

First of all, we offer the general purpose container for any general dry cargo. It comes with a timber floor and has various lashing devices¹ to secure the load. These lashing points are located horizontally at floor level and vertically next to the door corner posts.

Our refrigerated container, called ‘reefer’, can be used for delicate cargo and perishables. It is temperature-controlled and is particularly suitable for cargo that needs regulated or cool temperatures. With our reefer your cargo reaches its destination in perfect condition. If you want to ship liquids, for example, foodstuffs or chemicals, we can provide you with our ‘tanktainer’. This is a standard container frame with a tank fitted inside. As an extra, we also offer tank containers with electric plugs in case the cargo needs cooling or heating during transport.

For bulky cargo we recommend the open-top container. It comes with a PVC tarpaulin² cover instead of a roof panel to allow loading from the top. The doors can be removed to make loading easier.

Last but not least, there is our ‘flat-rack’ container which is especially designed for heavy loads. We recommend this special type of container for the transportation of heavy machinery and pipes.

¹lashing device – пристрій для кріплення вантажу

²PVC tarpaulin – поліхлорвініловий брезент

b) Complete the table with the missing information.

type of container	suitable for transport of
1
2
3 tanktainer
4
5 flat-rack

c) Complete the sentences with the words from the box.

level ▪ tarpaulin ▪ frame ▪ machinery

lashing ▪ removed ▪ controlled ▪ plugs

1. It comes with a timber floor and has various … devices to secure the load. 2. These lashing points are located horizontally at floor … . 3. It is temperature- … and is particularly suitable for cargo that needs regulated or cool temperatures. 4. This is a standard container … with a tank fitted inside. 5. As an extra, we also offer tank containers with electric … in case the cargo need cooling or heating during transport. 6. It comes with a PVC … cover instead of a roof panel to allow loading from the top. 7. The doors can be … to make loading easier. 8. We recommend this special type of container for the transportation of heavy … and pipes.

Exercise 8 a) Sort the goods under the correct heading.

perishable cargo	non-perishable cargo	heavyweight and overwidth cargo

Meat, steel pipes, crude oil, fresh produce, industrial boilers, seafood, alcohol, dairy products, tractors, chilled or frozen foodstuffs, harmful chemicals

b) Say which of the following containers you would recommend for the different types of cargo: reefer, flat-rack container, tank container.

Exercise 9 The following statements describe the advantages and disadvantages of transportation by road, rail, sea and air. Discuss which are advantages and which are disadvantages and decide which forms of transport the statements refer to.

Low capacity of load; high travelling speed; transhipment to other forms of transport is essential; very high capacity of load; high speed delivery; restrictions on weight and size; rarely affected by weather conditions; inflexible timetabling; delays due to bad weather; world-wide transport operation; quicker and cheaper for distances up to 200 km; operating and maintenance costs are high; heavier packaging; slow speeds; quicker and cheaper for distances over 200 kilometers; no transshipment – door-to-door delivery; low speed over long distances; flexibility in regular or special deliveries; less frequent services.

Exercise 10 Choose from the words in the box to complete the passage.

cargo, Excise, documents, consignments, services, forwarding, destination, shipping, manifest, cleared

The … carried by a ship is listed in the …, which is a list of the bills of lading covering all the … on that vessel for that voyage. It is just one of the … that are involved in the shipping of goods; the insurance policy and commercial invoice are among the others. The Customs and … authorities will examine all these.

Clearing and … agents are often used to handle the transportation of goods. They will arrange for the loading and unloading of the goods and arrange the dock … that are needed.

The … marks, which are stenciled* on the cases, provide an easy way of identifying the items in a consignment when they are unloaded. The marks are described in the manifest, which is again inspected when the goods are … through Customs on reaching their … .

* to stencil – маркувати по трафарету

Exercise 11 a) Read the text about multimodal transportation.

Rail transports over 100 million tonnes of goods worth around £30 billion every year, while demand is predicted to grow by 30 per cent through to 2020. Rail can be cheaper than other forms of transport, particularly over long distances, and can offer greater reliability and time savings.

Multimodal transport is a transportation system usually operated by one carrier with more than one mode of transport. It involves a combination of truck, railcar, aeroplane or ship in succession to each other. As to the advantages of multimodal transport one should mention that it minimises loss of time and the risk of loss, pilferage and damage to cargo at trans-shipment points; provides faster transit of goods; reduces burden of documentation and formalities; saves cost due to through freight rates and a lower cost of cargo insurance; establishes only one agency to deal with; reduces cost of exports and improve their competitive position in the international market.

Currently, different types of multimodal transport operations involving rail transport in different combinations are taking place, such as:

- Land-Sea-Land (an empty container is picked up from a container yard in Singapore and trucked to a manufacturer in Malaysia for stuffing, thereafter the FCL is trucked to Singapore and transported by ocean vessel to New York, rail from New York to a consignee’s warehouse in Chicago)

- Rail-Road-Inland Waterways-Sea (in common use when goods have to be moved by sea from one country to another and one or more inland modes of transport such as rail, road or inland waterways, have to be used for moving the goods from an inland centre to the seaport in the country of origin or from the seaport to an inland centre in the country of destination);

- Mini-bridge (movement of containers from a port in one country to a port in another country and then by rail to a second port city in the second country, terminating at the rail carrier’s terminal in the second port city, in operation on certain routes in the United States, the Far East, Europe, and Australia);

- Land bridge (shipment of containers overland as a part of a sea-land or a sea-land-sea route, in operation on certain important international routes such as between Europe or the Middle East and the Far East via the Trans-Siberian land bridge; and between Europe and the Far East via the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of the USA);

- Piggyback (a combination of road and rail, becoming more popular due to combination of the speed and reliability of rail on long hauls with the door-to-door flexibility of road transport);

- Sea train (use of rail and ocean transport in which rail cars are shipped by sea and then simply driven off the vessel so that geographically separated rail systems can be connected by the use of an ocean carrier, these vessels are long and thin and consist of one main deck running the length of the ship);

New infrastructural developments propose the world to create a seamless flow of traffic e.g. the channel tunnel linking England and France, the Oresund Bridge linking Sweden and Denmark. As these projects have become reality so the flow of traffic changes. Other changes such as global warming pose the potential for new routes to open up via the northern sea between Russia’s northern border and the North Pole.

b) Answer the following questions to the text.

1. What are the advantages of rail transportation? 2. What do these figures stand for: 100 mln tones, £30 billion, and 30%. 3. What modes of transport can multimodal transport include? 4. Name some advantages of multimodal transport regarding money saving. 5. What types of multimodal transport involving rail transport are mentioned in the text? 6. Choose the combination of modes of transportation for delivering the consignment from Bombay to Kharkiv. Use the schemes mentioned in the text.

Exercise 12 a) Here is an extract from a manual providing rail loading instructions. Complete the sentences with words from the box.

carefully ▪ attention ▪ overhanging ▪ sure ▪ place ▪ examine ▪ secure