Freight Terminals

Freight terminals are transportation nodes where freight or cargo is loaded or unloaded. Most freight terminals are located at ports and are intermodal, meaning that they process more than one mode of transportation—the simplest form, for instance, would be a terminal at a port where freight arrives by ship, is unloaded and warehoused, and then loaded onto trucks for delivery, or vice versa. Other modes may include aircraft and trains. Freight terminals may be ports, truck terminals located near airports, or train stations. Freight stations are train stations where freight is loaded and unloaded. They are placed both at the ends of the line and at breaks-of-gauge—where a railway of one gauge meets a railway of another gauge, preventing the train from continuing without converting gauges, making this a convenient point at which to move freight or passengers from one train to another, which is often faster than gauge conversion. (The major break-of-gauge still in use in the United States is in Antonito, Colorado. Most American rail systems are now standard gauge.)

Today most freight stations and many other freight terminals are transshipment terminals, meaning they handle freight that has not yet reached its destination but needs to be transferred from one vehicle to another (either from one train to another, or from a ship, plane, or truck to a train). Transshipment terminals are sometimes also called transport hubs, especially if they also handle passenger transport. When the shipment is international, transshipment usually occurs in a designated customs area, where customs checks can be performed and duties paid. For instance, cargo may arrive by freighter at a Pacific Coast port in the United States, having originated in Japan. It is inspected by the customs authority, the appropriate fees are paid, security checks are performed in order to comply with homeland security and immigration regulations, and the freight is then transferred to other modes of freight transport, which might include freight trains, cargo planes, long-haul trucks, short-haul delivery vehicles for delivery to the local region, or other ships bound for other ports. Some transshipment ports only count ship-to-ship freight transfers as transshipment.

All ports include a seaport terminal where maritime cargo is processed. Modern cargo transport is based principally on containerization, which uses reusable containers (called intermodal containers, shipping containers, freight containers, or just “boxes” in various literature) of standardized sizes to hold freight in transit. Steel straps, wooden braces, synthetic webbing, or polyester lashes are used to keep freight in place inside a container, and air bags are inflated to occupy any empty space to prevent shifting during transport. These containers stack and lock together and, when properly packed, allow for maximum efficiency in freight movement. The containers can be transported by any mode: though they are long (typically 20, 40, 45, and 53 feet in length), their height and width are within the constraints of train and truck transport (though “high cube” containers are too tall to travel certain routes). Freight terminals where containers can be transferred from one vehicle to another are called container terminals. Most major cities and ports have a container terminal.

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