Environmental Comparison of 150-foot Foldable Containers Used on Highways

How many foldable containers are needed for the Inland network?

Out of a total of about 5000 containers, an estimated fleet and critical mass of just 695 foldable containers are required for the inland network under study (and the rest of the containers being conventional ones), with a 71% load factor on the back haul.

Can repositioning empty containers reduce the cost of hinterland transport?

Shintani et al. (2010) focused on three scenarios for repositioning empty containers with foldable and standard containers in a hinterland, and the results showed that using foldable containers could reduce the total management cost for hinterland transport compared with the use of standard containers.

How will foldable containers affect exporters?

Despite the increase in operational complexity, one foreseeable impact of foldable containers is that the availability of empty containers for exporters should logically improve, since carriers would find it cheaper to rebalance stocks of foldable containers between IPI locations, as represented in Leg F of Fig. 2.

Are full containers better than empty containers in River repositioning?

This research can also be extended in several directions. First, compared with empty container repositioning in river transport, full containers have different vessel height contributions and draught contributions to a given type of vessel. Considering empty and full containers simultaneously is more practical.