NVO develops hybrid container for breakbulk cargo

St. Cloud, Minn.-based trucking and logistics firm Anderson Trucking Service created a prototype box that allows for the easy transfer of flatbed cargo for ocean shipping.    Anderson Trucking Service (ATS), which has developed a shipping container for transporting breakbulk freight, has successfully completed a trial run from the Port of Jacksonville to Puerto Rico, according to the company and the Jacksonville Port Authority.
   The Breakbulk Box allows shippers to load their cargo from the side, like a flatbed trailer. The lid and walls, built as a single top section, can then be lowered by a reach stacker or crane and secured to the deck with special lashing hooks to create an enclosed shipping container that can be handled like a standard shipping container.
   The St. Cloud, Minn.-based trucking and logistics firm said the innovation can reduce the overall cost of transport and protects products from potential damage because they don’t have to be individually picked up and transferred to and from a vessel, truck or rail car. Container ships typically operate more frequent schedules, giving shippers faster delivery options too. ATS also operates as an non-vessel operating common carrier (NVOCC) in the Caribbean and domestic trade lanes to Puerto Rico, Alaska and Hawaii.
   The high-cube 53-foot containers comply with international maritime regulations, ATS said.
   “The ease of loading traditionally non-containerized cargoes, and the ability to protect the cargo via a no-transfer option substantially reduce risk and improve security of the shipment. In addition, the multi-modal capabilities make the Breakbulk Box an evolutionary advancement in breakbulk shipping”, Steve Hastings, ATS’s director of operations, said in a statement. “Nobody out there has been able to offer something like this until now.”
   ATS is currently marketing the prototype container with plans to order at least 100 Breakbulk Box containers in the coming year, JaxPort said.