I read an article about a container ship called the ONEApus that just dumped 1800-1900 container overboard into the Pacific during a rough a storm. It mentioned that some of them were “dangerous goods containers”. Is that something like Hazmat in containers?
The article said that about 1200 containers a year end up on the ocean floor. It made me wonder. How many containers a year are lostin railroad accidents?
Yes, they could contain any type of hazardous material in bags, metal or plastic drum or containers.
Caldreamer
Admittedly their grammar needs some improvement, but these guys are in the business, and explain it for you.
Thanks for the link. That was educational. What kind of things usually travel in that type of container? Is it considered HazMat on a railroad?
My experience was that shipping companies had some pretty hard rules on what they would or would not carry – not being “common carriers” as the railroads are. So much of the worst hazardous material might just plain not ride in containers, or might be found in “dangerous goods tank containers” which would essentially be armored versions of hazmat-qualified tankcar practice – you don’t see very many of those, and I suspect the ones you do are highly specialized and high-value materials.
Of course who knows what gets shipped from port to port in boxes that are stripped and stuffed at the behest of the ocean shipping lines? Might be all sorts of awful there, but we would never find out… certainly not if it accidentally went overboard, or was damaged in some stupid handling failure…
Note that they show an angry-looking ‘poison’ symbol in their drawings, and they mention ‘explosion-proofing’ as one of the special accommodations, so yes, I think some bad things could be accommodated…
The following site appears not to have been updated in recent years, however, it does give one a sense of what happens in the world of world wide transportation
To add to Overmods response; when I was handling logistics for a chemical company, we shipped liquid bulk hazmat in ISO’s and a crystalline oxidizer in super sacks in twenty foot box containers. Most shipping lines place a limit on the number of ISO’s or box containers of hazmat allowed on board a single vessel according to the hazard class of the product in each container or ISO.
This limit per ship could at times make hitting our customers requested ship date challenging as the carrier booking systems didn’t appear to take any of these hazmat limits into consideration at the time the booking was accepted. When the carrier was preparing the stowage plan for the vessel right before the ship arrived in port; it was only then they would decide they had too many of this or too much of that. Containers or ISO’s that went over the limit were then rolled to a subsequent sailing.
Curt
Dangerous Goods and Haz-Mat: Pretty much mean what they describe in their names.
On-land, and in this country; Controls are heavily regulated by both Federal and States. Regulations are also backed up in State Regulations; which will, generally, mirror what the Federal Codes specify.
Each State has enforcement agencies that monitor the flows of commercial traffic, for not only trucking, but also railroads, as well. The enforcement issues for trucking are failrly evendent; as one travels about the country…
The enforcement personnel for railroads, work mostly out of sight of the public, checking mostly, paperwork, and in areas away from view of the regular public. Enforcement personnel, are employed by many different official branches of the States. From Highway Patrols, to Officers of the various Secretaries of State Enforcement personnel, to Business Liscensing Agencies of States, Local Police Departments and Sheriff’s Offices may also field Enforcement Agents, as well.
Enforcement of water-born carriage is mostly, done by agents of/ and for, the U.S. Coast Guard, who will board vessels to check out compliance issues.
Railroad containers being shipped by rail, in this country are required to disaplay, their speciffic, designated placcards; placed on all sides of the container, similarly, to the placement of placcards on rail carload shipments (either for a returning empty car, and surely, for the loaded portion of the trip.)
Murphy,
For everyday use, Dangerous Goods are what we call hazardous materials. If you want to go beyond that you are looking at reading two thick boring books, ours and theirs.
Armoured containers exist only in Overmod’s imagination. Packaged hazmat goes in whatever run of the mill dry container happens to be handy. If you are lucky, the shipper might block and brace the rear doors the keep the packages in the container.
Intermodal tank containers for bulk liquid are built to specifications, but none of them qualified for my vision of armoured when I was in the rail side of hazmat transportation.
Mac McCulloch
Claiming I said anything about ‘armored containers’ exists only in Mac’s imagination. If you got that from the Australian site I linked, take it up with them.
I would assume that there are methods they use to deal with “explosions” associated with containers, but that’s because they said so, not because I fact-checked what they meant.
Other than that, I wouldn’t presume to know more than Mac about these operations, just like I wouldn’t presume to know more than Tree about effective response to accidents to railborne dangerous-goods containers, other than to note that ‘their’ data volume is here, now in a couple of interesting and handy formats:
https://www.phmsa.dot.gov/hazmat/erg/emergency-response-guidebook-erg
I enjoyed that link.
It appeared to me that they manufacture storage containers as well as shipping containers and, perhaps intentionally, fail to distinguish between the two. Noticing what appeared to be spark proof lighting fixtures, and enclosed switches in their container identified as “explosion proof”.
I was a little intrigued by the presence of what appeared to be plywood lining in these dedicated-purpose containers as well, wondering if the goal was to provide a spark free lining, or if perhaps the plywood was intended to bridge seams during an explosion to reduce the likelihood of bursting?
Are shipping companies legally responsible for the fate of boxes lost at sea or is it out of sight, out of mind?
Gramps
Here you go
See also Balt’s link earlier in this post (infuriating though it may be to welter through the 1990s Internet site design to find the relevant information). That company’s prime business is indicated by their name.
I’ve pasted in a link to an update on the ONE Apus below. They have made a modest reduction in the number of “cans” lost. Note this is the second incident in about a month involving an Ocean Network Express vessel.
The update also noted wave heights at the time of the ONE Apus incident were around 16 meters.
Curt
https://gcaptain.com/one-apus-returning-to-japan-after-losing-record-number-of-containers/
Here’s something that isn’t considered hazmat on the road but on the rails and seas it is considered hazmat. That product is unexpanded polystyrene pellets. It is not considered a hazmat considered but on the rails it is along with on the sea it is.
Thanks, SD 60 and OM.
If they pitch one of those into the ocean, does it float?
No they are not and your reading comprehension and knowledge of the industry need improvement. That website is for a salvagecompany that takes damaged containers and repairs or modifies them for other use. The largest of these is Mobile Mini which made them into storage and office boxes for construction and such. Every port has a few of these outfits that take damaged containers and salvage them and sell the product on the local market. They are not for use as steamship containers. If they were the website would have cheerfully cited the inspection bureaus that approve them. For a container to be used in marine transportation it must be inspected and registered just as a railcar is.
There was no reference to an “explosion proof” container. There was a photo of an “explosives” container. It is used for storages of explosive material. Many insurers will void your coverage it you store such in a covered building so you buy this thing and now it protected but not in your building.
It might that stuff has a density of less than 1 so it is lighter than water already. Around here it’s hauled 2 ways in boxes in loads of around 45K pounds for 44 cartons each with a net weight of 1K pounds or in bulk for 48K pounds.