[ APL INTRODUCES INTERMODAL EQUIPMENT FOR MEXICO ]

American President Line(APL), which provides a weekly container servic
e between Asia and Mexico, has improved its ability to securely and ef
ficiently move shipments between Mexico City or Guadalajara and its Pa
cific Coast gateway at Manzanillo. The company, which last year introd
uced an intermodal relay service to and from Manzanillo using “gondol
a cars” belonging to Ferrocarriles Nacionales de Mexico(FNM), which p
rovides the underlying rail carriage for APL’s Asia-Mexico service, h
as become the first transportation company to deploy intermodal cars o
n the route.
APL has positioned five of its intermodal cars for testing on the rela
y service. These include a double-stack rail car, which APL has modifi
ed to accommodate as many as twenty 20-foot containers, or a combinati
on of 20-foot units.
APL also using four special “spine cars”, each of which can carry as
many as six 20-foot or five 40-foot containers.
There are a number of benefits of using specially designed intermodal
cars on the relay service. A major benefit is increased cargo security
, because containers can be loaded onto these cars in such a way that
makes opening the container doors difficult. Use of the double-stack c
ar is expected to substantially reduce the threat of in-transit pilfer
age.
The intermodal cars also offer other benefits to the customer and the
carrier. For example, gondola cars, which are primarily designed for b
ulk carriage and are in heavy demand by shippers of sulfur, iron pelle
ts and other bulk commodities, are often in short supply for intermoda
l shippers. By contrast, APL, which controls its own containers and in
termodal railcars, expects to be able to offer improved equipment avai
lability for.
Also, the loading and unloading of containers from the intermodal cars
is faster than from gondola cars, providing earlier cargo availabilit
y and added efficiency.
Double-stack cars have an additional benefit for the customer, they ar
e specially designed to reduce jarring and vibration, and have been fo
und to significantly reduce the incidence of in-transit damage to frag
ile shipments.