What happens in Bulk Liquid Transport?

The answer is delays all around. Because there is diminished bulk capacity availability, that means production is limited or delayed.  Most visible there are manufacturing  companies and pharmaceuticals. Though there certainly can be other explanations that might explain why, this may likely offer at least one plausible reason why retail supermarkets run out of items so quickly or why half-filled shelves seem to be the norm at retailers, or why one hears fairly regularly from restaurants something that used to be a taboo answer to a customer among restauranteurs - “we ran out”.  The fact could also explain why pharmacies seem to be running out of drugs and can only make partial refills at times.

There are essentially five primary reasons why there is a limited bulk liquid transport capacity.  The first is that a system that was already there is growing fast.  The American Chemical Council predicts that the chemical industry will grow 34% over the next five years. A lot of mergers and acquisitions activity has resulted into chemical companies off shore moving to the United States. It is a growing industry whose infrastructure is not growing with it.

The increased demand for hydraulic fracturing is a second reason why the market for bulk liquid transport is stretched to near capacity. Drivers have to make sand and chemicals to the sites from which the oil is blasted and then transport it to rail heads.

As of 121817 there is a new government regulation that is impacting availability.  Truck driver traditionally have used a log book and followed the safety rules on their honor.  The new mandated electronic devices work in conjunction with the truck’s engine and only records when the truck is in motion. Some drivers may be forced to take the required ten-hour break or even the weekly respite.  Delivery distances of 400 to six hundred miles are especially impacted because their delivery typically will take more than one day anyway so a mandatory break only slows them down and the shipper and receiver.

Hurricanes are the fourth reason for the diminished capacity in liquid bulk transport availability. Reconstruction is places like Houston and Florida affect the availability of the number of rigs or drivers or their ability to move from one point to the next. 

The fifth reason is driver shortages. The average long-distance haul driver male and over age 50.  There are far too few young male drivers entering the field and even fewer women.  The American Trucking Association reports the industry may be short as many as 50,000 drivers and the trend is expected only to continue.

So what is one to do?  One option is to use a 3PL truck broker.  It works like this. Freight brokering is popular in some trucking circles but liquid bulk is a more challenging type of freight commodity because there are often regulations regarding the transport fo chemicals or not just any rig will handle the type of chemical product being shipped. So the industry is smaller by nature compared to brokers for shipping milk, for example. So, despite the inherent obstacles in bulk transport that is liquid, there are companies who do it.  Because the brokering company has established networks of providers of service, it is well positioned to match a driver and rig to a source and to a destination with the most efficiency.

RSI Logistics is one company, for example, who does rail bulk transport. Perhaps the growth and demand will rejuvenate a new place for the railroad

There are other options for liquid bulk transport. Express Marine, for example based in Maine has been doing barge transports along the Atlantic, the Gulf Coasts, and the Caribbean more more than one hundred years. 

Aerial bulk transport is not out of the question depending what the product is.  Fire containment, of course, is most often done with planes.  Bart, for example, makes its place in the industry by being in places where fuel availability can be an issue with its patented collapsible fuel products.

We at Techno Group USA make storing your liquid bulk our business so contact us and let’s get started on your business.