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Refrigerated and Flatbeds: Different Trailer Options

For a company that only ships small parcels that weigh less than 100lbs, the number of options that you have to worry about when shipping your goods are relatively small. Everything should be fairly straight forward and it should be fairly easy for you to decide how to ship your goods.

Usually, the biggest decisions will be about how fast the delivery will be made, usually which will cost more with increasing speed. However, when you start shipping larger loads of cargo with a Chicago courier service, there are many more options to deal with. As you approach 10000lbs of shipping weight you will have to choose to either rent a portion of a truck load (LTL) or a full trailer (FTL).

Once you start shipping FTL there will be more options again to deal with, such as whether you require flatbed trailers or refrigerated trailers for moving your shipments. To avoid ordering something you in no way need, it is important to understand these terms before having to place shipping orders of this magnitude.

Trailers which can be refrigerated are generally going to be fairly more expensive than a regular trailer, and are not something that you need to worry about unless you ship goods which could be damaged by the heat. This is typically something that is a worry for companies who are shipping medical material, pharmaceuticals, or perishable food products which need to be kept cool.

Food is the largest user of refrigerated units as it much be transported quickly and coolly if it is to keep from spoiling and still be able to be sold in the supermarkets in its destination cities.

Flatbed trailers are used for more specialized hauling applications than refrigerated trailers. A flatbed trailer is a large, open trailer that is simply one large platform on wheels to be hauled by a semi. These are used primarily for hauling goods which are too large to be stored inside a storage container type trailer.

Quite often you will see vehicles or large machinery being hauled on flatbed trailers, as well as extremely wide loads which could not fit in a regular trailer. The widest of these loads are sometimes large industrial components for oil platforms or manufacturing facilities, as well as houses and other structures which are sometimes moved. These exceptionally wide loads are also slow moving and require pilot vehicles to mark their progress, increasing the cost a great deal if they are required.

About the Author

Scott Gallagher is an International Consultant for Chicago Courier Service. With exceptional knowledge of the Chicago Delivery Service, Scott is also becoming an expert with Local Internet Marketing.

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40' Flat Rack Container: ISO Shipping Containers

by Craig Ellyard

ISO shipping containers are a major innovation in the movement of cargo both inland and overseas. The term ‘ISO’ means ‘International Standards Organization’ and sets the standard for the movement of freight worldwide.

It is essential that shipping containers meet the exacting standards set by the ISO because of the large volume and different types of product they carry. And, not only do they need to be able to bear extremely heavy loads they also must be sound enough to be stacked when being shipped. And, of course, they need to stand up to extremely harsh conditions such as when being transported in rough seas as well as being rust resistant for when they are being transported on heavily salted roads during the winter months.

In order to be cargo worthy most shipping containers are CSC plated. They come in various sizes, usually between 20 and 45 feet in length, though some can be anything up to 100 foot long. There are also varying types of container, such as Steel Dry, Hi-Cube Steel Dry, Open Top and Flat Rack. The type of container to be used will depend on the cargo and the conditions under which it will be carried. The container service provider will also be able to give advice on the best type of unit to be used.

The design of shipping containers depends on how they are to be transported. The larger ones, which are usually constructed from lighter materials, are used mainly for inland – road and rail transportation and are weather proofed – resistant to wind and rain.

As well as being useful for the mass transportation of cargo by road, rail and sea, shipping containers can also be transported by air, though the various air freight lines often produce their own containers, specifically designed for their aircraft.

The mass use of shipping containers has revolutionised the movement of goods worldwide.. A survey of American ports as early as 1998 showed that moving goods in bulk using shipping containers speeded up the operation by up to 2,000 per cent. Not only does does this mean that the product will reach the customer much more quickly, it also saves heavily on transportation and labour costs, leading to the prospect of cheaper prices for the consumer, and bigger profits for the manufacturer.

The usage of ISO shipping containers is an economical, safe and efficient way to transport goods anywhere in the world, hence their ever increasing popularity in carrying products from the factory to the consumer.

Great Lakes shipping container services offers a range of standard and specialist ISO equipment to provide innovative and creative purchase and lease international cargo solutions

Log on http://www.greatlakescontainerservices.co.uk today!!

Article Source: ArticleSnatch Free Article Directory

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Tidy Up Your Clutter With A Self Storage Unit

If you are wishing to tidy up the clutter in their homes, utilizing a self storage unit is a cost effective way to accomplish this goal. Offering many benefits over storing items in your garage, the advantages of a domestic self-storage unit are many. While there are several options, some of the top choices are companies that offer various sizes of units as well as both domestic and business storage solutions.

As the holidays tick ever closer, the time to get rid of the clutter in your home has arrived. One of the most straightforward and effective ways to accomplish this is through the use of a self storage unit. With modern amenities like advanced security and climate controlled spaces, there are few better ways to safely store seasonal goods. When you consider the collective value of the goods being stored, both in terms of financial value and sentimental value, these items deserve to be better protected. When the garage becomes a storage location for everything except the family car, alternate options should be considered and pursued.

When using a high quality self storage facility, there are many advantages available that can create additional incentive to getting organized. Many organizations will provide their customer with competitively priced packing materials, trolleys, and forklift services. Furthermore, for those who need help transporting their possessions to and from the facility, many of these companies offer van services to compliment the storage solutions they provide. Overall, the amenities offered by self storage companies are comprehensive and offer customers a significant advantage over the garage option.

Self storage can provide a nice solution to storage needs across a wide range of time periods as well. If you are in the midst of a move it might be a good idea to store the bulk of your furniture. That way your home can be staged for quicker and more efficient showings. Self storage provides an excellent solution. By allowing the homeowner to get rid of clutter in the living space, the shorter market-time and potential for higher sale price should more than offset the expense.

A storage facility is a great short term option to store seasonal materials that are only needed intermittently throughout the course of the year. From household decorations to winter and summer clothes a self storage unit can significantly increase available living space for a relatively moderate price. For families, in particular, this option may be of special interest.

Most individuals collect important documents, keepsakes, and memories over a course of years, but do not need to access these on a regular basis. For those who wish to safeguard these items, rather than part with them or risk their damage on a regular basis, self storage is an excellent solution. When the modern and advanced services these companies now offer are considered, regardless of the specific time frame needed, the use of self storage can have a positive impact.

About the Author
Nick Messe is president of Lead Frog LLC. Space Station provides all the storage facilities you would expect of a leading provider of domestic self storage. Self storage facilities include Slough self storage, and other locations in and around Windsor.

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Self Storage Units – Traditional Vs. Portable

By Jason Kay

At some point in everyone’s life they are faced with fact that they have too much stuff lying around and are in need of a self storage unit but which is best to go with, traditional or portable? While you can store your extra belongings in both there are certain advantages to going with a portable unit as opposed to going with a traditional unit.

Here are some of the advantages you will find with storing your stuff in a portable storage unit as opposed to the traditional way:

•Convenience: This is probably the biggest advantage. When you store your things at a traditional storage unit you have to own a truck, rent a truck, or borrow a truck from a friend in order to get your stuff to the storage unit. This can be an unwelcomed hassle. With a portable storage unit however, the portable storage unit company that you decide to go with brings the storage unit right to you and you can then fill it up at your leisure with no time constraints whatsoever.

•No driving: Not only does the portable storage unit company drop off your storage unit to you, they also pick it up when you have filled it up and take it to their climate controlled warehouse where you can store it for as long as you need to. Because they drop off the storage unit and then pick it up that means that you have to do absolutely no driving at all.

•Helps the moving process: many times people will store a number of items because they are moving to a new home and simply don’t know what they will keep and what they will sell or throw away. Once the move is complete and you decide you want to tackle the project of going through the storage unit you again have to either own a truck, rent a truck, or borrow a truck from a friend in order to get you stuff to your new place. Not so with a portable storage unit. When you are ready for your things, you simply call them and they will deliver you belongings to your new home and allow you to unload all the stuff when you want to. Then when the storage unit is empty, call them back and they will pick it up for you once again.

•Saves time: One thing you can never make more of and that is time. A portable storage unit may cost a bit more because they do all the driving, but if you think about all the time you will save, not to mention the gas money, it is still probably in your best interest to go with the portable storage unit.

All of this is not to say that the traditional storage units have no more use, but they have met their match. Unless you only plan on storing a few items that can easily and conveniently be transferred to a traditional storage unit by you, then getting a portable storage unit is really a no brainer.

Source: www.isnare.com

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Long Term Self Storage

Author: Simply Self Storage

Self storage is commonly used for short term storage. That’s because it’s the ideal solution for people who need to store something for a short period of time. The contracts are typically month-to-month with no long term commitment required, and no penalties or charges for removing items early. The convenience of self storage lends itself to short term storage, because you can go anytime the facility is open to add items or remove them.

For people in the process of moving, self storage is perfect because it can be so flexible, cost-efficient and short term. But there are many good reasons to consider self storage for your long term storage needs, too. Traditional storage might require a long term contract and therefore seem like a good long term storage solution. But if you use self storage instead, you get the flexibility of being able to come and go when you please and add and remove things when you want, while knowing your items are secure behind your own lock and can’t be accessed or moved as they can with traditional storage. Self storage can make it much more convenient to store items that you need to access regularly or just from time to time. There are a number of situations where long-term self storage might be a good idea.

Business documents. Businesses that need to keep boxes and boxes of paperwork for legal and tax reasons can benefit from long term self storage. As the number of boxes decreases or increases, it’s easy and hassle free to rent a smaller or larger storage unit. And when access to the paperwork is needed, it’s convenient to go anytime the facility is open. The amount of document (and now even disk and digital) storage businesses are required to keep can be astounding. These boxes can take up valuable office space or storage space within a company. With long term self storage, they can be conveniently stored off site where they’re still accessible.

Boat storage. If you live in an area where you can only use your boat from spring to fall, you’ll have to store your boat for the winter. This might be in your backyard or your garage, but self storage is great for long term boat storage, too. Some areas might require that boats not be visible from the street or be present in a yard, so if you don’t have a garage or a storage building, you’ll have to rent storage for your boat. And you may opt to store your boat off-site even if you have a garage or storage shed. Why use up all that space with something that can only sit there for at least a few months? Self storage is the perfect solution.

RV storage. Most people use their recreational vehicles only on certain occasions throughout the year. It doesn’t have to take up valuable garage space when you’re not traveling across the country in it. Self storage will let you store your RV safely and securely when you’re not in a traveling frame of mind.

Vehicle storage. You might have many reasons to store a vehicle. Some people prefer not to drive in the wintertime and take other transportation. And some cars and other vehicles like classics and show cars are best stored during the winter season for their own protection. Vehicle storage is an ideal use for long term self storage.

Seasonal wardrobes. Closet space is almost always at a premium in today’s homes. We might all dream of huge walk in closets, but few of us have that luxury. When the seasons change, we either leave last season’s clothes and heavy coats in the closet with this season’s clothes, which take up tons of space and make it harder to get to what we need. Or we pack those clothes away in boxes, bags and bins and try to cram them in the backs of closets, under beds, in our backyard storage shed or in the attic, and these places are usually already full of other stored items.

Mini storage would be a good choice for a person’s seasonal wardrobe. A closet-sized storage unit can hold winter clothes to make room in your closet for the clothes you need during the current weather, and because self storage is so convenient, when you want to change you simply trade the clothes in your storage unit with those in your closet. Long term storage for clothes is ideal for those with large wardrobes, with a minimum of closet space, or both.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/moving-and-relocating-articles/long-term-self-storage-903402.html

About the Author:

Simply Self Storage – What Could be Easier than Simply?

Simply Self Storage is the largest privately owned self storage company in the United States and Puerto Rico. We own and/or operate over 228 facilities with over 16.1 million square feet of storage space.

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Step 1: Substantially Reduce Your Costs

There are 2 ways to substantially reduce your costs.

A. You can maintain your current business process and reduce your costs within your existing model.

                    – or –

B.  You can change your business model.

 

The first thing most people look to do is ‘A‘, reducing their costs within their existing business model.  They do so because it is much easier to maintain the current busines process  rather than change it. Also this type of cost reduction usually provides results quicikly.

We have helped many companies reduce costs and improve effeciencies by providing them with better equipment, better solutions, and better pricing.

Although  ‘A‘ has provided successful and easily measurable reults we have also advocated to our clients that they seriously consider reviewing their current business model ‘B‘ in addition to ‘A‘. it is our belief that the business world is changing and will continue to do so at even a more rapid rate as technologies continue to develop. What once took 10 years to develop now takes 1 year or less. This rapid evolution in business development has also reduced the lifespan of business models. Unless you have a unique product or service that can not be duplicated you will be subject to these great forces of change.

As a result we have not only helped clients reduce their costs but also have helped reshape thier business model to further reduce costs, improve effeciencies and provide huge flexability to change with the rapidly changing business world.

We will be providing these business models on our website shortly.In the meantime if you like access to these models please feel free to contact us directly.

Next time we will take a look at Step 2 :  Maintain or improve customer service while reducing your costs

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How To Survive The Coming Economic Tsunami

The Stock Market is Going Up !

Banks are flush with Gov’t cash and are providing easy credit for business.

The worst is over !

Don’t believe this for a minute.

America is still losing over 500,000 jobs per month. Credit is getting tighter. Chrysler is bankrupt. G.M is next.

Yes these companies will be better off in the long as they emerge from bankruptcy protection, but what happens to the 40,000 employees that will be let go both in manufacturing and the dealership network. How will they replace their high wage and benefit package ?  Just as important what about the remaining workers who are having their wages and benefits  cut back ? Finally what about all the suppliers of these companies ? Will it be business as usual for them.? How will their employees be affected ? Are they going to spend at the same rate they have over the last few years ? Of course not. Would you?

What does this mean ?

The worst is yet to come.

Is your business ready ?

Those businesses that will survive and prosper in the new economic reality will have to:

1.   Substantially reduce costs

2.  Maintain or improve customer service despite reducing costs

3.  Reduce debt.

4.  Free up capital

5.  Reduce or eliminate long term obligations

6.  Reduce or eliminate variable costs that you do not control

7.  Remain flexible in order to expand or contract rapidly.

8.  Provide value added services for your clients

 

Stay tuned as we will show you how we can help you achieve all of the above noted goals and prosper during difficult economic times !

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Is The Worst Over ?

According to the US administration, the worst of the recession has passed.

Is this true ?

Not according to major economic indicators.

Unemployment, manufacturing, shipping volumes,exports,imports, and consumer confidence are at alarming levels.

What does this mean ?

It means that those companies who conduct themselves as though it is business as usual will be left outside looking in. Even worse many of them won’t survive  the current economic climate.

Who will survive and prosper ?

Those companies that will be able to reduce costs without reducing their ability to service their  customer. Those companies that can provide added value to assist their clients in being successful. Those companies that can remain flexible to expand and/or contract instantly.

Express Mobile Storage Solutions is here to assist you in all of the above areas.

Over the next few weeks we will outline in our blog the variety of areas where we can help you succeed immediately.

Stay tuned !