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CHAPTER ELEVEN
Boats, Trains and Trucks
The development and integration of food transport technologies in the Global Era
Sophia Ponce, Dan Pratt
INTRODUCTION
Every day, food is shipped into New York City by multiple forms of transportation: on ships, trains, and trucks. Our import and export trading system relies on our complex—yet largely hidden—freight transport system. Freight movement refers to the carrying of goods from one location to another. The movement of freight can entail a local trip to a supermarket to a cross-country shipment of twenty-five hundred bags of carrots. Over the course of the Global Era—which began in the 1940s and continues to the present—the means used to transport food both nationally and internationally have shifted as new technologies have been adopted in favor of others and integrated with existing ones; though trucks dominate the current landscape of food transport, they have been integrated with other
Compared to the means used in the early twentieth century, today’s “trade moves much more quietly—and much more efficiently—through the region’s ports…through half a dozen rail freight yards, and through a handful of wholesale markets” (Ascher 2007). In the past, busy docks, dangerous and loud railroads, and other foreign freights—all plainly visible—were the norm; the division between production and consumption was not nearly as pronounced.
For many years before World War II, and to a lesser extent, during the post-war period, railways dominated motor trucks. As the elaborate interstate highway system was continually improved directly following the war, however, the advantages of using trucks became increasingly clear. The shift toward their usage suggested more direct, flexible routes connecting production to consumption; such shipping methods could be used either as a standalone or in coordination with the increasingly antiquated freight trains as they ended their routes at their respective terminals.
With regard to food transport and distribution—particularly within urban areas—trucks are rarely seen as a relatively recent innovation; their significance is often taken for granted. However, the dominance of truck freight in the market for food transport is rather newfound; the technologies and infrastructural components that continue to support its use underwent considerable development during the late 1940s—a period of prosperity in the wake of World War II. Such developments allowed for increased time- and cost-efficiency of motor transport, and essentially, better-travelled perishables, the broadening of infrastructural roads within the Dwight D. Eisenhower System of Interstate and Defense Highways largely encouraged the development and subsequent popularity of such technologies (Sullivan 2005). Furthermore, the creation—and later—the rebuilding of New York City’s West Side Highway, Interstate Route 478 was a crucial development in the scheme of providing for the nation’s most densely populated urban center (NYSDOT 1977).
This paper seeks to identify the reasons for and the advantages of the emergence and continuing development of shipment methods in the Global era—particularly with regard to serving New York City and the surrounding metro area, both of which have seen, and continue to see steady population increase. More specifically, it examines the infrastructural systems that support said developments, as well as its integration with other forms of food transport with which it is supplemented.
The paper is structured such that a ‘Literature Review’—an elaboration on the aforementioned questions and material relevant to answering them—describes the historical contexts under which marine and rail freight declined while, trucks emerged as a leading means of food transport, the innovations and advantages that allowed for this emergence, and the further development and continued refinement of key infrastructural components—(i.e., Interstate highways and associated thoroughfares). The ‘Findings’ section provides data that supports the claims alluded to in the ‘Literature Review’, and examines the shift toward increased outsourcing (i.e., the globalization, and more notably here, the nationalization) of the U. S. —and more specifically, local—food market. These results are to be conferred and analyzed in the ‘Discussion’ section that it directly follows.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Prior to the post-war truck freight boom, the nation relied heavily on its advanced railway system, which formed a rough network across the nation’s major cities to allow for transcontinental shipping, as well as marine freight, bourne by slow barges that ended their journey in New Jersey. While freight rail transport was—and remains—among the most efficient methods of shipping foodstuffs with regard to the ton-miles moved per unit of energy consumed, fixed rails—which result in limited, inflexible routes—and large payloads meant high transshipment costs. Likewise, the destinations of freight ships were inflexible, and required a large port to accommodate them.
Railroads have been an influential piece of transporting freight for decades. Railroads have been around New York since the ninetieth century and have remained a consistent source of moving freight in a faster and cheaper way. A freight railroad is a group of specialized cars that transport goods and materials from one location to another using tracks dedicated exclusively to trains.
The West Side line was a prominent rail freight line for decades. In 1847 on Manhattan’s West side, a street-level railroad was commissioned by the City of New York. Since the creation of the railroad, Tenth Avenue was nicknamed Death Avenue due to constant accidents between commuters and the rail. The accidents forced men on horses to lead this rail along the street. Due to the many accidents, the West Side Improvement was created; a project that will raise the railroads thirty feet upwards and cost over two billion dollars with today’s inflation prices. The rail opened in 1934 and was thirteen miles long. “It connects directly to factories and warehouses, allowing trains to roll right inside buildings. Milk, meat, produce, and raw and manufactured goods come and go without causing street-level traffic” (Friends of the Highline 2000-2010). The High Line was the only freight railroad that directly entered Manhattan. For thirty years, the freight rail was a major source for Manhattan’s food imports and exports. In the 1960s, major highway improvements were one of the major causes for the High Line and other freight rails to decline. By 1980, the last import of frozen turkeys entered Manhattan, the last run for the line.
The trains that enter New York hold a variety of commodities coming from multiple manufacturers; each car of a freight train can be used to transport different materials and food items. Different types of rail cars connect to each other and move on the same train; the convenience of this is that trains only have to make one trip and can transport a varied amount of materials. On a railroad, the transportation of an item from source to destination is called a line-haul. There are different specialty rail cars made to hold specific commodities and complete these line-hauls. A boxcar is a fully enclosed car that can be used to transport dry foods such as canned food. One of the most important cars used to transport food are refrigerator cars or “reefer” cars. These cars move a majority of food that is received from across country. Before the invention of gas-powered coolers, reefers would be packed with ice.
Railroads use classification yards to streamline freight and keep everything organized. There are two different types of yards: flat and hump. A classification yard collects rail cars and sorts them so that as much freight as possible can be shipped at one time. In the book “The Works,” author Kate Ascher depicts the journey of a carrot from California into New York. First, carrots are packaged into over 2,500 50-pound bags; these bags of carrots are then moved into a reefer car. The carrots then begin an 8-day trek to the Bronx, New York. The carrots then move to a classification yard in Fresno, California. In this yard reefer trains heading to Georgia are added amongst the New York bound trains. The mixing of different train cars would not have been so easily organized if not for classification yards.
In the beginning of the 1900s, “the New York region served as both a great shipping center and great railway terminus without any direct connections between trunk lines and steamships, the crucial element in the economical movement of freight” (Revell 1963). An active port is a fully operating dock that loads and unloads boats, ships and vessels. By the 1940’s Manhattan had about 750 active ports. The ports were located along the West Side, Brooklyn, Hoboken and Jersey City. Decades later, almost all the active ports disappeared from the Manhattan waterfront.
A majority of railroads ended in New Jersey—therefore, New York had to set up docks with barges to retrieve commodities. “Because of the lack of waterfront space, the railroads used the long (often 750 feet), narrow Manhattan piers as storage areas, and shippers themselves contributed to congestion on the docks by moving freight during the early morning and late-afternoon rush hours” (Revell 1963 61). It was made evident that there needed to be change in the way New York handled moving freight or else the future effectiveness of our City as a shipping powerhouse would be in question.
The invention of the container in the 1950s made trading on water much more efficient. A container is “a portable compartment in which freight is placed (as on a train or ship) for convenience of movement” (Merriam-Webster 2010). Container storage and use demanded open space; due to this marine trading moved to the waters of New Jersey. The noise of overcrowded docks in New York City was now nonexistent; the container terminals at Port Newark-Elizabeth Marine Terminal in New Jersey eclipsed that of New York ports. Highway and road improvements caused a rise in trucking; also ending the need for New York City and Brooklyn to ferry freight across from New Jersey.
Today, marine freight headed to New York had been on the rise. “New York Harbor remains among the city’s greatest assets. It covers 650 miles of shoreline, reaching from the banks of Sandy Hook in New Jersey around Staten Island and northward along the contours of Newark Bay and the Hudson and East Rivers” (Ashcer 2007 69). Within the Harbors limits, Port Newark-Elizabeth Marine Terminal receives most the most traffic.
Like train cars, there is a large variety vessels that help transport freight efficiently. There are refrigerated ships called “reefers” that primarily transport perishable goods such as meats and fruits. There are the aforementioned container ships that can carry as much as 5,000 containers on one shipment. Bulker vessels, transport bulk items such as coffee and bananas. Tugboats and dredgers handle maintenance and navigation of larger ships. All of these vessels help create efficiency.
By their most basic definition, trucks are commercial motor vehicles—or CMVs—used primarily to haul large quantity of freight, and are characterized in their structure by a blunt, sometimes flat-fronted chassis making up a tractor unit and a swiveling hitch to which a trailer bearing freight can be fastened (2009). The advantages of truck freight (and thus, the rise in its use) stems from its flexibility, and specificity in terms of recipients (Painter 2002). Unlike their earlier predecessors, trains, trucks cannot haul numerous trailers-worth of freight, as they traditionally can only accommodate a single (or double, in the case of a tandem setup) trailer for hauling. Provided that their access is not government-restricted, trucks have access to major highways and city streets alike, and thus have the ability to deliver goods (in this case, foods) directly to distributors or in less frequently, to consumers. As aforementioned, trains are bound to the limited expanse of their tracks (their means of moving) and terminals (their ends) where delivery occurs. Today, a dozen such terminals, located in the four outer boroughs—Brooklyn, The Bronx, Queens and Staten Island—as well as in parts of New Jersey, indirectly traffic food products and other goods to “the 22 counties of the New York Metropolitan Region” (Chinitz 1960), (Ascher 2007). As a result, freight trains often require transshipment—where cargo is passed on to another form of transport. Thus, they cannot deliver goods to distributers (or customers) directly.
While trucks are often utilized for such transshipment, they can alternatively simplify the process by making direct deliveries. More often than not, direct delivery by truck is used:
Rail cargo today makes up only about 5.6 percent of the freight moving through the region, down from a high of roughly 40 percent in the early 1940s. The drop in rail traffic is in part a reflection of the region’s appetite for imports, but also a function of increased competition from long-distance trucking industries (Ascher 2007, 58).
Though rail freight was largely phased out beginning in 1945—the start of the post-war era—the technological advancements made during its peak of use greatly contributed to the technologies required for later successes. For instance, transcontinental railway proprietors sought to overcome the challenges associated with shipping foodstuffs over long distances. Among the biggest and most basic of these challenges was limited shelf life: “product perishability can be viewed more broadly as shelf life…fresh fruits and vegetables, for example, must be shipped relatively quickly since all time delays subtract from this basic shelf life” (Roberts 1975, 160). As aforementioned, these issues were alleviated by reefer containers.
Such technologies were easily adapted to trucks, particularly as intermodal containers—standardized, reusable metal storage units, either 20 or 40 feet in length—became increasingly favored in order to make transshipment more efficient on the increasingly rare occasions that it occurred. On the road, refrigerated containers are not self-powered, but are supported by generators that are powered by diesel and are attached directly to the container (Heap 2003). The addition of refrigerated containers also streamlined the process of transshipment, as the cargo did not require unloading and subsequent reloading onto a truck for the final leg of its journey. Containers could be moved as units themselves, and taken from a freight car and place seamlessly onto the trailer of a truck. In this way, refrigerated containers were to be loaded and delivered as-is; reorganization of items would otherwise drag the process down. As a whole, refrigerated containers single-handily changed the market for perishable food items—most notably meats, fish and fresh produce—as it allowed for increasingly effective outsourcing of food consistently, and in the case of fruits and vegetables, the elimination of seasonally dependent offerings (Ascher 2007).
While the opportunity to refrigerate motor truck freight further fueled the demand for truck-based food transport, the innovation also updated the process of integrating the use of trucks and trains. Specialized crossover cars, known as ‘RoadRailers,’ could be hitched to truck tractors and hauled by trains, alike. This technology was created in 1952, and continues to see widespread popularity in the limited integration of the two means of transport. Trailers designed specifically for trucks could also be placed on flatcars, in a maneuver (aptly named) Trailer-on-flatcar (TOFC), and more commonly called “piggybacking” (2007). The primary concept is to have a truck pick up and drop off the merchandise and have the railroad complete the line-haul. “The advantage which the system has over ordinary trucking is clear: line-haul costs are lowered by the substitution of a small train crew for a large number of truck drivers” (Chinitz 1960). Although the cost of moving the trailer onto a train is more costly, the line-haul expenses are so severely lowered that it makes up for any additional costs. Piggybacking lowers the cost of packaging, avoids delays, and lowers shipping costs. Similar to this is “fishy back” operation in which trailers are carried along vessels. The fishy back method also, eliminates a lot of costs. The only negative side is the fact that the initial investment in a piggyback or fishy back operation is very large. Terminal facilities must be fully equipped to transfer loads from trucks into trains. Therefore, the piggyback and fishy-back operation will be run in places that move large quantities of freight daily. COFC stands for containers on flat cars and follows the same principles as TOFC except instead of truck trailers being carried, containers are carried.
Most fundamentally, the United States was prepared for the ongoing growth of truck freight and its supporting technologies with the emergence of a more advanced, practical Interstate Highway System after World War II. In the midst of burgeoning economic prosperity, the Dwight D. Eisenhower System of Interstate and Defense Highways was spurred by the Federal Highway Act of 1956, and is comprised of “sixty-two superhighways that cover 42,795 miles. They link together the nation’s coasts and borders, cities, and downs. These superhighways include 54,633 bridges and 104 tunnels” (Sullivan 2005, 48). The Interstate Highway System, which has so far moved 42 billion cubic feet of earth and cost well over $100 billion (and counting), was not primarily brought about with motor truck freight in mind. Rather, the network of roads came about when automobiles “began to be produced in large quantities. Car prices dropped as a result. Motorists of the time called for more and better roads. To satisfy the demand, private organizations, such as the American Automotive Association, were formed” (47). Though by 1925, significant progress had been made on then-independently owned sectors of the system—for example, the New England and Dixie Highway Systems—the limited-lane roadways and non-standard directional signs were not conducive to the use of large CMVs across long distances. According to Leinback:
Although the Interstate Highway System (IHS) accounts for only 1% of all highway mileage, it carries 25% of the total vehicle miles of travel…Enabling legislation for the largest public works project in history, [which] came in the form of the Federal Highway Act of 1956, and provided not only the authorization to construct but also appropriated the necessary funds for implementation.” This preliminary system, however, did set the foundations for a standardized, and more complex infrastructure…The IHS was financed by a highway trust fund supported by the abundant revenue from federal gasoline taxes. Those finds were available only for highways, and the federal government paid 90% of the cost of the new highways. (2004, 37-38)
Though the Interstate Highway System was conceived to support American’s newfound admiration with the car, it was (perhaps inadvertently) responsible for the gradual movement toward a system of food transport that, today, relies to an overwhelming degree on the network of roads. As Leinback writes, “The impact of the [Interstate Highway System] on the intercity transportation of goods…has been nothing short of phenomenal…and may even be the single most important influence on the U.S. metropolis in the last 50 years. The IHS transformed cities in ways its planners never anticipated.” (2004, 37)
Though it is not part of the Eisenhower system, one would be hard-pressed not to mention New York State Route 9A—or as it is better known, the West Side Highway, which served as an arterial road along the West side. The location of the road itself is optimized for the support of truck freight, as it serves as a nearly direct way for foodstuffs to enter the city after presumably making their way across the Hudson. The initial incarnation of the road skirted along Manhattan’s Meatpacking District—a name that, at the time, made reference to the neighborhood’s leading industry. As it is written by the New York State Department of Transportation:
The line of demarcation between the Hudson shoreline and the interior of Manhattan is the elevated structure of the West Side Highway. When the highway, formally known as the Miller Highway between the Battery and West 72nd Street was built in the 1930s, it was…suited to its purpose and location…carefully fitted between the warehouses and manufacturing buildings on the east, and the headhouses and piers on the west (NYSDOT 1977).
In spite of its proximity to what was essentially the Manhattan-based center of the food production and processing industry, the West Side Highway was often neglected, and thus, fell out of disrepair quickly—rendering the road unable of handling any cargo at all: “Forty years later,” it became evident—particularly to the state government—that “Trucks, primarily those making the thousands of daily pick-ups and deliveries necessary for the…functioning of Manhattan, were prohibited due to inadequate size, shape and strength of the ramps and…structures” ((NYSDOT 1977).
Ultimately, the West Side Highway (and the Henry Hudson Parkway, directly to the north of it) has benefitted from the renovations, which were completed in August of 2001. With the introduction of new, well-integrated elevated roads, and the introduction of safe truck use, the New York State Department of Transportation has effectively created a corridor down the Western edge of Manhattan that extends toward the north, up the Hudson River. A lack of railway freight terminals within Manhattan itself, and the limited access that the highway provided while under construction resulted in a large need for such a thoroughfare, and heavy use of it after it opened.
RESEARCH FINDINGS
The results of the research suggest that the role of trucks in transporting food—both directly and indirectly—have unquestionably increased, and are expected to continue increasing with the passage of time. The maps that follow, provided by the Federal Highway Administration, show the major freight corridors nationwide, as well as the dominance of highways within this system —many of these roads are part of the Eisenhower Interstate Highway System, though a number of them are National Highway roads.
Today, in comparison to the beginning of the Global Era, a minority of merchandise is transported to New York from rail. Only 5.6% of moving freight comes from railroads in comparison to 40% in the 1940’s. However, each train used today replaces roughly 280 trains that make the same trip. (Asher 2005).
According to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, from 2005-2007, the average amount of maritime cargo a year moved via the Port of New York/New Jersey was roughly 91.9 million tons (Figure two). The distribution of general cargo operations in the port of New York is described by the horizontal bar graph in figure one. In 1959, Manhattan and Brooklyn controlled almost 80% of port activities. In 1987, the port activities relocated to New Jersey was in charge of almost all of cargo operations. In 2000, Staten Island regains some control over New Jersey, roughly 20% (Hofstra People 2010).
Figure three shows a bar graph showing the distribution of water, rail, and truck freight in the year 2006. Trucking freight is the majority with 78.6% in areas of NY/East of Hudson. Rail transport is a minority with 1.7% in areas of New York (McGregor 2006).
MAPS AND FIGURES
(United States Department of Transportation: Federal Highway Administration 2008)
(United States Department of Transportation: Federal Highway Administration: 2008)
(United States Department of Transportation: Federal Highway Administration 2008)
The table below shows both the actual and projected increase of truck freight shipments in terms of tonnage and monetary value.
| Table 2.1 U.S. Freight Shipments by Tons and Value | ||||||
| Tons (millions) | Value (billions) | |||||
| Mode | 1998 | 2010 | 2020 | 1998 | 2010 | 2020 |
| Highway (Domestic) | 10,439 | 14,930 | 18,130 | 6,656 | 12,746 | 2,246 |
| Highway | 419 | 733 | 1,069 | 772 | 1,724 | 3,131 |
| (International) | ||||||
(Leinback 2004)
| Total USA domestic frieght traffic, by mode, 2002-35 | ||||
| 2002 Traffic | 2035 traffic | |||
| volume | 2002 traffic | volume | 2035 traffic | |
| Mode of Transport | (short kilotons) | (percent) | (short kilotons) | (percent) |
| Air & Truck | 1,024 | 0.03 | 4,377 | 0.06 |
| Other Intermodal | 15,558 | 0.43 | 48,968 | 0.65 |
| Pipeline & Unknown | 565,941 | 15.52 | 1,057,937 | 14.07 |
| Rail | 246,360 | 6.76 | 435,881 | 5.80 |
| Truck | 2,738,142 | 75.10 | 5,793,878 | 77.06 |
| Truck & Rail | 7,206 | 0.20 | 18,630 | 0.25 |
| Water | 71,968 | 1.97 | 158,532 | 2.11 |
| Total | 3,646,201 | 100.00 | 7,518,202 | 100.00 |
Figure 1
figure 2
DISCUSSION
Advances have been made in the movement of freight to eliminate the cost of transporting goods and increasing efficiency. The developments promote longer trips and try to avoid shorter hauls.
The demise of the High Line, the main freight train of Manhattan, sets the picture for the place rail freight takes today. Freight rail is still active but does not move even remotely the amount of tons it used too. In large part this is due to increased competition with trucking after the reconstruction on major roads and highways. In the 1940’s rails moved 40% of all freight and now the number has dwindled to a minimal sum. Increases in other modes of transportation have pushed aside railroads. “Railroads’ advantage over trucking turns on their ability to move many diverse shipments over a relatively long distance on one train. But making up a train is a cumbersome process, as no two cars may have the same origin and destination” (Ascher 2007 62). After the decline of the high line, there has been no freight railroad that directly moved into New York City. The closest train to New York was in New Jersey. The need to ship goods across water seemed to be a weighty and economically exhausting process, especially when trucks are not restricted to a track or specific route. After the invention of the container a lot was made easier for moving freight. Still, the space and money needed for the equipment to move containers from trucks to rails are costly, especially when not a lot of tonnage is heading through a specific rail.
Marine freight has fluctuated in terms of tonnage over the past seventy years. Also, in terms of location, marine freight has had a great change. The invention of the container had the largest impact on marine freight. In 1959, about eighty percent of port activities came from New York City. The invention of the container in the 1950’s demanded more space than New York City ports had to offer, leaving trade to move to New Jersey. In 1987, New Jersey controlled almost all-marine trade with New York City maintaining a minimal sum of almost ten percent. The movement of goods is a direct result of the invention of the container. Today, marine freight is less than trucking but still greater than rail freight.
As shown by the data in the ‘Findings’ section and the advantages described in the ‘Literature Review’, a great number of innovations—most notably for perishable food items being container refrigeration, and most fundamentally, the rise of the Eisenhower Interstate Highway System among other arterial roads. It is important to note, however, that the latter of these benefited motor truck freight as a whole. From the background information and the findings given, it is clear that highways and roads seem to form the easiest and most schematically efficient (i.e. direct) means of food transport, and that the emergence and continued growth of the use of these innovations and technologies are by logical application.
Inevitably, there are a number of drawbacks to using trucks as a primary means of transport—the most controversial of which concern environmental pollution. More specifically there is mounting concern regarding emissions from such trucks, which contribute to air pollution. Perhaps less tangible and more fleeting, noise pollution, street traffic and pedestrian safety associated with deliveries, as well as the use of city streets as a means of arriving at their destinations is also a cause of controversy in urban centers. Furthermore, because of its sheer size, the standard-sized tractor-trailer truck is the cause of much discomfort on highway roads; truck-truck and truck-car collisions often yield exceptionally devastating results (Scheinberg and United States. General Accounting Office. 1999).
In general, the ever-expanding and developing truck industry represents the continued urbanization (and resulting population growth) seen in urban centers, in turn the creation of a greater demand for food. Along with this come food products from increasingly great distances, as refrigeration in transit allows for their preservation. However, quite recently, a trend called ‘locavorism’ has emerged (Time 2006). The movement, which has formed as a backlash against the environmental risks associated with increased outsourcing, emphasizes a diet restricted to food sourced locally—within 100 miles. Though the increasing number of self-proclaimed locavores is negligible, it is useful to note that such a movement exists, and that if it expands, it could impact the industry (i.e., reduce the amount of freight shipped over long distances).
CONCLUSION
Food enters the city of New York on a daily basis via train, water and trucks. Over the years, trains have shifted from being the most heavily used mode of transport, to an almost non-existent piece of integrated food distribution. Marine freight has never been the leading means of moving freight, but holds its own and still moves about 90 million tons of freight a year — much of which is internationally transported. Technologies such as the container have pushed marine freight to New Jersey. The container also helped to establish efficiency in the way cargo is moved from truck to ship or rail. Today, trucks are the leading movement of freight by an overwhelming majority. The evolutions in the past seventy years have helped organize New York City’s freight movement system.
The United States has effectively improved on its methods of distributing food to urban areas, in particular New York—the nation’s most densely populated. Of course, the methods and means by which this food is transported is far from flawless and, will certainly be further refined as new technologies emerge and the system is perfected. Environmental controversies and traffic drawbacks aside, though, the sheer speed and efficiency we have accomplished thus far is enough to warrant taking a step back and appreciating a stocked fridge, fresh, year-round vegetables, and the potential for even further improvement in the years to come.
