subject: What Are Shipping Terminals For, And Who Uses Them? [print this page] If you're shipping with courier companies of any size smaller than a bike messenger service, then you'll probably start hearing someone at that company talking about shipping terminals at some point in time. Your Detroit courier service may have terminals within the city, or throughout the state, and they may also utilize shared terminals when they transfer their goods to other couriers for deliveries outside of their service area. Regardless, terminals are a very important part of the shipping infrastructure of the world.
Terminals are essentially any location where cargo is transferred, or stored to be transferred, from one vehicle to another. Many times in the course of the delivery of a package, that package will be carried by more than one courier vehicle, in some instances by many. Although there are some exceptions, and some other shipping techniques that may be employed from time to time, in most situations the transfer of that package between vehicles will take place in a terminal.
Terminals also operate as important checkpoints for shipping operations. As goods pass through them they are all scanned in and out, allowing the transportation companies computers to track the kinds of progress being made on the deliveries. A good example of this is how when checking the status of a shipment in progress, unless GPS tracking is enabled the status will usually show the last terminal the package passed through.
Almost every single element of the transportation industry uses terminals. They are used both for transferring of goods between the same types of vehicles and from one to another. The term actually has its origins in the rail transportation industry, but a terminal can now refer to once used by a land based courier, shipping terminals, air terminals, or rail terminals. There are often interchanges between the different courier methods at these terminals, such as when cargo vans make deliveries and pickups from air terminals.
While some large companies have their own terminal structure all over the world, most are used between several companies. For instance, when a courier that services the New York state area is asked to make a delivery to California, they will either have a partner courier which completes the delivery, or use one of the larger international services. Either situation will involve a transfer at a terminal that is shared by more than one party. These points form the links between the different parts of the courier industry.
by: Scott P Gallagher
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