All of those old ports are still there, but if the cargo can go into containers, offloaded quickly at a container terminal, then trucked to the destination, it can be cheaper. The mid-sized ships can carry containers and often odd sized cargo as well. Besides the very deep draft, the mega ships have gotten rid of shipboard cranes, and cannot even offload a container without a shore crane. I have spent most of the last decade bringing humanitarian aid cargo to places where either the ship cranes do the offloading, or we have to do it by hand. which can be a big job. And trucking is not always possible or safe. I personally hate the mega ships. They do exactly one thing, and go to exactly the same places over and over. Repetition breeds complacence. I love getting a call from the company saying that they have a huge part for a power plant turbine in some obscure country, and can I get it loaded with a multi-crane lift, secure it in some creative way, then unload it safely 100 km up some river on the other side of the world to a temporary dock that they are going to start building next week. To me, that is fulfilling and interesting. And it requires more skill than a job where you spend half your time entering container numbers into a database program.
I guess that concludes today’s rant
MB
