Hazardous Material Transportation Article Review Examples

H. Barry Spraggins. The case for rail transportation of hazardous materials. Journal of Management and Marketing Research. Retrieved from https://www.google.com/search?q=H.+Barry+Spraggins.+The+case+for+rail+transportation+of+hazardous+materials.+Journal+of+Management+and+Marketing+Research+&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8
Transportation of hazardous materials has become a very crucial issue in the US. This is due to the dimension taken by the current transportation system that includes increased terrorism, and the greater risk of transporting these materials since they are not that safe. A vast amount of these materials is moved by either rail or trucks. USA has predicted that the rail will in future take the bulk of transporting materials including hazardous materials. The cause of concern is that majority of trucks are moving along the country’s highway that is dangerous since by members of the public share it. This article looks at some of the advantages of transporting hazard materials by rail as opposed to road, the recent improvements in technology, and the challenges that are involved in the shifting of the movement of these materials from trucks to roads (Tarantilis & Kiranoudis, 2001)
The objective of this research is to analyze how best hazardous materials can be transported through rails or roads. It will also look at the best ways to transport them and measures that should be put in place to avert any danger. Besides, it will review the common challenges met while a doing this and how to tackle them. Finally, it will assess the technological advances that have taken place (Bersani et al., 2000)

Summary of key points

According to research, 20% of the USA chemicals are moved by track. However, railroads carry a much higher percentage of the same. Railroads move over 22 % of the country’s chlorine. Other materials that are moved by rail include cleaners, disinfectors, and fuels. Transportation of these hazardous materials is critical since they are very dangerous, for example, they are explosives, they are toxic and they are prone to a fire outbreak. It is also estimated that close to 1.7 million carloads of hazards transported by rails each year poses the danger of “Toxic Inhalation Hazard”. The enormous amount of hazardous material transported by rail means that it plays a very important part in the transportation of these materials.
Since the state provides these transportation methods, there should be a uniform law applying to both rail and road to ensure that the chemicals reach safely where they are being taken to avert any danger that might take place. Rails are very important since in most cases they transport 99% of the materials safely. As compared to tracks, railroads offer a safer alternative. What differentiates the transportation of hazardous materials from other forms of materials is the risk associated with transporting them. This is because they are harmful to both humans and the environment where they are transported through. Fortunately, routing hazard materials using rails has proven to be more advantageous than moving them by roads. Besides, most of the rails have made a great impact in the past in terms of safety that makes the transportation of these materials easier and safer. Improvements that have been witnessed include having the current rail an efficient rail system (Graham, 2014).
Railroads are also advantageous since they reduce highway congestions. The kind of load that is transported by trains if moved to the roads is enormous hence can lead to road damage. Moreover, a few injuries and accidents have occurred while using rail transport as compared to what can happen along the roads. Trains have witnessed only 12 % of the total number of accidents that have occurred on the roads. In the recent past, there have been several advances that have been made to reduce the risk that can occur while transporting hazardous material using the rails. These includes side detectors that can detect any harmful materials along the way, wheel monitors, advanced track grinding along the railways, and improved truck lubrication.
Some of the issues that have been seen while transporting these materials using either truck or railways are numerous. For instance, it is has been challenging to transport large quantities hazardous materials along the major towns or cities. This requires serious safety measures to be put in place to ensure the safety of the general public. Moreover, shifting hazardous materials from the truck to rails is also a challenge that requires expert inputs. This is because currently there is a lack of clear information that addresses it. There should be more information especially in areas of planning and prioritization. If this is done, the capacity of the rail will be significantly increased. Some additional measures include a compilation of proper data which include commodity flow, volumes, rules and regulations (Graham, 2014).

Conclusion

According to the article, some of the risks that should be considered include potential terrorists’ attack, possibility of the release of hazardous materials, impact on population and environment, consequences of population and non-accident risk that can occur, the length of the routes and highway conditions. Further approaches that should be put in place include, emergency response training, training rail employees on hazard responses and inspection of facilities used to load chemicals This paper has addressed truck versus rail hazard transport by looking at why one is important while the other is not. It has looked at the applicability of rail truck transport safety and. For instance, risk cost and risk equity has been considered as an objective framework and should be looked into. In a nutshell, transportation of hazardous material should be moved from the road to the rails (List et al., 1991).

References

Bersani, C., Minciardi, R., Tomasoni, A. M., & Sacile, R. (0). Risk Averse Routing of Hazardous Materials with Scheduled Delays. Operational Research, 3(1), 56-89.
Graham D. (2014). Hazardous Materials: 4 Common Shipping Mistakes. EHS Journal, 23(1), 45-78.
List, G. F., Mirchandani, P. B., Turnquist, M. A., & Zografos, K. G. (1991). Modeling and Analysis for Hazardous Materials Transportation: Risk Analysis, Routing/Scheduling, and Facility Location. Transportation Science, 40(1), 34-56.
Tarantilis, T. D., & Kiranoudis, C. T. (2001). Using the vehicle routing problem for the transportation of hazardous materials. Operational Research, 1(1), 67-78.