EagleRail Container Logistics is a technology and service developed in collaboration with the shipping-container port and intermodal operations industries to help resolve the growing short-haul port drayage bottleneck in the logistics supply chain. As container ship size increases they are delivering and picking up more containers at each docking. Meanwhile, container volume is rising 3-4% per year, consequently ports are landlocked and in desperate need to evacuate or “turn” their limited container dwell-slots faster to keep up with the increasing ship-processing velocity. The solution is to add ICDs (Inland Container Depots) or satellite storage and processing yards, which are typically built 5+ miles inland behind port-city population boundaries. The next issue is how to shuttle these containers quickly, efficiently, and in a socially and environmentally responsible way to-and-from the port as they pass through city centers. Additional diesel trucks are the first, but not the preferred answer due to their adding congestion and accident incidences to shared roads, their additional CO2 emissions and a global, short-haul truck-driver shortage. Traditional ground rail is very difficult to extend through a town’s settled infrastructure as it takes up precious ground space. Drones are neither strong enough nor safe enough because a fully loaded container weighs 70,000 lbs. The solution is an electrified, overhead light rail system. It is clean and combines the best of trucking with individual unit movement, and traditional ground-rail for a dedicated route with driverless and highly predictable delivery times and efficiencies. EagleRail is a Chicago-based firm that was among the first to develop and offer this type of system over 8-years ago, with U.S. patents and applications worldwide. They are in the process of negotiating their first two potential installations
