With the free flow of thousands of thoughts, pictures, videos, and files across the internet occurring every second, you would be forgiven for forgetting about the port systems that bring your cool new smartphone from Japan to your hand. Everyday, millions of items are trucked, flown or shipped from place to place. For lakeside towns like Erie, whose manufacturing sector is twice the national average, shipping is big business. But in order for Erie to take advantage of their positioning, they have to know just how big.
This week, project managers with the Erie Inland Port Initiative began a survey to examine the volume of freight entering and exiting the Erie ports every day. Over the next six months, the survey will allow logistics managers, freight managers and port captains the chance to weigh in, giving a clearer picture of how big a logistics system the team must design and help sell Erie as a great shipping hub.
“How many containers are coming in or going out and when they go, where are they going? Are they shipping it down to Baltimore to get on a boat there or are they trucking it to New Jersey? asks Assistant Project Manager Rachel McCreary. “This data can help us market our area to all kinds of people. We are talking with Class One railroads, we’re talking with big marine terminal operators and basically, what these people want to know is if they choose to establish a weekly service in our area, is there enough volume to support it.”
The survey is part of a larger effort to create a shipping and logistics community for Erie where railroad and terminal operators would be able to work together to strengthen the port’s effectiveness. Erie Inland Port president John Elliott urged local freight workers to join at a shippers conference the Inland Port hosted back in May. The Erie Inland Port Initiative hopes that, by displaying the volume and movement of freight at the port, it can attract more members and further future investment.
“Once we have all the data collected, we need to compare those prices and that amount of time that they’re spending with what we would be able to offer them, to determine if a regional transportation hub can better service what they are getting right now,” says McCreary. “The motive for shippers and freight forwarders is that it will help the local economy and the end result, hopefully will be able to provide a lower cost and faster means of travel for their products.”
Source: Rachel McCreary, Erie Inland Port
Writer: John Steele