Barging Wheat

Barging Wheat

David Sparks Ph.D.
David Sparks Ph.D.
Rob Rich is with Shaver Transportation Company, which is a tug and barge line out of Portland, Oregon. Shaver Is a transporter of wheat talked about using barges versus the old system of rail or truck. "The best way to look at that is in a 10 mile comparison. The Texas Transportation Institute and the Marine Administration of the United States had a study done several years ago. The amount of diesel that it takes to move one ton of cargo in trucking has made an incredible increase in the last 10 years. You can go 149 miles on a gallon of diesel to move a ton of cargo. Rail is 413 miles on a gallon of diesel to move a ton of cargo. Inland barging is 576. When it comes to the most economical, when it comes to the lowest carbon footprint, when it comes to the least amount of fossil fuel used nothing can compare to barging. Barging is only effective where we have navigation, so we have a very integrated system here. Our system of wheat transport that goes to our seven export elevators in the lower Columbia River are all dependent on rail and barging. 40% of the wheat that arrives for export is by barge and 60% is by rail. Not only do those two forms compete against one another to help keep the transport prices as reasonable as possible, but it gives not only the shipper but the exporter to incredibly reliable forms of transport.”
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