Movers

Movers - Movers and moving companies in the United States

Freight transportation companies specialize in moving large amounts of cargo quickly and efficiently. Some companies use their own fleets of vehicles to transport their goods, whereas other companies hire service providers to ship their goods.

The for-hire service providers are owned by individuals, partnerships, or corporations as part of the private sector of the economy, particularly in the United States. In many other countries, the government holds partial or total ownership of the for-hire transportation industry.

Service providers compete with one another for freight business on the basis of such standards as the cost of shipment, delivery time, frequency of service, and reliability in meeting schedules. When carriers move freight, they are legally taking possession of the goods and are under obligation to deliver them for a reasonable price. In a free market, competition among carriers to provide this service theoretically helps keep transportation costs reasonable. A contract for service, known as a bill of lading, is used to specify the terms and conditions under which the cargo is to be delivered.

Service providers differ in the amount of freight they can transport and the distance they can transport it. Depending on the size and weight of the cargo, local freight within a city may be moved by courier service, delivery van, or truck. For movement from city to city, freight may travel by truck, barge, rail, bus (for small packages), or airplane. In many cases, freight is carried in large vehicles from city to city and then transferred to smaller vehicles for local delivery.

A major development in long-distance freight transportation since the 1950s has been the use of intermodal transportation carriers. Intermodal transportation is the combination of two or more transportation modes used to move freight from origin to destination. Intermodal transportation improves the transfer of freight from intercity movement to local distribution. An example of this is the combined use of trucks and trains to move cargo over longer distances. Truck trailers are loaded with goods, driven to a rail yard, and transferred to a rail flatcar. They are then moved a long distance by train, unloaded at the destination rail yard, and driven to a market or a supply warehouse. Such a freight trip is called trailer-on-flatcar (TOFC) or container-on-flatcar (COFC). Today almost 20 percent of all truck trailer loads traveling over 800 km (500 mi) in the United States are transported this way.

Intermodal transportation requires cooperation and agreements relating to prices and delivery arrangements among the different carriers. Similar agreements apply in the transportation of international freight. One way that shippers use technology to exchange information is by using electronic tracking devices and software. These tools allow shippers to monitor the progress of freight movement. Automatic equipment identification tags similar to bar codes are placed on containers and truck trailers for identification as they go through different stages of their trip.

Cargo Cults, religious movements arising from the impact of modern technology and mercantilism on developing cultures. Such movements appeared, for example, in 19th-century Melanesia and New Guinea when European trading stations and colonial administration became dominant. Possession of trade goods (cargo) came to typify prosperity. The traditional native cultures were weakened by the contact with Westerners, but they deliberately rejected or were unable to adopt Western culture as an alternative. Native groups developed around prophetic leaders, who promised a new age of blessings and salvation that would be heralded by the arrival of special cargoes of European goods. Tribal deities, culture heroes, or ancestors were invoked to drive the foreigners away, and various rituals were enacted to speed the arrival of the promised goods. World War II brought further cultural disruptions to the area, and new cults arose. After the war and the withdrawal of military personnel, some cults built landing strips, believing that planes would continue to arrive bringing cargo.

Typically, cult members do not associate the awaited cargo with the Western economic system that produces it and cannot understand why the goods do not arrive. Eventually, the leaders are discredited by the failure of their prophecies, and the groups disband.

Cargo cults have been explained in various ways. One explanation is that they are social movements that help people cope with the problem of culture contact and change. Because they express dissatisfaction with current cultural conditions, they are also explained as attempts to launch a redemptive process by which the social and moral order may be rebuilt.