Discussion Question – Module 5 Ques

LGMT685 - Activity 5.2

SCORED 100/100

1. How would you compare the perils of maritime shipping to that of airfreight?

A maritime shipment faces a greater amount of risk since ships need to travel a longer
distance and at a slower pace therefore time exposure at sea is longer. Containers are
exposed on the decks for long periods of time and ocean shipments often face numerous
of uncontrollable and unavoidable events, they have much more risks than airfreight.
Some risk that ocean shipment faces are water damage; rough waters can wash up on
board and soak into container, product damage from container sweat; humidity that
builds up along the walls inside the containers, and containers collapsing which all results
from dealing with bad weather at sea. Large cargo ship are slow moving and if there is
thunderstorms and inclement weather ahead, they have a harder time and need a longer
time to navigating out of it. Another risk is Jettison; when crewmembers throw cargo
containers overboard to save the ship due to weight issues or the ship is leaning a certain
way. Other risks such as fires onboard, mechanical breakdowns, navigational errors,
stranding issues where the ship is on high ground and can no longer move, crashing into
islands and collisions with other ships, which can all cause the ship to sink. Lastly, there
are other factors such as piracy, contamination and so on which cannot be controlled until
they reach land (David, 2013).
When compared to ocean shipments, air shipments faces lot less of a risk since there are
minimal exposures. Air transportation industry is heavily regulated by governments and
International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) therefore it is very safe, numbers of
accidents are extremely low, risk of fire and explosions are close to none due to high
security measures. However, there are some risks that air shipments do face, which are
rough cargo movements and exposure to inclement weather. Freighter aircraft usually fly
through rough weather such as turbulence, for that reason, cargo may experience
aggressive bumps and regular sudden movements in the belly of the aircraft which can all
cause damages to the products. Exposure to inclement weather, goods/products in transits
can go through numerous types of weather prior to reaching their final destination. Goods
in transit can make multiple of stops in different countries with different types of weather
since freighter jets tends to stop at other large freighter airports prior to the final
destination which again can ruin the goods (David, 2013).