
TRUCKING
Wintertime trucking can be an
adventure. Icy roads, snowbound destinations, travel restrictions can all
conspire to delay your trucks from getting through. SkyWatch Weather center
can identify the weather affecting your distribution area and let you make
an informed choice on the best routes for your drivers.
When you're locked into a route and
schedule, we can tell you how weather will affect the trip, so you can
anticipate inevitable delays, and warn your clients accordingly. When the
weather is bad enough that your delivery vans will require chains, you'll
know in time to install them without disrupting deliveries.
SHIPPING
The days are gone when a merchant
ship depended upon "fair skies and a following wind" to get to the
next port. That doesn't mean that the weather is no longer a concern to
shipping. In this age of global positioning systems and weather-tracking
satellites, real time information is a given.
You need to know what's going
to happen, not what's already taking place. With sufficient warning, you can
skirt trouble areas, save time, and avoid weather hazards to your ships and
crews.
PASSENGER TRANSPORTATION
Busses and trolleys, trains and
tramways all are affected by winter storms and severe weather. Ice storms
are particularly hazardous to systems which use overhead wires to supply
motive power to the transportation system. Often, one downed wire can
cripple an entire line. Forewarning of these storms might allow operators to
"deadhead" extra cars on off-hours to minimize the line loading.
RAILROADS
Railroads continue to transport a
significant portion of the raw materials and finished products in the United
States. While routes are fixed by the railway infrastructure, there are
still significant effects of the weather on operations. Bulk shipments of
raw materials such as pulverized coal, metallic-bearing ore and limestone
are done in open-topped gondola cars. During the winter months, rain and
snow accumulation, along with sub-freezing temperatures, can combine to
clump the product into a solid, immovable mass. Unloading at the destination
can involve jackhammering the product into manageable chunks.
SkyWatch Weather can give the
operations manager a forecast of the precipitation and weather that a
shipment will experience between source and destination. Pretreatment of the
load with antifreeze agents can eliminate a lot of manual labor and the
delays associated with removing frozen material at the end of the trip.
For more information contact our webmaster
or call us at 1-800-SKYWATCH 1-800-759-9282
Copyright © 2007, Air Science Consultants, Inc.