What if you just found crude oil but were hundreds of miles away from any refineries or pipelines? If you're able to get the product out of the ground it won't be worth anything if you can't transport it to a specific location to be refined. And if the location crosses rivers, mountains or other barriers you may need more than one form of transportation. That's where transloading comes in.
The term transloading refers to the process of transferring a shipment from one form of transportation to another. Sometimes one form of transportation cannot take the shipment the entire way. For example, if a rail car is carrying crude oil, in order to get that oil to a refinery a tank truck may be needed. Therefore the oil must be transloaded from the rail car into the tank truck.
Transloading facilities are designed to minimize handling of products because errors can cause extra expense due to loss of product, environmental spills and risk of damage to property and people. Therefore, metering systems are used to keep track of how much product is transloaded. Trucks and rail cars can be loaded top or bottom with bottom being the preferred means so there is no risk of a fall. Portable access platforms and carts can also offer safe, versatile and quick access to both trucks and rail cars.
