2.9: Transportation Costs

Question 1

Why does the wine industry tend to prefer using freight forwarders who specialise in the transportation of wine?

Answer 1

• more expensive but
• have considerable expertise in transporting the fragile product.
• take steps to limit the risk of loss or damage, such as using highly-specialised (and consequently very expensive) temperature-controlled shipping containers.

Question 2

In what two vessels is bulk wine transported? Which is more common?

Answer 2

• plastic flexitanks within a standard steel shipping container (more common)
• non-flexible ISO tanks

Question 3

What is one key advantage of bulk transportation? What are the outcomes?

Answer 3

Efficiency: wine in tank is much lighter than in bottle
- A standard shipping container can hold around 9,000-10,000 litres of bottled wine, whereas the largest flexitanks can carry up to 24,000 litres of wine in bulk and ISO tanks can hold up to 26,000 litres of wine in bulk

Outcomes:

• less fuel
• cheaper
• more environmentally friendly

Question 4

What is one disadvantage of bulk transportation?

Answer 4

Only suitable for moving large volumes of the same wine
- If a single consignment is less than 15,000 cases there is no cost advantage over transporting in bottle. Therefore, whilst it is an attractive option for supermarkets and major brands who can sell large volumes of wine, it is not suitable for smaller-production wines.