Logistics in Alaska: moving mission-critical freight.

• Author: Phelps, Jack E.
• Position: TRANSPORTATION SPECIAL SECTION

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Ask just about any Alaskan who has lived here more than a few years about nearly any topic and you can provoke the person into telling you why things are different here. Alaskans are more outdoorsy. We are more independent. We are more adventuresome. We are not bound by the kinds of schedules people in the Lower 48 keep. We have more airplanes and more people who fly them.

Maybe it's true and maybe it isn't, but we certainly tend to think so. One place where it is undoubtedly true is in the transportation sector. Freight issues in Alaska are decidedly different than they are elsewhere. Take the likes of the Alaska Railroad, American Fast Freight, Everts Air Cargo, Span Alaska Consolidators, Carlile Transportation Systems, Crowley Maritime Corp., Foss, Alaska Air Cargo, American Marine/PENCO, TransGroup Worldwide Logistics, Bowhead Transport, The ERA Family of Companies, Pen Air, Lynden Transport, Northern Air Cargo, Alaska Marine Lines, Alaska West Express, Horizon Lines, Totem Ocean Trailer Express, Pacific Pile and Marine, and oh so many more. There are too many to mention, too many to describe. But all have a huge impact in Alaska--whether it be by air, ship, train, truck or a combination of the four.

When it comes to moving freight, "most everything in Alaska is intermodal," says Aves Thompson, executive director of the Alaska Trucking Association. The vast majority of the goods coming into the state come across the water. Freight comes by barge or it comes by oceangoing vessels. It comes in containers, it comes in bulk, it comes in railcars or it comes in truck trailers. Or maybe it is heavy equipment and it comes in a roll on/roll off (Ro/Ro) configuration. But, regardless of packaging, it arrives across the ocean.

There are, of course, two other modes. Some goods arrive by air, and some are trucked up the Alaska Highway through neighboring Canada. Herein lies a major difference from America's other noncontiguous state, Hawaii. No one is hauling 53-foot semi-trailers or 40-foot doubles overland to the 50th state. Moreover, no other state receives interstate shipments that have to leave the country before they arrive. Alaska really is different, and the pride so often expressed by many Alaskans is justified in this regard.

Air freight is a major activity at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport (TSAIA). The city currently plays host to two of the largest air freight companies in the world, FedEx and United Parcel Service...