What are the ways and equipment of vegetable transportation, and what are their characteristics? What methods and equipment can be used to transport loofah and bitter gourd?

The transportation of vegetables can be divided into road transportation, railway transportation, air transportation and water transportation according to the different routes taken. The transportation of vegetables from the place of origin to the place of sale is a systematic project, and it is necessary to determine a transportation mode or a combination of multiple transportation modes to complete the transportation process according to the transportation distance, the quality requirements of the consumer market and the cost that can be paid. Each mode of transportation has its own advantages and disadvantages. When designing transportation routes, we should give full consideration to giving full play to their respective advantages and realize complementary advantages.

(1) Road transportation Road transportation is the most basic mode of transportation. Whether it is short-distance transportation from the place of origin to the market, or railway, aviation and water transportation, from the place of origin to railways, airports and docks, and from railways, airports and docks to the sales market, road transportation is needed as a supplement.

Advantages of road transportation: flexible time, starting at any time, short-distance transportation of vegetables and fast delivery; Convenient, can go deep into any area where production and life can reach the road; On-site service, no need to change clothes halfway; Less investment, relatively simple packaging requirements.

Disadvantages of highway transportation: small traffic flow, large energy consumption, slow long-distance transportation speed and high cost.

Tools and characteristics of highway transportation;

① Ordinary trucks. The size and volume of ordinary trucks are different, and the characteristics are: only transportation function, no temperature control conditions. The transportation of vegetables is greatly influenced by natural temperature and humidity. The temperature in the car is adjusted by stacking ventilation, covering straw mats and quilts, and adding ice to transported vegetables in summer. This method has low transportation cost, but it is suitable for short transportation distance and large vegetable loss.

(2) insulated car. The body of the insulated car has insulation function, but there is no refrigeration equipment. In the process of transporting vegetables, the thermal insulation function of the thermal insulation car body is mainly to block the exchange of internal and external gases and ensure that vegetables maintain a certain temperature range during transportation. This method is less affected by environmental temperature and humidity, but it can't adjust the influence of vegetable metabolism and car body leakage on the temperature inside the car, so its heat preservation range is limited by time, and the transportation time of different vegetables in heat preservation is different. Generally, vegetables precooled in summer can be transported by insulated trucks within 8 hours, while vegetables that are not precooled need to be transported by insulated trucks, and good ventilation conditions are needed to adjust the temperature and humidity conditions in the car. Insulated car transportation has the advantages of less investment, low cost, low energy consumption and saving operating expenses. The application of insulated vehicles in vegetable transportation is increasing gradually.

③ refrigerated truck. The refrigerated truck has the functions of heat preservation and refrigeration, which can adjust the temperature needed for vegetable transportation at will and create the same conditions as the cold storage. The refrigerated truck can also be used as an insulated truck and a heating insulated truck in low temperature season. Refrigerated trucks can provide the best temperature conditions for vegetable transportation, thus greatly improving the quality of vegetable transportation. The refrigeration capacity of general refrigerated trucks is designed to ensure the refrigeration during the transportation of vegetables. Therefore, vegetables should be precooled at the place of origin before being transported by refrigerated trucks. If the vegetables that are not precooled enter the refrigerated truck, it will take a long time to reduce the temperature of the vegetables to a suitable temperature, and the transportation quality will be greatly reduced. Refrigerated trucks are suitable for transporting conventional vegetables, and the transportation time should not exceed 24 hours. Compared with other road transport modes, refrigerated trucks are slightly more expensive.

(2) Railway transportation Railway transportation is most suitable for long-distance transportation of a large number of vegetables.

Advantages of railway transportation: Railway transportation has the advantages of large carrying capacity, low freight rate and fast delivery. The freight rate of railway transportation is equivalent to115 ~1/20 of the average transportation cost of automobiles.

Disadvantages of railway transportation: railway transportation is not as flexible as road transportation, and it needs to be loaded and transported according to railway running time and train combination, which is not as convenient as road transportation in the case of small volume and short transportation distance. In addition, both ends of railway transportation need road transportation as an aid, and goods need to be reloaded before they can be delivered, so it is difficult to ensure stable and suitable conditions for vegetable transportation. The popularization of transport containers has solved this problem well. Containers can be transported by truck to the place of origin, and vegetables can be directly loaded into containers. In railway transportation, containers can be directly loaded on locomotives, and then transported to the market by truck after being sold, which not only eliminates the trouble of changing vegetables, but also ensures the temperature and humidity conditions in the whole process of vegetable transportation.

Tools and characteristics of railway transportation;

① Ordinary boxcar. The characteristics and performance of ordinary boxcars are similar to those of road transport trucks. This kind of car is suitable for transporting vegetables that are easy to preserve, such as potatoes and onions, in a more suitable season. The loss of transporting vegetables in high and low temperature seasons is great, even reaching 40% ~ 70%.

② Ventilation and heat insulation vehicle. The characteristics and performance of ventilation and insulation vehicles are similar to those of highway transportation and insulation vehicles.

③ Ice insulated vehicle. The insulated car with ice is referred to as insulated car for short. On the basis of insulated car, 6 ~ 7 refrigerators are installed in a trunk. Take the refrigerator as the cold source to ensure that the temperature inside the car is within a certain range. Because the storage capacity of the refrigerator is limited, in order to ensure the continuous cold source, ice adding stations are set up along the railway to replenish ice cubes in the carriages for a certain period of time and maintain a relatively stable temperature. In the cold season, heating equipment can be used to raise the temperature and prevent low temperature injury.

(4) refrigerated trucks. The characteristics and performance are similar to those of road transport refrigerated trucks.

⑤ container. Container is a kind of large container which is convenient for mechanized loading and unloading and transportation. Small vegetable boxes are concentrated in larger containers, which is convenient for centralized loading, unloading and transshipment. Because container transportation shows obvious advantages and economic benefits, it develops rapidly. In 1970, the Technical Committee of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO/TC 104 for short) defined the container and proposed that the container must meet the following conditions:

A. It can be used repeatedly for a long time and has sufficient strength;

B. During transshipment on the way, the immobile goods in the container can be directly changed, that is, directly changed from one means of transport to another, so as to realize rapid loading and unloading;

C. facilitating the loading and unloading of goods and mechanized loading and unloading;

Its internal volume is greater than 1 m3.

ISO/TC 104 studies the standards of various containers. In order to solve the problem of recycling empty containers, ISO has also formulated two specifications for folding containers.

Containers only provide boxes for carrying vegetables, and their transportation depends on railway locomotives. Container transportation is a kind of transportation tool with good development prospect, which saves labor and time, ensures product quality and realizes door-to-door service. This is a great revolution in modern transportation. There are also ordinary containers, insulated containers and refrigerated containers, which can be selected according to their own needs. The details are provided in the table below.

List of external dimensions, specifications and gross weight of international containers

When vegetables packed in cartons are transported in containers, the specifications of cartons can be reasonably designed according to the size of containers and the size of vegetables to improve the transportation capacity.

(3) Water transportation is suitable for long-distance transportation of a large number of vegetables that are resistant to transportation.

Advantages of water transport: Water transport has the advantages of large carrying capacity, stability and low freight rate.

Disadvantages of water transportation: long transportation time and great influence by natural conditions. If you stay in Hong Kong for too long in bad weather, the transportation time will often be greatly extended, the loss will increase and the quality will be difficult to guarantee.

Cargo holds for transporting vegetables on water are also common, and they are insulated and refrigerated. And water transport has also begun to use containers.

(4) Air transportation is suitable for transporting high-grade, difficult-to-preserve and some special vegetables.

Advantages of air transport: air transport is the fastest, 6 ~ 7 times faster than railway and 30 times faster than water transport.

Disadvantages of air transport: high freight, small size, many delivery links, long waiting time and great influence by the weather.

Generally, air transportation will precool the vegetable producing area and then transport it with heat preservation.

Luffa and Momordica charantia are mainly transported by road and railway. Luffa and Momordica charantia, which are supplied out of season or across regions, can be transported by air, although the transportation distance is far but the price is high. Luffa and Momordica charantia rarely use water for long-distance transportation. Highway transportation can use ordinary trucks, insulated trucks and refrigerated trucks, while railway transportation can use ordinary boxcars, ventilated insulated trucks, insulated trucks with ice, refrigerated trucks and containers. Waterway transportation is generally short-distance, and ordinary or insulated cargo holds can be used. No matter what transportation mode and means are adopted, transportation distance, quality requirements of consumer market and transportation cost should be considered comprehensively.