[notahacker]

I think the biggest point the article makes is the great deal of care that needs to be taken in packing loads to meet weight requirements and avoid movement of goods in transit.

What makes sense for international air mail doesn't make sense for a four hour journey by truck, especially if that truck can take a container straight from the ship to the city depot without carefully repacking everything, or go door to door with smaller loads.

[woodpanel]

Yes. With what exactly does freight-hyperloop try to compete? Trucks are more flexible while freight rail is struggling on most routes and speed seems of least concern there.

[bwilliams18]

Maybe I'm totally unaware, but don't trucking, air freight and sea freight have the same problems w/ regards to weight requirements and movement of goods in transit? Is this not a solved problem? Build Hyperloop Freight to fit a ULD and we're all set no?

[notahacker]

As the article notes, goods would move a lot more when they're subjected to the G-forces of a hyperloop than the occasional rolling of a ship or even much milder G-forces of an aircraft taking off, which they have to be packed pretty carefully for as is. And whilst all transport methods have a weight limit and some degree of load-balancing requirement, it's much more of a restriction for the load of a capsule fired at supersonic speed through a curving tube that has to resist forces imposed upon it than a bigger lorry chugging along at a sedate 60mph.

[jdmichal]

Container ships will have a dozen plus containers loaded across. Even if all the cargo shifted to one side of each container, the general balance of the vessel would remain roughly the same.