What is a RoRo ship?
RoRo ship is a kind of cargo ship designed to carry cargo on wheels, such as cars, trucks, farm tractors, etc. RoRo vessel is crafted to let vehicles drive on and off the vessel directly.
Many RORO ships are mainly to transport cars.
Why was the RoRo transport introduced?
RoRo transport was introduced in the 1960s because of the growing demand for motor vehicle transfer.
When more and more people need to transport their cars across the sea by ship, loading and unloading the cars by a crane can not meet people’s needs. because the loading and unloading process is time-consuming, expensive, and not safe.
RoRo vessel was introduced with wide open doors, a huge deck area, and a floating bridge connecting land and deck area so vehicles can drive on the vessel from one door and drive off from the other door.
The advantage of RoRo ship is its fast, cheap and safe loading and unloading process.
How long is a RoRo ship?
A big RoRo ship is over 200 meters in length, with deadweight over 30,000 Metric Ton. A pure car and truck carrier RoRo with 21000 metric tons deadweight can carry roughly 6000 cars on board.
A RoRo ship is like an enormous parking garage with 5~13 decks. some decks are liftable for easy loading and unloading.
Some big RoRo ships that Wallenius Wilhelmsen shipping company has can transport cargo up to 6.1 meters high, 12 meters wide, and 400 tonnes in weight.
What are LoLo and RoRo?
LoLo is short for a lift on lift off. LoLo describes how cargo lift on and off the vessel by crane. Container ships are a typical LoLo.
RoRo is short for roll-on roll-off. RoRo describes how cargo is loaded and unloaded from a vessel. Such as cars, and tractors, that roll on and off the vessel on their own wheel. Cargos that are not self-propelled will be put on equipment with wheels in the terminal to roll on and off the vessel.
How are RoRo ships loaded?
RoRo ships allow your cargo to roll on and roll off the vessel. Your cargo either be on its own wheels or can be loaded on equipment with wheels so the cargo can drive on and off the ship deck.
Here is a good video to show you how cars discharged from a RoRo ship
How fast is a RoRo ship?
RoRo ship is a kind of cargo ship to carry wheeled cargo. The normal speed of a RoRo ship is between 20~25 knots (23~30mph). Sometimes RoRo ships might cruise on slow steaming at 15~20 knots to save fuel consumption if they are not on a tight schedule.
Do RoRo ships take passengers?
There are basically 3 types of RoRo ships, RoRo ships for cars and trucks, RoRo ships for heavy equipment and break bulk cargo, and RoRo ferries for passengers and cars.
- RoRo ships for cars and trucks
- sometimes people call this kind of RoRo ship LCTC (large car and truck carrier) or PCTC ( pure car and truck carrier)
- this kind of RoRo ship only carries different types of cars, trucks
- RoRo ships for heavy equipment and break bulk cargo
- This kind of RoRo ship is equipped with a ramp capacity of over several hundred tons and spacious decks to accommodate very high and wide equipment.
- Heavy bulk cargo such as construction material, mining, agriculture machinery, etc.
- RoRo ferries
- These ferries are designed to transport tons of passengers and commercial or private cars.
- These ferries are usually on a short voyage and on a scheduled route. you can book it easily.
How many cars can a RORO ship carry?
An average-size RoRo ship can carry 5000~6000 cars.
Based on Wallenius Wilhelmsen shipping company that their smallest RoRo vessel with 4 liftable ramps can carry 5496 cars. Their biggest RoRo ship with a car capacity of 8000.
How much does RoRo shipping cost?
The shipping cost varies greatly on the shipment’s size, weight, and dimensions. Most time people choose RoRo shipping when they have a special project such as moving a big plane engine or a huge medical device. RoRo vessel is also popular to transport cars.
A regular ship can not handle heavy equipment or cars efficiently and is less costly than a RoRo ship.
What is the biggest RORO ship?
Mark V class ship is the biggest RoRo ship. The norwegina& Swedish shipping company Wallenius Wilhelmsen owns 4 MK V RORO ships
Parsifal MK V built in the year 2011 has a deadweight of 41,820 Metric Tons, with a car capacity of 6004. max shipment height 7.1m, max width 12m.
Salome MK V built in the year 2012 has a deadweight of 43,878 Metric Tons, with a car capacity of 6004. max shipment height 7.1m, max width 12m.
Tonsberg MK V built in the year 2011 has a deadweight of 41,554 Metric Tons, with a car capacity of 6004. max shipment height 7.1m, max width 12m.
As of 2012, Tonsberg is the world’s largest RoRo ship.
Tysla MK V built in the year 2012 has a deadweight of 43,878 Metric Tons, with a car capacity of 6004. max shipment height 7.1m, max width 12m.
Here is a good video to show you the top 10 largest RoRo ships
RoRo vs container
Special project
RoRo is good for transporting heavy equipment that can not or is not safe lift by crane.
RoRo vessels are designed to carry bulky, complex products that need sturdy strength of ramp and ship deck.
Car transportation
RoRo vessels are great for car transportation. When cars can drive on and off the vessel, the loading and unloading process speeds up incredibly.
Standardized shipment
Container ships are good for standardized shipment. Any items that can containerize are a good fit for container ships, such as everyday items, housewares, apparel, etc.
Any products that are over-height or over-width to fit in a container will be very expensive to ship by container vessels.
RoRo vs Ferries
A ferry is a ship for transport a large number of passengers and goods in a short distance.
RoRo and ferry are not the same. When a ferry has roll on roll off service then it is a RoRo vessel. When cars can not drive on or off the ferry thus it is a regular passenger ship.
A great number of ferries are RoRo ships. Ferries are designed to carry lots of passengers, cars, luggage on board. Ferries almost always travel in short distance with scheduled route..
Most RoRo ships are not designed to move people but cars, heavy equipment, break bulk goods. RoRo ships are much larger than ferries. A RoRo ship could have 10~13 decks to fit thousands of cars, but ferries normally have 2~4 decks to fit passengers and their belongings.
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Resources:
www.walleniuswilhelmsen.com
