You have 1000 kilograms of clean, fresh water in a single IBC container in Sydney at the Opera house. You will be paid 1 million dollars if you can deliver it to Los Angeles McArthur Park within 3 weeks, or 21 days, or 504 hours. You can split the water into as many containers as you want, and the IBC doesn’t need to make it to LA, just the water inside. If you deliver 2000 bottles each containing 500ml of undiluted, clean, fresh water, or like, 99% of it to account for evaporation and some spillage, that counts as a win. You can assume that any partial water deliveries that remain in Sydney or arrive in LA won’t be stolen in your absence so you don’t need to hire guards. There are no consequences for failing, but if you do fail or succeed, any money you spend on the project, you don’t get refunded. Normal consequences for breaking laws apply.
How do you do it, or do you even bother trying?
You can ship 1 ton/1m3 of cargo via any international air freight company to the other side of the world for less than 10,000 dollars.
(Source: I’ve done it plenty of times)
A day for pickup and transport to the airport in Sydney, 24 hours for actual transit, a day in customs in LA, a day for a truck to deliver it to that location. 5 business days to get that IBC to your destination in LA, tops.
a day in customs in LA,
It might take a bit longer, since this is a pretty weird cargo with an even weirder story behind it.
Still, you should be able to clear it well within the states time
Nah. It’s a very basic checklist type stuff. No one cares about the story, they care about clearing cargo.
Are you trying me that if I import “water, 1000L, bulk”, and someone at customs sees it, it’ll be fine?
Yeah. Why wouldn’t it be? You can import water to the US. HTS 2201.90.0000 covers the import tariffs, so it depends on the value determined by the importer what your pay. Companies import bottled water all the time. Fiji water is all imported.
This seriously the global logistics version of asking if it’s OK to bring your own bottled sparkling water to a fancy restaurant. It’s stupid and will be pointless, and you might pay a corking fee on top of it all, but you very much can, and it’s not even a funny story or cool for anyone involved. It’s just an odd, smalltime decision.
Yeah, I’d expect them to test it, find it true, and clear it.
If asked you can just say that you are participating in a scavenger hunt for a rich weirdo.
Sure, but not like, within one day.
1000L of water is literally nothing on a global logistics scale.
Single transportable tank would hold more than enough. (A fuel truck, for example can hold up to about 45,000L)
Stick it on a freight aircraft overnight.
Chill for 20 days and line up how I’m gonna spend my easy money.
Bro, I can ship 1000kg of anything between Sydney and LAX on Quantas Cargo for, at most, $8,000.
That’s the upper estimate, too. Might be cheaper.
https://suaidglobal.com/insights/air-freight-cost-per-kg/
You want me to book you something? I’ll charge you $508K, and you keep the rest.
Liquids generally cannot be sent via air freight.
ice blocks
You sure about that? Because a lot of logistics companies will gladly tell you how they do. I’ve shipped liquids by air freight, too. Not a problem as long as the shipper and carrier understand the terms of the contract.
https://commercialfreightservices.com/shipping-bulk-dry-and-liquids-by-air-freight/
https://overseasairfreight.com/our-services/international-courier-service-for-liquid/
Right now, someone somewhere is shipping more than 1000L of something liquid by air freight. Not sure why you think this is some dastardly mystery. You simply weren’t aware of how common it is, is all.
It is interesting to me that they do honestly. Liquids shift weight a lot, which can be very dangerous to planes. I wonder how they handle it. Maybe they only put it on planes so big that the weight shift is negligable?
Liquids shift weight based on empty space in the container. Once an aircraft gets to speed, shifts are negligible anyway.
Also, keep in mind that lavatory water and waste systems in a 747 are more than this silly question in capacity. 4 x 416 liter tanks, filled to 405 liters. So very little slack space to start.
https://www.scribd.com/document/678025063/ATA-38-51-52-et-56
Also, aircraft fuel is a liquid. A 747 holds usually more than 200,000 liters of fuel.
The max cargo capacity of a cargo-oriented 747 is 113,000kg. So 1,000 liters of water in a tank with very little slack is both less than 1% of the total cargo capacity, it’s also less than even the water tanks for the sinks and toilets on the passenger version. And less than 0.5% of how much fuel is sloshing around in the tanks.
https://www.cargolux.com/fleet-equipment/aircraft/747-400f-specifications/
Thanks for the great detailed explanation. So ignoring the original silly question. How do smaller commercial planes manage the shifting of fuel and such. I’ve been on some prop planes that had a bathroom, and in some cases removed passengers because we were overweight.
Fuel is typically stored in the wings, so as it depletes, it doesn’t change the center of gravity of the plane with regard to the lift. Center of gravity is very important in smaller planes.
But there’s really not that much sloshing or shifting of liquids after takeoff. The tanks can be segmented, but just like being able to walk in a plane, there’s not a lot of shifting overall. It’s a constant pull backwards, but that’s about it.
Smaller planes with bathrooms use a more camp toilet kind of system, with less liquid, which is all generally stored and held in the same part of the plane, so no shifting of weight in a large scale. I’ve been in a 6-seater with a lavatory, and we were basically told to hold it because the crew didn’t want to clean the tank. But it was all in a stack in the same part of the body.
Thanks for the education. Learning makes life interesting.
Water is fungible (or is it non-fungibel)…it’s one of those
Pour out the water in Australia and let it be free.
Find a hose in LA and refill a new container.
Nobody will notice the different water.
I assume this is happening during the water wars, so this may not be an option
In that case, hunt down Immortan Joe and pay him to do it. He and his goons have the experience for this sort of thing.
Thats not moving water. Thats just filling up water. Do it in a desert ;)
Is this some silly AI training question? 1000kg is the weight of 10 humans with some luggage for each of them, so transporting it by plane shouldn’t cost drastically more than 10 passenger airfares. I mean come on. Plus you have to move it around by truck before and after the plane flight. Again no biggie. Clearing customs, who knows.
Yeah, this seems really odd. Today’s shipping industry is worth trillions, fully globalised, and pretty much bookable online. The biggest hurdle is paperwork, and has been for a while.
Like some others have said standard air freight costs are significantly under that 1M, and take hardly any time compared to 3 weeks.
This is a “problem” that might be worth millions to solve in the 1700s, but it’s been long solved.
IBC tank holds roughly 1000 liters, costs almost nothing and can fit on a truck.
Even at 300 (over paying) you are on your way.
I give someone 10k to do it for me. He can keep the rest of the 10k.
I wait a little and get a million.
That falls into the regular shipping realm. Any shipping company can handle that.
To make it challenging we could say that you’re not allowed to use the internet, only phone calls.
Make it more challenging and say that you cant use a shipping company of any kind.
I’d be surprised if you can’t just ship it with UPS or FedEx.
I wouldn’t trust Australia Post, they can’t even ship a box of crockery across the country without it crossing the nullarbor five times.
Fed Ex it. It doesn’t cost a million dollars to air mail a metric ton of water. I’ll have it there in 3 days.
Step 1: Dump the water into the Parramatta
Step 2: Fly to Los Angeles
Step 3: Buy an IBC container and fill it from a fresh water source.
Done. The water in the IBC is the same water you left in Sydney. Prove it isn’t.
Any global freight company could do that. Probably don’t even have to pay extra for express delivery to make it in time.
Right? Not a hard question. UPS could do it.
I’m pretty sure you could charter a cargo plane that can carry more than a tonne for a lot less than a million.
Yeah, I don’t really see how this is any kind of challenge
I’d call the recipient and ask them to turn on the faucet and explain that I’ll send the water through that. That’ll be $1000000, thanks.
“I have opened the faucet but it is dry. when will you send the water?”
When the bank transfer has cleared.
i think a ship could do it… i think they need just a little bit less than 3 weeks. probably the cheapest option. otherwise airplane ofc. idk what it costs to rent a private airplane for that one single distance.
