[ B Y J I M H A R R I S ]The development of the metal ship-

ping container in 1956 revolutionizedthe shipping industry and defined thelegacy of its inventor, Malcom McLean.Prior to McLean’s innovation, goods

were loaded and unloaded individuallyin bags, boxes, crates or barrels as op-posed to the more efficient method mostfrequently practiced today.

Josh Oren, founder and CEO of Hous-ton-based SandBox Logistics, feels his

The SandBox system is designed to change theway frac sand is transported for the better.

Thinking Inside the BoxSandBox believes it can make frac sand shipment faster and more efficient..

www.sandboxlogistics.com | Headquarters:

Houston | Service: Frac sand transportation

and services | Employees: 15

SandBox Logistics

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“We wanted to create a true end-to-end solution.”// JOSH OREN, founder and CEO

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company can do for frac sand storageand transportation what McLean didfor general cargo: Make the shippingprocess faster and more efficient.

Oren’s company in 2011 developedthe SandBox, an 8-foot by 10-footmetal crate capable of holding up to

46,500 pounds of frac sand. The boxis at the core of a transportationprocess meant to eliminate many ofthe existing logistics challenges. Italso helps with what the companyrefers to as “the three Ds:” dust, de-murrage and degradation.

The SandBox is easily transported tothe well site and unloaded by a forkliftin less than five minutes. Once at thewell site, up to 2 million pounds of ma-terial can be stored in roughly a 40-footby 40-foot footprint. The SandBoxprocess effectively eliminates the needfor traditional sand mover equipmentand actually saves pad space.

Regardless of what issues might bedelaying the job at the well-site, Sand-Box delivery trucks can always makethe delivery. This completely elimi-nates any detention charges at the well.Once the boxes are delivered they areplaced on a cradle which conveys thesand into the blender. As boxes areemptied, they are easily replaced withfull boxes.

“We wanted to create a true end-to-end solution where you could load avessel at the mine and take it all theway through the chain to the well-head,” Oren says. “Today, sand getsloaded into a rail hopper, brought intoa region, placed into silos or just sits inrail cars, or dumped on the floor of awarehouse where loaders pick it up.It’s a laborious, time-consumingprocess that we wanted to eliminatewhile creating the lowest-cost solutionwe could think of.”

The company designed a SandBoxrailcar, which can hold four boxes andbe loaded at the sand mine. The car op-erates exactly like a traditional hoppercar and is filled through the top hatch ofeach SandBox. However, once the railcars reach the destination, the boxes aresimply picked off and stacked up. Railcars can be off-loaded in a matter ofminutes and returned back to origin.Nearly any rail siding can be turned intoa transload terminal which allows serv-ices companies to get the materialcloser to the frac crew and reduce

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ground transportation costs. All in all,Oren believes that as much as $35 to $50per ton can be saved in overall logisticscosts depending on the region.

In addition to the SandBox itself,SandBox Logistics also developed sup-port vehicles to assist in the trans-portation process. The SandBox cradleallows sand to naturally fall to the con-veyor belt and is arguably the cleanestdelivery process to the blender that iscurrently available. The SandBoxprocess eliminates sand from beingblown pneumatically, which is thebiggest contributor to the silica dustproblem. This dust, if inhaled over longperiods of time, could be a health haz-ard. “Dust inhalation has been identi-fied by OSHA as the top safety issue on

a frac job,” Oren adds. “By not blowingthe sand, we are eliminating that dust.That’s a pretty big deal to us, and one ofthe more meaningful and compellingreasons we had to begin to evaluate andtest this system.”

INDUSTRY DEMAND

Oren became familiar with the “threeDs” and other inefficiencies related tothe standard method of frac sand trans-portation and storage as the owner ofPSI Frac Logistics, a logistics andtransportation company that delivers

ceramic and natural proppants to wellsite locations. Demurrage in particularis a common challenge for the company.“We saw what they deal with every day,so we started to think about how tosolve those problems and create some-

thing valuable to our customers so wecould eliminate the detention issue,and that was the genesis of SandBox Lo-gistics,” he says.

After more than two years of develop-ing, engineering and patenting its cre-ation, SandBox Logistics formally

“The economics and health and safety aspects arecompelling enough to where companies are puttingthis equipment out in the field to see how it works.”// JOSH OREN, founder and CEO

“There's a large capital commitment toset up silos in a particular region, and inthe oil and gas industries you don't knowwhen the activity may change or wherecustomers may move to,” he adds. “Sandsuppliers are viewing the SandBox as aninexpensive mobile and scalable solu-tion that eliminates the need for silos,

introduced it to the marketplace in2013. The company has signed con-tracts with and is building equipmentfor several oil and gas production com-panies working near its base in Hous-ton. “The economics and health andsafety aspects are compelling enough towhere companies are engaging and put-

ting this equipment out in the field tosee how it works,” Oren says.

Although oil and gas producers ac-tively engaged in fracking activities areSandBox Logistics' target customers, thecompany is also seeing demand fromfrac sand suppliers looking for an alter-native – and mobile – storage method.

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SandBox is seeing demand from frac sand suppliers looking for an alternative and mobile storage method..

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allowing them to move their businesswhere they need – rather than engage ina large infrastructure project – at lessthan 80 percent the cost of silos.

“SandBox enables proppant suppliersto create a flexible ‘store-front’ for theirproduct without having to make bets ona specific region,” Oren notes. “Even thesmallest players in the proppant marketcan mobilize and implement a low cost,effective logistics solution.” EMI

+ BRIGGS EQUIPMENT is proud to partner withSandbox Logistics as they provide innovative solutionsto the fracking industry. Briggs Equipment is a trusteddealer for Taylor forklifts which are critical in the stag-ing process of the Sandbox Containers at the well site.Briggs Equipment is one of the largest and oldest ma-terial handling providers in the United States. BriggsEquipment operates numerous branch locations in theUnited States, Mexico and the United Kingdom staffingpassionate people and offering powerful solutions tothe oil and gas industry across the globe. Briggs Equip-ment offers new/used equipment, rental/leasing, 24/7field service and local parts inventory to maximizeyour profits and reduce your down time. For more in-formation call 713.672.1100.

SandBox believes it created the lowest-cost transportation and storage solution for frac sand..

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