Container Transport
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by David Lowe
Minister's firsthand view
AT the official opening of the Clydeport Container Terminal, at 'Greenock (CM June 27), Mr. Richard Marsh, Minister of Transport, said: "One of the happier aspects of Ministerial existence is the occasional chance you get of seeing what were once just words or plans translated into steel and concrete. Or people and jobs. This is why I am glad to be here today; why I welcome this opportunity of seeing at first-hand how Scotland is facing up to the transport revolution.
"This is a big day for Greenock and Clyde port. This new container terminal virtually fog and hazard-free, seaward —affords the fastest container route between Britain and the United States.
"Here, at Greenock, the deepwater channel passes very close to the shore with all the advantages this implies. The new berth is 850ft long with a minimum depth of 42ft of water alongside, sufficient for the largest container ships to lie afloat at any state of the tide. It can, in fact, take ships 1,150ft long. What's more, there is room for further development. If need be, the berth can be readily deepened to 50ft. In addition, provision is being made for a rail link and work is expected to begin shortly.
"All this is backed--as a development of this kind needs to be—by first-class Freightliner and highway networks."
Container and TI R Customs documentation A RESOLUTION adopted by the Inland Transport Committee of the Economic Commission for Europe concerning the content and use of container manifests, has been accepted by HM Customs and Excise. As from July 1 it is accepting, as the descriptive part of certain Customs forms, a document giving the following information in respect of each loadedcontainer:
(a) identification of the container; (b) the countries where the goods are loaded into, and are to be discharged from, the container, as known at the time of the drawing up of the container manifest; (c) name of the person to whom the container is consigned, as known at the time of the drawing up of the container manifest; (d) marks and numbers of packages or pieces; (e) number and type of packages or pieces; (f) description of goods; (g) gross weight of goods.
The Customs forms concerned are those used for: (i) the transhipment of goods in containers; (ii) the removal of goods in containers from an inland clearance depot to the port of exportation; (iii) the removal of goods in containers from the port of importation to an inland clearance depot or other approved place of examination or clearance; (iv) the removal coastwise of unexamined foreign cargo; and (v) ships' cargo declarations, inwards and outwards.
It is pointed out that acceptance of the ECE resolution does not involve any substantial change in procedure since in many instances Customs already accept commercial documents in substitution for the whole or part of official forms, provided the commercial documents supply the information called for by the official forms.
A useful guide, Goods in Con tainers Customs Requirements, Procedures and Facilities, which also deals with TIR procedures, is available from HM Customs and Excise, Kings Beam House, Mark Lane, London, EC3, or from the office of any Collector of Customs and Excise.
Specialized services
TVVO books of interest to operators in the container field have been issued recently. One is Unitisation in Action, published by the British Transport Docks Board, which gives information about specialized unit-load /container services from nine UK ports. The pocket-sized folder details destinations served and numbers of sailings by 17 specialized services from the Docks Board ports of Hull, Grimsby, Immingham, Goole, King's Lynn, Southampton, Newport, Swansea and Garston.
The booklet .includes a list of port and commercial offices where inquiries will be welcomed. Copies of the publication are obtainable free, on request, from the Marketing Manager, British Transport Docks Board, Melbury House, Melbury Terrace, London, NW1.
The other publication is a second edition of Containerization—a Bibliography, published by ATRICS (Hampshire Technical Research Industrial Commercial Service). The whole field of container transport by road, rail, sea and air is covered with specific sections on economics, documentation and insurance, container handling, packing and design and the standardization of containers.
This second edition has been extensively revised and updated and contains approximately 760 entries. Copies can be obtained from Hatrics, Central Library, Civic Centre Southampton, at a cost of 25s each including postage.
Butlers' Porta-Lift arrives
THE MAFI Porta-Lift long awaited by Butlers Warehousing and Distribution Ltd. (CM June 20) was delivered to its Greenford centre this week.
The first machine of its type to be privately owned in this country, it is a new version capable of handling and double stacking 20ft, 30ft and 40ft containers weighing up to 30 tons. Powered by the MAFI-patented single-axle tractive unit, the Ports-Lift has a turning circle of little more than its own length.
Now that the machine is available, Butlers will be able to increase considerably the number of containers handled. It is expected that prospective customers who have hitherto refrained from using the Greenford warehouse because , of the lack of suitable container handling equipment, will now avail themselves of the warehousing, container stuffing and distribution services offered by Butlers.
The Porta-Lift will shortly become available as an all-British built machine. F, L. Douglas of Cheltenham (manufacturers of the Tugmaster) is to make the prime movers and W. H. Davis of Mansfield is already gearing up a production line to make elevating topspreader sections. British manufacture will reduce the cost of the largest and most sophisticated Porta-Lift to about f 18,000.
Containerization in Hungary
PLANS by Hungarian transport experts for Budapest to be developed into a container traffic centre include the expansion of Csepel Free Port into what will probably be the most important terminal for this type of traffic on the Danube. The port is to be equipped for handling 30-ton containers up to 34ft in length. The Hungarian Shipyard and Crane Company is already manufacturing 20ft steel and aluminium containers under licence from West German firms.
Five railway container centres are to be set up and it is expected that some 16,000 containers will be despatched from these centres next year. Container transport by rail is expected to become profitable by 1973.
The first regular international container train service, an extension of the RostockDresden route to Budapest, is expected to go into operation before the end of this year.
Hungary's railways carried 115m tons of freight in 1968, including over 10m tons of transit shipments. It is estimated that 8-9 per cent of goods carried by rail and road and 12 per cent carried on waterways are suitable for container packaging.