At the Ports and Terminals Exhibition it's . . .
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Round the world ii I minutes
by Ashley Taylor, AMInstT, Assoc Inst T.
EQUIPMENT designed to meet the greatly extended needs of the modern road operator is displayed in considerable variety at Belle Vue, Manchester, where the 1969 Ports and Terminals Exhibition opened on Monday. It continues until 6 p.m. this (Friday) evening. Over 100 companies are participating, among them a number of shipping and transportation organizations offering specialist services to the haulage industry. One section of the show provides a valuable projection of the Continental facilities now available. The range is such that for the transport man in a hurry a visit could be a matter of round the world in 80 minutes.
The aftermath of the New York dock strike resulted in one disappointment, the non-arrival of the From melt Foam-fit truck pad. Although dispatched months ago this exhibit is apparently still in a United States warehouse or perhaps actually on the Atlantic.
The Frommelt Foam-Fit Pad was to have been shown by R. S. Stokvis and Sons Ltd. (G5-6/West Molesey, Surrey) who have acquired the European manufacturing and distributing rights. The pad is designed to give an all-weather seal between a van and the delivery entrance so that changes in temperature either in the goods or the building shall be kept to a minimum. The Frommelt pad is carried on a steel frame and fitted around the loading deck doors. When a truck is backed up to the entry the pad constitutes a shelter that fits around the rear 12in. of the body. The pads are individually designed for all applications and can meet varying vehicle sizes. The outside fabric is heavy nylon and the pads inside the cover are filled with a specially formulated foam to give greater resilience and more density than the normal foam rubber. Stokvis is showing for the first time at this exhibition the Kelley dock levellers. With this system a mechanism is sunk into the floor to form part of a loading bay. When a vehicle is to be handled the dock operator pulls a cable in order to lift the leveller on its axis. A 16in. lip extends and makes contact with the vehicle floor so facilitating loading operations and the use of fork-lift or other trucks.
Reduction of damage to goods in transit is the object of the Shorfast cargo control equipment recently introduced by B. DixonBate Ltd. (B19 /Chester). The system is designed on a modular basis for fitting to vans and containers. Multi-slotted steel tracks are fitted to the interior of the body. Each of the slots has a positive location for any of the various items in the range which covers lashing, shoring, and docking applications. Lashing assemblies, for instance, consist of 2in. nylon webbing straps equipped with automatic latch fastenings, for instant attachment to the track, and with a tensioning buckle. Apart from being appropriate for use with fragile consignments the Shorfast system aims to enable economies to be made in the packing and location of less vulnerable items.
Aeroquip cargo control systems are being demonstrated by the H. K. Porter Co. (Great Britain) Ltd. (G9-10 /Cameron Street, Hillington, Glasgow, SW2).
A striking exterior exhibit is the Airhouse made by the Gourock Ropework Co. Ltd. and exhibited by Springfield Mechanical Handling Ltd. This inflatable structure is 10011 long, 6011 wide and 3011 high. Springfield, as distributor in the North West for Highway Trailers (Great Britain) Ltd., is demonstrating this manufacturer's skeletal and Skeletal platform semi-trailers.
In the outside demonstration area Matbro (Sales) Ltd. (Horley, Surrey) exhibits a range of swinglift trucks while on stand E7-8 it has specimens of the batterydriven side and front-loading truck which was introduced last summer. A feature of this machine is that it can handle long loads in the manner of a side-loader with a 36in. reach and can also operate as a conventional front-end fork truck with a total side shift movement of 36in.
Shelvoke and Drewry Ltd. (E 1314 /Letchworth, Herts), perhaps better known to Commercial Motor readers for its cleansing vehicles, on this occasion displays
three examples of the SD Defiant Freightlifter. Standard capacity of the compact Model 80/10 is 10,000lb at 24in. centre.
A Lancer 2,500 container-handling sideloader is being displayed by Lancer Boss Ltd. (F9-10/Leighton Buzzard, Beds). This is being shown for the first time with the new forward-mounted traversing cab that enables the operator to select any point across the truck's full width from which to control each stage in the handling cycle. The 2,500 is intended for dealing with 20ft 20-ton ISO containers. The 3,500 series wiil handle containers up to 4011, trailers and other such unit loads weighing over 30 tons. Other exhibits by this company include the Boss Mk III front-lift trucks, Lancer side-loaders and Boss small electric trucks.
A specially extensive display is staged by the Henley Forklift Co. Ltd. (E10-11/ Bromford Lane, Birmingham 8), the outdoor section including the Henley Hermes, a front-end heavyweight capable of handling 30 tons at 481n. load centres. This model incorporates a 200 bhp diesel engine, four-speed forward and reverse gears and hydrostatic steering.
Hydraulic, handraulic and batterypowered loading lifts are included in the offering of Hestair Sherpa Ltd. (011-13 / Hounslow, Middlesex). Handling, with particular emphasis on warehousing, is the function of the four-way travel reach trucks presented by Hunslet (Holdings) Ltd. (E9/Hunslet, Leeds LS70 1BT). F. L. Douglas (Equipment) Ltd. (El /Arle, Cheltenham) shows a tugmaster destined for use at one of the containerbases. Fork-lift trucks and tractors in considerable variety can be seen on a number of stands.
As might be expected containers form an important theme, coming in flat, dry cargo, collapsible, insulated, refrigerated and power designs, and being shown by both manufacturers and operators. The former include Adamson and Hatchett Ltd. ( C8-9 /Duk infield, C hesh ire), British Railways Workshops (C11 /Melbury House, Marylebone, NW1), Central Containers F,6 /Wigan, Lanes), Crane Fruehauf Co. Ltd. (G8-10, F7-8 /London Isleworth, Middlesex), Highway (Gt. Britain) Ltd. (Stand 2 /South1 Airport), Metro-Cammell Ltd. ishwood Heath Birmingham), tors Ltd. (C 10/Gravesend, Kent), Containers Ltd. (B11/Greenock, Nshire), Syntilla Manufacturing Co. 21/Sycamore Trading Estate, Squires ,ane, Blackpool) and the York Trailer I. (G14/Corby, Northants).
;e wishing to explore the various ities of international freighting 3ns have plenty of opportunity to for no fewer than 15 port ties (including two from the United
are explaining their facilities. Likever 20 operators of deep-sea, shortntainer, short-sea roll-on /off, and !.a. unitized facilities are displaying Won on these subjects. Tor Line D16 /Immingham) announces that he introduction of a further two hips in the latter part of this year ,mpany will offer a daily service n Immingham and Gothenburg.
ling to the haulage side, an organiz:hat not only has a private enterport within the Port of London .ity but also controls a 400-strong leet is Samuel Williams and Sons 16 /Dagenham Dock, Essex). Incidens Hydrofoil Williams Hudson is the craft (and the only one of her kind)
Thames, enabling visitors to reach mpany headquarters in only 25min London Bridge. For the collection .stribution of the 3m tons of liquid ry cargo handled annually at the al there is an integrated lighterage 'oad transport service, the latter g over 10m miles a year. An tte company is Springfield Transport Manchester.
Cross-Pennine Daily Export Service; :ntly introduced link between Manand Hull, is being explained by Key ousing and Transport Co. Ltd. (D5 /Hull). Goods presented ..to the Blackburn or Manchester depots by 3 p.m. on any weekday travel to Hull the same night, there being delivered locally or shipped by any of the services working out of the port, in particular to Scandinavia and the Netherlands. Groupage facilities are available in this connection.
McVeigh Transport Ltd. (B17 /Victoria Street, Grimsby), a company that originated in Grimsby but now has a dozen depots throughout Britain, has developed extensive Continental links including an office at Gothenburg from which the company's own staff can supervise collection and distribution throughout Scandinavia. General Continental services are covered by a reciprocal arrangement with an. overseas operator. The McVeigh fleet numbers close on 300 and there is also a considerable spare trailer section used to give operational flexibility, particularly providing a pool for local shunt work. The Group is now employing a capital of well over £lm, It pays tribute to British Railways on the score of Freightliners since with substantially fewer vehicles over the past two years it has been possible to cut out night trunking and yet to carry increased tonnages.
Waterproof sheets for road transport and other use come from Winterbottom Products (G2 /Victoria Mills, Weaste, Salford 5). Topspan TIR is a superior quality material for overseas and prestige work while Topspan Two is a lower-cost product for more general use.
Samuel Williams and Sons Ltd. (B6 /Dagenham Dock, Essex) is to enter the international road transport field. As from the end of April, the company will be operating an initial fleet of five 32-ton refrigerated T1R vehicles throughout Eastern and Western Europe.
Initially the firm will concentrate on the refrigerated transportation of foodstuffs although consideration is already being given to extending activities to cater for other bulkroad cargoes.