British Operators Should Mechanize Handling
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Productivity Team which Investigated Goods Transport in America Urges Greater Use of Fork Trucks and Drag-line Conveyors in Freight Depots, and of Pallets for External Haulage
ALL interests concerned with the movement of goods should intensify their research into the use of mechanical handling equipment. Particular attention should be given to the potentialities, in general transport, of fork trucks, either with pallets or specialized attachments, to the development of the use of pallets and the unit load for external transport, and to the dragline method of mechanizing depots.
This is the principal recommendation made by a team sponsored by the Anglo-American Council on Productivity, which visited America, last year, to study goods-traffic handling methods. Its report, entitled "Freight Handling," which is well illustrated and excellently presented, was published this week.
In the opinion of the team, the cooperation which exists in America between management and labour in the promotion of efficiency should be energetically pursued in Britain. The trades unions should encourage their members to accept mechanization, and managements should persuade their employees also to do so.
Central Committee Wanted
It is suggested that a central committee should be set up to secure the fullest exchange of experience in the use of pallets, to encourage development and to consider matters of principle. The committee should consist of representatives of the railways, road transport, docks, manufacturers, traders, the British Standards Institution and the Services. The inclusion of nominees of the technical Press and equipment manufacturers should be considered.
The committee should particularly investigate (a) methods of promoting the maximum use of pallets or unit loads for external transport, (b) the best means for securing standardization in pallet sizes and (c) the effect of the use of pallets on the packing and handling costs of manufacturers, traders and transport operators. "The standardization of road-vehicle equipment in America, particularly the high degree of interchangeability of tractors and semi-trailers which exists there, should," says the team, "be studied by British road transport operators. Some alterations in existing legislation would be necessary if this practice is to be encouraged in Britain . . .
"The practice, observed in many of the American road transport depots visited, of using forked trucks and pallets for the internal handling and sorting of traffic, should be tried out in suitable road depots in Britain .
"It is apparent that safety limits in such matters as the maximum load capacity per sq. ft. of warehouse floors are less stringent in America than Britain," the report continues. "It is recommended that the responsible authorities examine the present British
regulations to see whether any relaxation is possible in order to afford increased scope for fork-truck operation in such buildings."
Summarizing its impressions, the team says that there is no startling difference in the standard of achievement in freight handling in the two countries. There are, however, many variations in technique, in the attitude of mind towards mechanization, and in the degree to which particular methods of handling have found more favour in one country than in the other.
In the U.S.A., mechanical handling appliances are provided, where practicable, as part of the basic equipment of a plant or depot. Use of the equipment is encouraged by managements and generally accepted by employees, who normally object to unnecessary physical effort.
Apart from particular refinements, and the use of drag-lines, no types of mechanical handling equipment were seen in America which are unknown in Britain.
"In spite of the difficulty of measuring working rates or costs in freight handling," says the report, "the visitor to America is immediately conscious of a high degree of enterprise, keenness and industry displayed by the management and staff in their daily work. This state of mind was particularly evident in the road transport (trucking) industry, which has actively expanded during recent years and shows every sign of continuing its rapid development in spite of agitation by the railroads that it should submit to some more restrictive control and regulation. In particular, it is evident that this section of transport is willing to spend freely to secure every possible advantage from the use of the latest types of equipment."
Mainly Internal
Although in factories, depots and docks, the use of permanent pallets is highly developed, the proportion of traffic consigned on them is strangely small. America is seeking an ideal expandable pallet. Progress towards standardization of pallet sizes is no greater in the U.S.A. than in Britain.
lit a chapter dealing in detail with pallets, the team says that one of the reasons why they are not largely used for external transport is that concerns employ the size and type suitable for their internal requirements, but in many cases this is not necessarily suitable for transport outside the works. Other obstacles are the necessity of providing additional stocks of .pallets and of fixing goods to them, difficulties of retrieving them, and the need for paying freight on the weight of the pallet and on the returned empty.
At a number of assembly plants visited full loads were being received on expendable pallets. The goods usually comprised components strapped on to crude pallets to enable a truck to discharge them from rail or road vehicles. In some cases, the principle of using pallets was economically achieved by inserting battens, secured by metal strips or wire, beneath the unit load.
Some of the progressive, long-distance road transport operators are beginning to make extensive use of pallets in transhipping goods in their own depots. They claim that labour has been saved and that traffic-handling capacity has been substantially increased without an extension of accommodation. In one instance, a carrier provides larger customers with pallets, so that their traffic can be collected in convenient form to assist the working of the-road transport depot.
100 Pallet Sizes Permanent pallets cost from $2.50 to $4 each. Over a 100 different sizes are in use. America is unanimously in favour of hardwood construction.
Among the more general types are two-faced, mushroom, box, post and " take-it-or-leave-it " pallets. The twofaced pallet can be penetrated by the forks of the trucks on two or four sides, or at the corners as well, making a total of eight points of entry. The mushroom pallet is essentially a single-faced type supported on a series of posts, with a small foot attached to the bottom of each.
The " take-it-or-leave-it " pallet is an ordinary type with battens placed at intervals across its upper face, so that the fork truck may either lift the goods and leave the pallet behind, or pick up both together.
Great progress has been made in the elimination of pallets by the development of unit loads and the strapping or gluing of packages. Goods of irregular shapes are being carried on battens. For example, motor-vehicle parts, such as laminated springs, axles and propeller shafts, are made into unit loads by laying them across two or three battens and bonding the whole load to the battens by steel wire or bands.
At one brick works, loads of bricks are built in a particular formation so that a multi-pronged lift truck with chisel forks can pick up and deposit the load without a supporting pallet.
The American National Bureau of Standards has suggested two standard sizes of pallet-40 ins. by 32 ins. and 48 ins. by 40 ins. The Americans consider that an additional standard size of 48 ins, square might also be adopted. The size of road and rail vehicles is the determining factor.
In Britain, the railways have indicated that the most suitable sizes for rail conveyance would be 40 ins, square or 40 ins. by 32 ins. Road vehicles 7 ft. 6 ins, wide will, says the report, accommodate two pallets of either of these sizes side by side.
The American railways have refused to grant concessions in rates in connection with the use and return of pallets, but road transport operators have been a little more flexible. Even so, it appears that concessions in rates are confined mainly to full-load, shortdistance vehicles operated on a hiring basis, where additional journeys are possible as a result of accelerated turnround.
Traders Must Lead
The team says that experience in America supports the disinclination of British transport undertakings to sponsor a scheme for a pool of pallets, although they may be prepared to cooperate in it. The general attitude of operators in America is that traders must take the initiative in extending the use of pallets to external transport.
In a chapter dealing with mechanical handling appliances used in terminal handling, the team emphasizes that although fork trucks and pallets are largely complementary, they are not necessarily so. It points to the use of squeeze-grip attachments on fork trucks to avoid the use of pallets. Another successful device is a pusher attachment which works on the lazy-tongs principle and is most useful in ttacking.
Where there is no platform at the level of the floor of the vehicle and the
fork truck cannot enter, roller dollies carrying pallets are used to move the goods to a point near the door.
The drag-line conveyor, to which reference has already been made, is used mainly to deal with small and medium-sized packages, such as parcels. It consists of a continuous chain, either overhead or beneath the floor, to which are attached four-wheeled trolleys.
The team observed two methods of using this type of conveyor. One is to load separate consignments on to the trolleys and to employ the drag-line to take them from the point of discharge to the point of loading. The second is to attach, more or less permanently, sufficient trolleys to the chain to form a continuous conveyor system. .
Extensible Conveyor
The team was particularly interested in an extensible conveyor, known as the Extendoveyor. It consists of a power-driven canvas and rubber belt running over rollers. and is capable of extension up to 15 ft. to 20 ft. It has a slack-be,: adjuster at the fixed end, and the other cnd can be extended into a vehicle to reduce the distance over which packages have to be carried. It is specially advantageous where longwheelbase vehicles are employed.
At some depots In America, pallets are handled by mobile cranes with fourlegged slings, because of the higher travelling speed of the crane end, as compared with a fork truck.
The report describes four interesting devices for equalizing the height of road vehicles and landing banks. In one, a timber beam about 10 ins. square and 8 ft. long, was mounted on a central hydraulic ram located in the roadway near the edge of the platform. A lorry or trailer with a low body was placed over the beam and the tail of the vehicle was raised hydraulically to platform height for loading and unloading.
A more elaborate installation consisted of six fingers, 10 ins, wide and about 6 ft. long, sliding under a hinged plate 5 ft. long and 2 ft. wide. The whole device was housed in a recess in the platform, and the fingers and plate hinged as one piece to form a loading ramp.
Push-button-operated electro-hydra utic power was used to raise and lower the fingers to any desired height between 7 ins, above and 7 ins, below platform level, and to extend them for any distance up to 14 ins, beyond the platform edge. As the fingers lowered on to the floor of the vehicle, any irregularity in the floor surface was accommodated, each finger being free to rise above the level of the others to a limited extent.
In a third system, a hydraulic lift with a platform about 10 ft. long and 8 ft. wide was installed in the road at one of the berths. It raised fork trucks or heavy articles (on rollers or barrows) from road to platform level, but on occasions it was also used to lift the rear wheels of a lorry or trailer until the back of the vehicle and platform level coincided.
Portable Ramps
At one depot, a series of portable ramps was kept, varying in height from 3 ins. to 12 ins. Vehicles with floors lower than the loading bank backed up them.
The report describes an anti-pilferage device. It is a substitute for the conventional rear doors or roller shutters of a vehicle, and consists of a series of light chains linked together in squares of 6 ins. The chain screen is suspended on rings from a horizontal rod at roof height, and on the left-hand side is fixed permanently by staples to the rear pillar. A removable vertical bar secures the chains on the right-hand side. When extended, the chain "door" protects the load from interference, but it can be drawn aside simply as a curtain on runners.
One of the largest road transport operators in America fits to all his , vehicles a recorder, which not only registers whether the vehicle is moving or stationary, but records the speed and mileage at any point, shows where and when the vehicle was stopped and whether the engine was switched off.
Despite the extensive employment of mechanical handling in America, many hand barrows are still used. The American Navy has tested a twowheeled hand truck powered by a single-cylindered I h.p. petrol engine. It is thought to have a useful function.
A chapter of the report deals with containers, the use of which is not so extensive in America as in Pritain. American practice inclines towards the smaller type and, as an example, the Missouri-Pacific Railroad is using, experimentally, magnesium-aluminiumalloy containers of 41-i-cubic-ft. capacity.
Equipment has been designed and patented in America to facilitate the transfer of containers between road and rail, but transport undertakings do not appear to he seriously interested in it. wo examples are stated to exist in California. In one instance, a device attached to the road vehicle incorporates arms which lift the container from one vehicle to another.
In the second case, a transfer van— virtually a wheeled container with movable legs—is used. When the container is on the vehicle, the wheels are retracted and the container rests on its base. It runs under power on racks, sunk laterally in the deck of the vehicle and is transferred from one unit to another over bridging rails.
Skid Transfer
In Philadelphia, the team saw milk tanks transferred from rail to road on the skid principle. The tanks are carried by road on articulated vehicles and the tractor is equipped with a dynamo, geared to its transmission system, which can be coupled to an electric motor on the semi-trailer. This motor supplies power to draw the loaded tanks from the railway truck on to the semi-trailer, Dealing with the design and layout of goods terminals, the report says that administrative offices are placed on the road frontage and abut directly on to the loading platform. Buildings are generally T-shaped, with the offices forming the head and the platform the tail of the T.
The platform forms an island, so that vehicles can be backed up against 6oth sides and often against the end farthest from the offices. Long-distance vehicles use one side of the platform and local-collection vehicles the other.
Dealing with labour relations, the report states that in America, agreements on wages and conditions are not drawn up nationally, but are local. State or inter-State in character.
"The general relationship between the employers and the unions appears to be based on a primary understanding that it is in the interests of both parties to develop and maintain a system of transport of goods by road vehicle superior to the services offered by any other form of transport," says the report. " Increased efficiency in the industry is the dominant aim. The introduction of improved mechanical methods of goods handling has been accepted by all parties associated with the industry, with the recognition that improvement in efficiency leads ultimately to a higher earning capacity for the individual employee."
$6,000 a Year
Long-distance drivers are usually paid on a mileage or trip basis, and the result seems to be satisfactory to the employer and the employee. Drivers of long-distance vehicles earn about $5,000-$6.000 or more a year.
Asked at a Press conference whether the team thought that the abolition of the 20 m.p.h. speed limit on heavy goods vehicles would facilitate the standardization of vehicle types, Mr. Arthur C. B.Pickford (Railway Executive), leader of the team, said he would prefer not to comment on the question, having regard to the interests involved.
When asked whether there was any secret in the way in which good relationships were preserved between management and labour and why such enthusiasm was displayed in everyday business life in America, Mr. Pickford said that high wages probably contributed to this happy state of affairs.
Whilst he agreed that American heavy vehicles were more expensive than large 'British vehicles, he said that the American maximum-load models were much larger than their British counterparts and the ratio of receipts to expenditure was probably as favourable in the U.S.A. as in this country.