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container transport

29th January 1971
Page 25
Page 25, 29th January 1971 — container transport
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

and freight handling

by David Lowe Five years' operations reviewed

• Five years of operations in the field of containerization is a long time. Almost as long as the so-called revolution itself.

Mr G. A. H. Watts, chairman of International Ferry Freight Ltd, a director of United Transport Co Ltd. IFF's parent company, and of many other United Transport subsidiaries, outlined his company's experiences in this field to a crowded meeting of the South Wales section of the Institute of Transport at Newport last week.

Mr Watts explained why 1965 was the right time for commencing large-scale container operations in Europe, listing the main reasons as:

1) Increased demand for capital led to meticulous examination of assets. In the shipping world the return on capital averaged only 3 to 5 per cent, so shippers had to find means of improving this return.

2) The fact that Sea-Land was having a considerable effect between North and South America.

31 Ship loading with containers so improved turnround time that the return on capital employed jumped dramatically.

4) Increased wages, due to inflation, made hand-loading of ships vastly uneconomical; and the reduction in losses from pilferage was a not inconsiderable cost saving.

5) The development of use of hydraulics in lifting machinery meant that labour could be reduced with large savings in wages bills.

A visit to a dock such as Tilbury was suggested by Mr Watts to see the comparison between the old and the new methods where they were being practised side by side. On the container berths only a handful of men where doing the work previously done by hundreds. Three men on a dock operating a VickersPaceco crane and two straddle carriers could unload a small coaster in about three hours at a rate of 40 containers per hour-20 tons every 90 seconds. Ships, instead of staying a week, could now leave on the same tide. Large ships, plying the Atlantic carrying 900 or more containers, unloaded and reloaded at Southampton and were at sea again with 24 hours—a tremendous increase, commented Mr Watts. in productivity.

On journeys between Europe and Australia the increase in productivity had been such that eight or nine ships did the work of over 50.

Individual shipping lines, Mr Watts said, had needed to join consortia because they could not justify owning a whole container ship.

The field of containerization, the speaker continued, was so capital intensive that, so far, only the highly industrialized countries, such as North America, Canada, Europe and Australia, had been able to afford it. South America, Africa and the Near and Far East, with their vast surplus of labour, had inevitably resisted the change. The under-developed countries did not currently have enough work to keep their labour occupied, nor had they the capital to follow the trend.

Returning to IFF's experiences over five years. Mr Watts said that at first shipping companies were difficult to convince that containers were likely to become the principal method of international freight transport in the future: so were the customers and the forwarders. Shipping companies were worried about the loss of stowage space, about the stability of ships and the means of securing containers on deck.

However, supported by a leading chemical company, IFF went ahead with a viability exercise and prepared a rate list. Rates were determined by the direct charges, haulage each side, and shipping costs adding £1 per day for the use of the container and 20 per cent to cover overheads and profits. These simple methods, Mr Watts said, had now been replaced by more factual calculations but the 1965 charges had remained in force until 1970 when increases became necessary Container utilization has a large effect on profits and Mr Watts quoted an example whereby. using road links, a container plying between the UK and Austria completed 3.3 journeys per month but by using rail links this dropped tq one trip per month.

Hiring containers, Mr Watts observed, led to slackness in operation, since hiring instead of making an extra effort to get one's Own container to a customer on time was an easier way. Mr Watts said his company made an early decision to standardize on 8ft 6in high containers, giving six per cent more payload, or allowing them to charge six per cent less than their competitors.

IFF originally purchased aluminium/steel ISO containers and after five years' service these should be good for another five years or more, Mr Watts said, but the all-steel containers were an unknown quantity until they were five years' old.

The speaker talked about the documentation involved in containerization and the major consortia engaged in this field and concluded by showing slides illustrating many of the points he had made.

Tags

Organisations: Institute of Transport
People: A. H. Watts
Locations: Newport, Southampton

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