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Enterprise Improves Port Efficiency

15th August 1958, Page 52
15th August 1958
Page 52
Page 53
Page 52, 15th August 1958 — Enterprise Improves Port Efficiency
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BETWEEN 1946 and 1956 the tonnage of seaborne goods handled in the port of Rotterdam increased from 8m. tons to around 72m. tons, and in the same period the tonnage of sea-going vessels visiting the part increased from 6m. to 43m. In 1938, the seaborne goods traffic amounted to 21.8m. tons and by 1956 the total had risen to over 43m. It is claimed that the tonnage now handled exceeds the movement of goods in any other European port, , and is second only to the traffic in New York docks.

When asked to explain this remarkable progress in face of intense competition from Hamburg, Antwerp and other Continental ports, a number of leading industrialists whom . I interviewed in Holland said that it was undoubtedly a function of the freeenterprise initiative which is fostered by the Port Authority.

The stevedore companies handle the goods from the holds of the sea-going vessels to the wharf or warehouse and load road vehicles, rail wagons, barges, coasters or river vessels for distribution in Holland or other Continental countries. This provides a "continuity of purpose " and inspires a team spirit . that would be difficult to create if there were a division of responsibility. .

More than half of the goods moved through the port are delivered or collected by barges or other water craft. Of the remainder, an increasing percentageis being carried by road vehicles, an important factor in this development being the expansion of industries in Rotterdam and the thickly populated areas in western Holland. Inhabitants of Rotterdam metropolitan area number 725,000, whilst the population within a radius of 30 miles is over 3,000,000.

Main industries include shipbuilding, the manufacture of railway equipment, road-vehicle assembly, rock-oil refining, and the production of plastics materials, clothing, paper, a wide variety of food and brewery products and tobacco. The production of electrical equipment and domestic goods is another major industry in the district.

The largest stevedore operators in Holland, Thomsen's Havenbedrijf, were founded in 1873 and are selfstyled "the gentlemen's stevedore company." This appellation has been derived in part from the system of vocational education which is applicable to all the staff and 1,500 employees, and which ensures that every one of the permanent staff has an up-todate knowledge of docks operations, loading practices and so on, and fully appreciates the other's problems.

Boys of 14 to 15 years old who join the company as dockers are given a four to five-year course, and all engineers, office staff, truck operators and crane -drivers have the advantage of a training scheme which covers the latest operational and mechanical developments. Casual labour is drawn from a pool organized by the Port Authority.

Welfare facilities compare with the best provided by industrial concerns in the United Kingdom, and all employees par ticipate in a profit-sharing scheme. Vacational benefits include the availability of a number of holiday cottages.

In addition to the parent concern in Rotterdam, there ax e subsidiary Thomsen companies in Amsterdam, Antwerp and Hamburg, and branches in ports throughout Southern Africa, including Capetown, Port Elizabeth, East London, Durban and Laurette° Marques. Interests in this country include association with a Liverpool company on a 50-50 basis.

As long ago as 1936, executives of the company realized the far-reaching potential of the fork-lift truck as an aid to improving the efficiency of goods handling, and by the start of the Hitler war five American trucks were being employed. At that time, however, the poor surface of the wharves and warehouses and obstructions in the sheds precluded the best use being made of these machines.

During the War, plans were made for an up-to-date system based on suitable transit warehouses, and when the premises of the company were rebuilt following almost total destruction by the Germans before they evacuated the port, the new buildings were designed to facilitate unobstructed movements of the trucks.

The company own the warehouses, premises and wharf gear and other operational equipment of the Maashaven and Lekhaven quays (including the surfacing), and run a stevedore service under contract on a third quay. Transit warehouses are of special construction without pillars and have doors of adequate height, whilst highquality surfacing is employed throughout for the floors and quays.

Before the war, fork trucks were used for inter-warehouse and other runs covering a relatively long distance. Their operation is now restricted to short-distance work as it is considered that the optimum use can be made of machineand man-power by loading the goods on trains of tractordrawn four-wheeled trailers if the goods are to be transferred more than

a certain distance. An interesting feature of the trailers is that they . are designed for hitching to the tractor, or the front trailer, at either end.

Apart from a Yale machine operated on liquefied petroleum. gas and one battery-electric truck, all the fork-lift trucks are Coventry Climax oilengined vehicles of 2-ton capacity,. oil engines being preferred to the petrol because the fumes are less dangerous. It. is common practice to employ a truck in the hold of a ship where the avoidance of fumes is essential. Experiments will later be made with battery-electric trucks for work in the holds.

The Yale truck is employed in the main storage warehouse where many .tons of food cartons are stored. over long periods, and the freedom from fumes afforded by the 1.p.g. fuel is particularly advantageous because it removes the:danger of contamination. A bottle-filling station on the docks

enables fuelling delays to be reduced to a minimum. Other mechanical handling equipment includes nine Hyster three-wheeled jib cranes and four AIMCO overloading shovels, the latter being frequently employed in.the ships' holds for moving and loading loose materials.

Large stevedore pallets of the wooden two-way wing type measuring about 4 ft. by 6 ft. are mainly used for internal movements, but a special pallet with steel side frame pieces having a sling hole at both ends has been produced for heavier loads. The number of pallets exceeds 3,000, and there is a special maintenance service to ensure that the goods are never lifted by truck or crane on a pallet in a poor condition. Pallets of both types are produced in the workshops, and• hard-wearing properties are provided at a reasonably low cost by using high-quality hardwood top members in combination with relatively low-quality bottom members.

Regular servicing of the trucks and complete overhauls are performed in the workshops, which are also equipped for the repair and overhaul of the cranes and other gear used on the dock-side.

Normally, goods arriving by road are transferred by fork-lift truck to the transit warehouse to await collection by the same means for loading by crane from the wharf to the hold of the vessel. On the Maashaven wharf, however, the width of the apron allows ample room for heavy lorries, and direct loading can sometimes be employed to advantage.

Two favourable factors contribute to a quick turn-round of delivery and collection vehicles. Ample transitwarehouse space is available, and radio contact is established with the ships' pilots when the vessels are approaching the mouth of the river 20 miles away. This enables operations to be planned in detail well ahead of the ships' arrival and vehicles are seldom delayed for a long period.

Sales of imported produce are often held in a transit shed where the load is divided into lots according to grade to await collection for delivery, by road, rail or water. In a typical example, 20,000 cases of oranges, destined for Holland, France and Germany, were unloaded, divided into grades, sold to agents and dispatched by road within two days of the ship's arrival. P.A.C.B.


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