Time-saving Industrial Trucks.
Page 59
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T1113RING the time that a vessel is -1-./ travelling on the high seas from port to port it is a money-earning proposition, so it is obvious that any economies in time which can be effected in loading and unloading operations at the ports may quite conceivably increase its earning capacity. This is a fact which is being increasingly recognized by shipowners, and in their wisdom they have turned to the use of battery-electric industrial trucks. Such units are a common sight at important railway stations, where they are often to be seen trailing fully laden trucks.
A well-known concern of stevedores, Scruttons, Ltd., has to-day a fleet of over 100 trucks and tractors of this kind, which form a decidedly useful arm of its organization in enabling the rapid unloading and loading of steamers at the London docks. An example of the efficient service which they give is borne out by a recent experience. A vessel arrived in London at 9 a.m. and was discharged of 3,300 tons of mixed Australian cargo (frozen meat, butter, wool and lead), and took on board a supply of oil, leaving at 9 p.m. the following day.
The accompanying illustration clearly shows how it is possible to load as many as two dozen carcases on one truck, which can transport the load to railway trucks, cold stores or motor lorries with far greater rapidity than can be done with an ordinary hand
truck carrying a very much smaller load. Such machines, therefore, effect economies in the actual quayside handling costs, besides making possible a much quicker " turn-round " for the vessel.
In these particular machines ExideIronclad batteries, manufactured by the Chloride Electrical Storage Co., Ltd.. of Clifton Junction, Manchester, are used to provide motive power.