film SOUTH VICTORIA DOCK LAYOUT HAILED AS SUPREME MARSHALLING EXAMPLE
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by JOHN DARKER by JOHN DARKER ANEW layout costing Ll+m. at South Victoria Dock, Birkenhead, and offering many time-saving advantages to road hauliers, is considered to be Europe's most modern dock set-up. It enables a maximum loading rate of 2,400 tons per day to be achieved for the entire installation.
Individual loads are controlled with pin-point accuracy. Lorries arriving check in at a control centre. From there drivers' numbered cart-notes pass in seconds to the receiver's office at each of the three berths, where the loading of each ship is controlled in detail.
The pneumatic-tube system for rapid documentation transfer is electronically controlled. In effect, the operator in the control centre dials the precise berth destination and "points" are automatically set to forward the documentation carriers to the required place. The system, installed by Shipton Automation (Sales) Ltd., can be compared with, an automated railway network.
No time for snacks If any given load is not immediately required the control centre is notified and the lorry is moved to a special park.
The driver can get hot drinks and snacks at an amenity centre. But some drivers complain that they are called forward to the berth so promptly that they have no time to make use of the facilities !
As soon as the receiver's office is ready for the load the driver is sum moned by Tannoy from the lorry park and given a colour-coded bay number telling him the exact location at which his load is required. A one-way traffic system ensures that dock congestion is avoided.
Numbered squares Fork-lift trucks and mobile cranes take the load and either store it on numbered squares within the transit shed or the load is transported directly to the ship.
The layout has been designed for operation with both containerized and conventional cargo. Documentation has been radically simplified and a new system of anti-pilferage devices ensures better security.
The new complex is operated for the Blue Funnel Line by Ocean Port Services Ltd.
WEDDING GIFT?
IT LOOKS an ideal marriage, said a COMMERCIAL MOTOR headline (Septebmer 8) over comment on the Crane Fruehauf-Boden merger-to-be. In the same issue CM reported that Crane Fruehauf shares had jumped from a 1967 lowest-point 15s. 4-i-d. to 30s. 3d.
Latest figure this week in the "marriage market": Crane Fruehauf shares . . . 34s.