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23rd February 1980
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

P. D. Wharfage and Transport Limitec runs a successful operation at the Port of Shoreham,. buthis company's sights are set on trafficking in goocs, not men

ESTABLISHED in the Port of Shoreham since the eighteenth century, P. D. Wharfage and Transport Limited is currently the licensed operator to the Shoreham Port Authority and by far the largest stevedoring company in the port.

The company has been Lloyds agents since 1 867 and as ships' agents, stevedores, warfingers and hauliers is able to collect, deliver and handle all types of cargo throughout the port as well as the UK.

With a Fleet of nearly 50 32ton Scania tractive units and rigids and 90 trailers the transport section of the company is thriving and able to meet most delivery and collection demands. At peak periods, however, it does seek the assistance of local hauliers.

P. D. has found that the local owner-driver can give a far better service than the larger companies because -when a ship berths it must have a quick turnround — it is very expensive keeping a ship at the dockside — and some large companies do not appreciate this urgency whereas the small operator is more adaptable".

To allow pre-loading, P. D. has a ratio of two trailers to every tractive unit. They operate a large number of dual-purpose platform trailers fitted with twist-locks and skeletal trailers for the carriage of containers and steel coil carrying trailers.

Specialist back-up equipment includes log irons and chains for timber and demountable 600 gallon tanks for carriage of wine in bond or duty paid.

The company employs fulltime shunters who are solely used to pre-load trailers. This enables the unloading of ships to be co-ordinated, and the loading of vehicles and the delivery of large tonnages carried out quickly. Due to the natural confines of the port, storage space is at a premium.

Also available from P. D. is a spot hire service and a short term or long term contract hire service. In the latter case, the vehicles can be supplied in the customers' livery.

All vehicles and trailers are maintained in a modern commercial vehicle workshop away from the port area. As well as maintaining its own fleet, P. D. can also service all types of commercial vehicles for outside

customers both on a contract and casual basis.

Owner-drivers in the Shoreham area take advantage of this service as a requirement for their 0-licence, but the company can also keep an eye on those who carry for it.

P. D. is also able to carry out repairs, commercial vehicles and containers damaged in accidents. Because the company runs Scania vehicles, it has a large parts stocking commit

ment which other Scania opera tors and repair workshops mak good use of.

P. D. is also a member o Scania's 24-hour lifeline break down service and in June 197: became Scania dealers bu trading under the name o Portslade Commercial Vehia Sales Ltd.

Besides the usual workshoi equipment there are twi hydraulic ramps, a fixed rami located outside for underbod• cleansing, and a Triangle brak, tester. The company is at approved MoT test centre fo private cars.

Because P. D. 's vehicle travel throughout the UK, ever vehicle is given a thorough in spection service every five to si weeks and a full service ever. 5000 miles — a container mis sing a ship because of a break down wouldn't be too good fo customer relations!

Trailers are inspected an serviced regularly and given i complete overhaul once a yea in preparation for the annua test. P. D. has an elaborate sys tern for keeping track of al trailer movements and to datt has not lost one yet.

Unlike many companiei using mechanical handling

equipment and vehicles, dockside equipment isn't in this ase maintained in the comrner-jai vehicle workshops. This is

eft to a small group of millwrights and engineers who are -nore at home with a 60-tonne crane than a commercial vehicle.

Every driver is responsible for the checking of his vehicle at the beginning of each shift. This entails the usual water, oil and hydraulic fluids as well as lights and tyres.

Because P. D. operates on a 24-hour basis 365 days a year, there is a mechanic on call every night to carry out any repairs other than minor adjustments which the driver is allowed to do himself.

Although vehicle and trailer defect forms are available from the traffic office, drivers rarely need to use them. In the case of breakdowns away from base, the fleet engineer prefers to return the vehicle piggyback rather than carry out major roadside repairs or allow other mechanics to deal with the problem: ''In any case commercial

repairs carried out in the trade are very expensive and there is no guarantee that the job has been done correctly:

For local minor repairs to vehicles, trailers or containers P.D. uses two Ford transits equiped with compressor, welding equipment, workbench, tools and spare parts. So confident is P.D. about the quality of vehicle service it does not operate its own recovery vehicle.

I discussed the subject of tyres with fleet engineer Leslie Littlefair. All vehicles and trailers use tubed tyres supplied by major manufacturers.

When the treads need to be recut, normally at about 40,000 miles when the tread depth has worn to 2-3mm, P.D. does the job itself and delegate these tyres to the trailers.

-The fleet will continue to use tubed tyres until they are no longer available,says Leslie

Littlefair. "Stocking a range of tyres only takes up room and when going out to a puncture you have to take a selection which is not good operationally."

All trailers are fitted with monoleaf springs not only be cause they are on average three hundredweight lighter per trailer, but also because if a leaf in a multileaf spring fails the driver could perhaps not realise this and be issued with a GV9: With a monoieaf spring, failure is obvious. At the end of a vehicle's or trailer's working life — usually• eight years — it is prepared for sale and sent to the commercial vehicle section of British Car Auctions for disposal. According to P. D's managing director, Dick Hough, this is the easiest, cleanest and most economical method of vehicle disposal for the company.

The company has not yet decided to become an approved tachograph fitting and calibration centre, but will review the position in several years time.

However, because of its involvement in road transport, P.D. has written to the Department of Transport making an offer to take over the nearby Lancing test station. This is still being considered by the Department.

P.D. Wharfage and Transport is only too aware of the implications of vehicles running overweight.

At its dockside facilities it operates a public weighbridge and ensures that all vehicles are checked before being driven on the public roads.

As a result of dock improvements, Shoreham has an edge in the general cargo market, and the port authority could capitalise on the fact that it is the nearest South Coast port to London, being only 50 miles away, and ideally placed to serve the affluent South-eastern region.

One of the P. D.'s first moves was to develop the wine trade, initially in casks and barrels, but soon converting to bulk deliveries which now flow at over 60,000 tons a year.

Shoreham is now one of the biggest wine importing ports in the UK and on the site are three wine terminals which between them have a potential capacity of over three million gallons.

The largest is owned and operated by Powell Duffryn Wharage and Transport.

Tankers berth here and wine is pumped directly into one or more of the 128 steel or glassfibre vats with capacities ranging from 4400 to 22,000 gallons.

The terminal is able to handle all -types of wine suitable for bulk shipment and includes a bonded transit shed for cased wines and spirits, casks, and Safrap containers.

Bulk wine ISO containers are handled at the container berth by a heavy lift crane and can be transported on P. D. 's own skeletal trailers for pumping into the terminal if needed.

At one time P. D. handled up to 100,000 tonnes of imported wine annually, but the volume. is less now. According to Jim Morgan, wharfage and transport director, "handling bulk wine is more capital intensive, with each vat costing over £5000. It is also less labour intensive and quicker."

However, the company is slowly winning back some of the lost volume because Shoreham's ro-ro and container services have attracted some wine traffic on tank trailers.

P. D. Wharfage and Transport is now negotiating with major container lines about the possibility of developing port traffic as a container transshipment terminal, especially if the French ports succeed in enticing deepsea liner services away from the UK ports like Southampton.

A regular ro-ro service started in mid-1978. Now the Schiaffino, owned by Charles Schiaffino et Cie, offer a twice-daily service to Dieppe. The ship has a capacity of 25 12-m trailers on the main deck, and the equivalent of tend railers or 50 cars on the upper decks.

This service has proved a major challenge to Sealink's ferry from Newhaven to Dieppe, which some French hauliers have accused of giving priority to passenger cars and often leaving cargo behind during the crowded summer holiday months.

Intertrans Limited carry containers, general and refrigerated cargo every week between Shoreham, the Canary Islands, Southern Spain and the Mediterranean. Five separate services operate weekly, fortnightly and monthly.

There are also four separate services operating regular sailings-to various Nigerian ports.

October 1 979 saw the start of a new container service from Lavisa in Finland to Shoreham. The service,operating every ten days, is run by Meir Shipping of Helsinki with P. D. as agents, stevedores and hauliers.

The new service includes a call at Antwerp and opened with the loading of 50 containers. The number had doubled by the third sailing.

According to Jim Morgan, "a diverse collection of imports an.d exports has been attracted by the service and amongst the keenest users is a local company, D. I. Coutts, which has been able to streamline its peat imports from the Baltic."

Negotiations are under way with Freightliner about having a mini terminal at Hove, but at the moment they are at the "Let's wait and seestage. If sufficient traffic can be generated Freightliner will consider providing the service, but prospective customers are saying "if we get the service we will provide the traffic".

The Port of Shoreham comes under the watchful eye of two County Councils — East Sussex and West Sussex — so any development plans for the future take time to negotiate.

East Sussex is interested in providing a link road between the A279 coast road and the parallel A27, resulting in easier access for docks traffic.

Also there is a northern bypass planned for Brighton in 1985 which will link the A27 with the A23 — so future road access looks promising.


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