Whether or not hauliers and own-account operators like the container
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revolution (or even admit its existence), transport by container is inescapably with us, and will grow enormously in the next five years, particularly under the impetus of the shipping companies' vast investments in deep-sea container ships.
To try to keep readers in touch with what is going on throughout the container world, Commercial Motor is starting this regular weekly feature. It will touch upon all aspects of containers and their carriage; now that through-transport is growing, hauliers can no longer take a parochial attitude towards other modes of transport. Quotation of throughrates to distant parts of the world may soon become a commonplace for operators who take the trouble to understand how containers can widen their business horizons.
Certainly the quotation of through-rates covering c, and d. and deep-sea transport and in-transit insurance will be a common feature of the use of containers for ocean transport; it will generally be the shipping company which will fix the rate. As John Darker wrote in a feature in CM on August 9, formation of haulage co-operatives is one excellent way for professional hauliers to equip themselves to handle containers and make them part of a profitable service to customers.
Container transport has posed a new problem for US truckers (hauliers). Currently wed ded largely to the van semi-trailer for moving almost all types of goods, they are being chided for not specifying flat platform trailers when replacement time comes along; and nobody seems to be going in for skeletals in a very big way yet.
Interstate Commerce Commissioner Laurence K. Walrath recently accused truckers of being lukewarm about container carriage. If they were more interested in the work, they'd be replacing "at least a portion of their worn-out van trailers with flat-bed /container combinations". He went on to explain that if container traffic was slow to pick up, the haulier need not lose out, "since a container flatbed unit can be used in the same manner as a conventional trailer or even serve as a portable storage unit between transit periods". When you've grown up with vans. you have to have it spelt out to you, it seems.
Mr. Walrath reckons that if large grain shippers bought 40ft containers to move their own goods and then leased them to other shippers when they weren't using them for grain, the result would be a simply immense boost for containerization. He also suggests that international container pools might get a financial boost from the World Bank or the International Monetary Fund.
Seven months after starting the first allcontainer service between Tilbury and the Continent, European Unit Routes Ltd., a member of the P and 0 group, enters its second phase at the end of August with the introduction of a purpose-built container ship, the Impala. Rated at 500 tons, she is the first of the EUR Deer class container ships. General manager of EUR, Mr. D. E. Grover, reports that demand for the service is well above target. The Impala will carry 63 containers.
EUR (address: Beaufort House, Gravel Lane, London, El tel. 01 283 8000) runs a daily service between Tilbury and Rotterdam and' a thrice-weekly service connecting Tilbury and Dunkirk. The company offers specialist advice on containerization to shippers and traders, and may soon be expanding to serve a North German port.
Coldsaver 20ft insulated containers started rolling off a new production line last Friday at the recently completed factory of Bonallack Refrigerated Vehicles Ltd., Fifers Lane, Norwich. Part of an order for 800 received from Overseas Containers Ltd., the containers are built to ISO standards, have a capacity of 942 cuft, and are designed for refrigeration by ship's plant at sea or by a clip-on forcedconvection unit on land. The new production line provides for an output of 23 /25 containers in a one-shift working week and can be employed for the fabrication of non-ISO containers and insulated bodies.
A nearby test chamber enables the heat gain of insulated vehicles to be measured with lengths up to 60ft in simulated tropical conditions in a temperature and humidity of up to 120 deg F and 85 per cent respectively, an air heater, radiant lamps and humidifying plant being included in the equipment. Charts are automatically plotted giving multiple temperature readings and tests are therefore an invaluable means of quality control, all the insulated containers having a guaranteed maximum heat gain.
Because the OCL containers • are built to ISO standards, the thickness of the insulation is reduced from the normal 4in. to 3m, and this involves an increase in heat gain from 33 Btu /h to 47 Btu /h.
Polyurethane insulant in vapour-sealed slab form is located between two-piece aluminium pillars with an insulating core of p.v.c. nonhygroscopic (non-water-absorbing) material that act as moisture barriers at 2ft centres. In the event of damage that allows moisture to saturate the insulant of a panel, the moisture cannot spread to other panels and the area to be repaired is thus localized. To cater for ISO testing (spot checks are performed on one in every 50 containers) steel is extensively employed in the structure of the containers. Steel components include end frames, main sides and cant rails of Hyplus steel and rolled-steel cross-bearers, which adds about 15cwt to the weight of the structure compared with an equivalent Bonallack all-aluminium container.
The floor is of special reefer extruded-aluminium planking, supplied by James Booth Aluminium Ltd., vuhttch has deep longitudinal T-section bands that give ample support for fork-lift-truck axle loadings up to 12,000lb. Specially reinforced, the front bulkhead can withstand a front-end impact of 2g while the doors are built to withstand a 20-ton static load.
Built as sub assemblies, the walls are fabricated on a production line that includes a jig-raft that floats on a roller conveyor. After the perimeter frame members have been posi tioned in the jig, the polyurethane slab is pressed into position by a hydraulic ram, the insulant is sprayed with a bituminous vapour seal and covered with aluminium foil and outer aluminium panels and a multiple drilling rig is used to drill the joints for riveting.
After riveting by hand the sub-assembly is conveyed to the final assembly jig for mating with the cross-bearers, bulkhead assemblies, roof assembly, floor bearers, floor structure, linings and doors. The roof assembly is panelled with a single full-width sheet of aluminium that is pre-straightened by special feeding rollers. The jigs employed for machine welding the side members of the end frames incorporate hydraulic rams that prestress the members in such a way that they are straight when they leave the machine.
Reporting full production lines for Duramin Ltd., at Lydney, Glos., UTC's chairman Mr. D. Lloyd Jones has revealed that the company is continuing to negotiate licensing agreements with overseas manufacturers and these, linked with the UK facilities, "should place Duramin in the forefront of container manufacturers".
Genoa is staging a second International Container Show this year (the first was reported in CM on November 3, 19671. This time it is from October 19 to 27, and all the exhibitors in the previous show will be there, plus a lot of new ones. The French railways (SNCF) are promoting a group exhibition by French firms showing not only containers but also handling equipment. The symposium, too, will be repeated on a more international scale.
In October, United States Lines' containership services between America, Rotterdam, Hamburg and Tilbury will be of weekly frequency. Next year, British west-coast ports will be linked with France and Ireland in a second weekly service run from New York and Baltimore. US Lines operates through Tilbury's No. 40 berth.