Transport services predominate at Nedex
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by David Lowe • The fourth International Import, Export and Transport Exhibition—Nedex 69—in Rotterdam this week was notable for the almost complete absence of British exhibitors, as well as the lack of an international flavour because most of the exhibitors were Dutch companies. It was disappointing that British firms did not exhibit but this may be due to the Hamburg Container Exhibition, which also took place this week. Even so, Nedex was not solely of interest to container and container equipment manufacturers. It represented the much wider field of transport services and equipment and as such, in view of Britain's possible entry into the Common Market, it would have afforded an excellent opportunity for UK hauliers operating on the Continent, or with agents operating for them, to have advertised their services.
The only British standholder at the Exhibition was W. E. and F. Dobson Ltd., of Nottingham, who displayed hydraulic lifting legs for handling ISO containers of up to 20 and 35 tons in weight. Power units were either petrol engines or electric motors. The only other British concern in attendance was British Railways, who shared a stand with Stoomvaart Mij Zeeland, their partners in the Harwich /Hook of Holland and Harwich /Rotterdam services. Twice daily tailings with roll-on /roll-off ships are available on the Hook service and daily sailings with cellular containerships on the Rotterdam service. The latter is fed by Freightline trains into Parkestone Quay and a model layout of this was displayed on the stand.
A number of other demountable vehicle body and vehicle-mounted container lifting systems were exhibited in addition to Dobson's. Multilift's system was the ramp and winch type in which steel cables pull the body up the vehicle sub-frame and the tipping gear lowers it into place. A vehicle-mounted container handling system was exhibited by Aarding Trading Co., who are the Dutch agents for the Kiaus system which is very similar to the Goldhofer Swinglift which was displayed at the recent Earls Court container exhibition. Goldhofer had a stand at Rotterdam but, as last year, only a working model of the Swinglift was to be seen. Also on this stand was an hydraulic tail-loader and a heavy hydraulic press.
One of the most interesting features of this year's Nedex was the number and variety of small containers—not the shipping types—for the carriage of every conceivable sort of special cargo. Many of them were made of plastics or rubber-like materials for transporting liquids, powdered and granular materials and some were inflatable to make for ease of carrying when not loaded.
One manufacturer of such containers, Nicolon NV, also exhibited the Accordian House, a metal frame covered with PVC sheet which slides from front to rear by means of guide rails. It is claimed to be easily removable and is intended for providing additional covered storage space. Alcomag NV claim that some of their collapsible tanks are suitable even for gas carrying They also market a plastic zipped covering supported on metal framework for protecting palletized loads such as engines.
On one stand were Swedish collapsible containers known as Big Bags; these had special neck fittings to enable them to be
lifted by fork trucks. Also displaying a wide range of small specialized trays and containers was Vaessen--Schoemaker Rubbermaid, whose products were mainly of polythene-type materials; some of these containers were housed in metal stillages for protection and for ease of lifting and stacking. Plastics flexible containers on Val Mehler's stand had pipe fittings and valves for loading or discharging by pumps through pipelines, and those displayed by Isolecta NV are approved by the Dutch Ministry of Transport for the transport of dangerous materials.
Only a small number of ISO shipping containers were to be seen, the biggest collection being displayed by Carrosserie-en Containerfabriek and Paul and Van Weelde who had four stands taken up with 20ft, 30ft and 40ft models of aluminium and steel construction. Open-top and side opening models were shown together with refrigerated and insulated types and a completely folding model which takes up only one-fifth of its original volume when collapsed.
Omega Containers had a variety of special containers on show, some of which were for use with their own demountable systems and Mall were using one of their 2011 all-steel containers as a film theatre. This was mounted on 40ft Rolltrailer, which is a small, solid-tyre wheeled platform trailer capable of carrying container loads up to 55 tons in weight. The trailer is intended to be pulled by tractors or tractive units with gooseneck couplings_ An innovation of interest to the removals industry was the Artimex stair robot exhibited by Gebr. Eygenhuysen, who are machinery and specialist cargo transporters.
Fork-lift trucks on display were mainly of Japanese manufacture. Toyota models of 1,000kg to 10,000kg capacity were seen on one stand and a large range of Komatsu small-capacity types on another.
A large number of hand pallet trucks were displayed; these were either of Finnish or Dutch makes. Pallets and stillages were also to be seen in large numbers and on one or two stands special trays for carrying Holland's bulb traffic.
Dock levellers, tail-lifts and loading platforms were exhibited by a number of firms including R. S. Stokvis and Zonen with the Stokvis Kelley model. This firm also had a jib crane fork truck attachment on show; this was adjustable to give lifting capacities from 3,000lb down to 1,500lb at 65ft jib length.
Packaging and marking equipment was to be seen on a number of stands and also administrative aids such as photocopiers, calculators and desk-top computers.
Transport operators, freight forwarders and shipping agents exhibited in surprising numbers, offering advice on all aspects of shipping and cargo carrying to the far corners of Europe. Among these were Gerlach and Co., Burger and Zoom (who are also air freight and travel agents), Kersten Hunik and Co., who advertise door-to-door services from the UK to all points in Europe, and Trapeko Ltd., who have bases in Felixstowe and Europort.
A two-day congress was held in conjuction with the exhibition, the dual themes being "Transport in Marketing" and "Marketing of Transport".