New Goods Terminal Relieves Congestion
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How the Problem of Obstruction and Loss of Vehicle Availability was Tackled and Successfully Solved in New York City
By
Harry Wiikin Perry 0 reduce street congestion in New York City, the New York Union Motor Truck Terminal has been formally opened after about five years of preliminary work. Need for the facilities which it provides became evident from surveys showing that hauliers, who were held partly responsible for the congestion, were forced by conditions to use individual makeshift terminals.
The survey also revealed that on an average 7,250 tractor-trailer outfits entered the city daily, of which 600 performed local pick-up and delivery work, thereby contributing to congestion and reducing the efficiency and earning capacity of the vehicles concerned. More than 18,000 tons of miscellaneous freight was hauled daily through the streets for store-to-door delivery or interchange between long distance carriers and local hauliers.
The project is that of the Port of New York Authority, a public corporation created jointly in 1921 by the States of New York and New Jersey, which face each other across the Hudson River.
The new terminal occupies four city blocks or squares in down-town New York, close to the river-front and near the Holland vehicular tunnel, through which trucks and other vehicles pass under the river to and from New Jersey.
Annual physical savings as a result of carriers using the new Union Terminal are expected by the Port Authority to be as follows: It is estimated that movement within the city by long-distance vehicles using the terminal will decrease by 25 per cent. and that operating efficiency of the local vehicles may increase from the former 52 per cent to as much as 95 per cent The total financial saving is estimated at $1,000,000 per year.
Provision for 144 Vehicles The terminal building is 1,000 ft. long, 175 ft. wide and four storeys high at the end sections. It has an 800-ft. by 80-ft. central platform designed to accommodate 144 trucks, having a combined maximum daily capacity of 2,000 tons of freight.
Adjoining this platform are berths for 80 long-distance tractor-trailers and 56 local vehicles, all of which stand within the building while loading and unloading. Interior ramps at one end of the structure lead from the street to a roof parking " ground " for 115 vehicles.
Truck berths are rented under twoyear contracts to approved carriers at a fiat rate of $175 per month per
berth. There is also a scale of additional charges for platform hAndling of shipments, storage of freight awaiting shipment or delivery, roof parking and use of office space.
The terminal provides every modern facility and service for the convenient and rapid conduct of the tenants' business. These include a pneumatic-tube system for dispatching shipping documents to various parts of the building, two-way intercommunication and public address systems, a variety of freight-handling equipment, spaces allotted for the receipt and storage of dangerous products, export goods, in-bond imports and short-time storage of other goods, shipment and platform control, pick-up and delivery dispatching, shippers' office, conference room, separate rest rooms for longdistance and local truck drivers, large locker room, restaurant, and public telephones.
All freight-handling operations, including registering and routcing of manifests and billing, are performed by the Port Authority staff which consists of about 270 employees, some of whom are assigned to platform transfer work.
All the terminal services are maintained on a 24-hour basis except over week-ends, and the cost of most of them is covered by the monthly berth-rental charge. Use of the modern communication systems, high-speed accounting, billing and
reproduction machines, has reduced paper handling work by about half without sacrifice of control.
The centre of operations is the platform control section, which processes the shipping papers, maintains a continuous inventory of all freight in the building, and can determine in a few minutes the disposition of any single shipment.
Long-distance trucks back up to the platform in their assigned berths on one side, and local pick-up and delivery trucks line up similarly on the opposite side. The sorting and transfer of shipments between the two lines of vehicles are done on the platform by terminal employees, but the trucks are loaded and unloaded by the drivers. Easily handled packages are moved on small, flat trucks which one man can handle.
If packages are to be moved a long way on the platform, these trucks can be hooked by means of telescopic masts to an overhead chain conveyor and hauled by it to a designated berth for an outgoing vehicle routed to a particular section of the city, or to an out-of-town destination, • • Mtist heavier units are handled by manualor power-operated fork . . trucks, but at one end of the platform is. a transverse 10-ton crane for Moving extra-heavy loads. Other handling equipment units are portable roller .conveyors for loading and unloading uniform packages, and rubber-wheeled hand trucks of about 9 cwt. capacity equipped with masts for attaching to the chain conveyor.
To effect full economies by consolidating shipments, the area served by the terminal in New •York City; • and part of one county in New Jersey is divided into 36 zones of various sizes according to the volume of business in each. Only one collection and delivery operator is approved for handling in any zone one of six classes of service, as follows: merchandise collection and delivery by local trucks; merchandise handled by tractortrailers; import and export shipments; inter-coastal and coastwise
shipments;. paper handling; and machinery hauling.
The terminal maintains a tractortrailer service for handling shipments of 7 cwt. or more from or to a single large concern. It handles local pickup and delivery, and ". spots" trailers at the shipper's or consignee's freight platform. A tractor and driver are ready, during all operating periods, for switching the trailers to and from the terminal.
Among the advantages derived by long-distance users of the Union Terminal are: relief from large investments in terminals and equipment; quick loading and unloading of vehicles; consolidation of ship ments into fuller loads, and assumption by the Port Authority of theft and fire insurance covering freight in the terminal. As the terminal is open day and night, with a security force on duty during the hours when the terminal is closed at week-ends. the vehicles are not kept waiting at destination for local delivery of their loads, so that operators have more freedom in scheduling their runs