China
Africa
Explore chapters and articles related to this topic
Cargoes
Published in Alan E. Branch, Michael Robarts, Branch's Elements of Shipping, 2014
Alan E. Branch, Michael Robarts
Much equipment facilitates movement of the cargo to and from the ship's side and the transit shed, warehouse, barge, railway wagon or road vehicle. These include two-wheeled hand-barrows and four-wheeled trucks, either manually or mechanically propelled, and mechanically or electrically propelled tractors for hauling four-wheeled trailers. There are also conveyor belts mechanically or electrically operated, or rollers, all perhaps extending from the quayside to the transit shed, warehouse, railway wagon or road vehicle. Mechanically powered straddle carriers are designed to straddle their load or set, pick it up and convey it to a convenient point on the quayside, transit shed, or elsewhere in the dock area. In appearance they resemble a farm tractor with a raised chassis, below which are clamps to raise and carry the cargo underneath the ‘belly’ of the tractor. They are suitable for timber, pipes and long cases. The larger straddle carriers distribute the ISO containers on the quay and stand over 12 m high giving an appearance of an inverted ‘U’-shaped structure.
Intermodal Loading Units, Transfer Equipment and Satellite Communications
Published in Lowe FCILT David, Intermodal Freight Transport, 2006
Straddle carriers are specially designed mobile units that can be driven astride containers or swap bodies to lift, carry, or stack as required. They are highly manoeuvrable and can traverse rows of stacked containers with, in the case of the larger models, the operator sitting in a high-mounted control cabin to give a good all-round view of the working area and to allow precise positioning of containers when loading to road vehicle or when stacking (generally, up to a maximum of four high). Their ability to hoist while travelling adds to operating speed and provides fast turnround cycles. Telescopic spreaders adjust automatically for precise positioning and fast operation, while safety locks ensure that lifting cannot commence until all four corner twistlocks are secured. Leading straddle carrier manufacturers Noell of Germany offer, among a wide range of models, a small, four-wheel, low-cost version which they call the Easy-Lift, designed for handling 20- and 40-foot containers up to 40 tonnes, which it can carry (at up to 16 kilometre/hour) and stack two high. It has a choice of twoor four-wheel steering controlled by the operator providing exceptional manoeuvrability for negotiating small areas and positioning containers into awkward corners. Either an open or closed driver’s control cabin is available and the machine can also be operated by remote control (using infrared technology) allowing the operator to select the best viewing position. In the large straddle carrier range, over 500 large Noell straddle carriers are in use worldwide. These feature three-high stacking capability, eight-wheel steering, and Noell’s patented maintenance-free suspension system to provide good handling over poor surfaces. They have the ability to handle fulland half-height containers in all lengths (including 45- and 48-foot-long models) at maximum weights.
Intermodal transport equipment
Published in Jason Monios, Rickard Bergqvist, Intermodal Freight Transport and Logistics, 2017
Rickard Bergqvist, Jason Monios
Straddle carriers drive astride containers or swap bodies to lift, carry or stack as required. They are used in ports to move containers between the loading/unloading areas and the container stack. See Chapter 7 for more discussion (Figure 2.14).
Are output disaggregation and energy variables key when measuring container terminal efficiency?
Published in Maritime Policy & Management, 2022
Thomas Spengler, Beatriz Tovar, Gordon Wilmsmeier
It can be argued that this input factor is the most challenging to accurately represent in the model (Spengler and Wilmsmeier 2019), given the variety of different possibilities to equip any given terminal. By way of example, the inclusion of only one particular kind or group of equipment, such as straddle carrier (SC) or rail mounted gantry crane (RMG), might lead to a restricted reference set. An aggregation of a variety of different equipment would also be difficult to justify as one would be required to argue that the overall aggregated number of equipment is in some way, shape or form related to the objective of a given terminal. An introduction of monetary variables for equipment and its operation, could be a future option, but would have the similar caveats as mentioned in the case of labour.
Non-approximability of the single crane container transhipment problem
Published in International Journal of Production Research, 2020
Erwin Pesch, Katarzyna Anna Kuzmicz
At seaports short term container storage areas near the berth of the vessels are used in order to accelerate the service for the moored vessels and to keep their dwell time short. These short term storage areas consist of multiple independent container blocks. Containers retrieved from the vessel are delivered to a block from the waterside area, picked by a gantry crane spanning over the container block, and temporarily stacked in the block until these containers leave to the landside area. In the opposite flow, containers to be loaded on the vessel enter the block from the landside, reside in the block, until a crane carries them to the waterside area, where an automated guided vehicle (AGV) or a straddle carrier or reach stacker will collect the containers and further deliver them to the pickup place of a berth crane, in order to be loaded on the vessel. Containers flowing through a block are once or twice repositioned to allow a faster final access. As the moves of a loaded AGV are defined, the question arises, how to sequence the loaded moves, where the AGV is alternating between berth cranes and container blocks, in order to minimise the total empty travel times. A detailed description of the inbound and outbound processes at seaport container blocks can be found in Kress, Meiswinkel, and Pesch (2019).
Port labour, competitiveness and drivers of change in the Mediterranean Sea: a conceptual framework
Published in Production Planning & Control, 2019
Giovanni Satta, Salvatore Maugeri, Eva Panetti, Marco Ferretti
By virtue of the plans “Le Guellec”, i.e. voluntary early retirement plans promoted by the French Government, the workforce in the port domain was reduced. In 1986, the French Government (Jacques Dupuydauby’s report) recognized severe inefficiencies in the port labour organization and impediments to the concrete application of high-performing technologies both in berth and yard operations. In the late 1980s, unions fiercely opposed multi-skilling and defended the over-sized composition of gangs and, as a result, operating costs raised and port productivity decreased. In this perspective, gantry crane operators could only drive a gantry crane and not a straddle carrier, and normally work for two hours at a time, provoking discontinuous handling operation. Dockers, run all other activities in the terminal area, including lifting operations with other equipment. This labour organization inevitably led to strict and rigid working practices and poor container terminal productivity compared to competitors.