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Dock Management Progress Section How Successful Dock Operators Have Met Problems of Giving Best Service to Ships Meets Needs of Fast Liner Service HE old boat is late again.” This is a frequent: remark heard on steamship docks when the office boy bursts into the dock superintend- ent’s office in the morning. Passenger boats as a rule are kept quite close to schedule in sailing, but freight ships are subject to more frequent delay. Even in the case of combination passenger and freight ships, it is almost impossible for the man in charge of handling the freight to plan his schedule strictly by the clock. This is one of the differences between handling material on a dock and handling it at a manufacturing plant. Another peculiarity comes through the tendency of most shippers to ~ deliver freight to steamship docks about five minutes before the scheduled departure BY HERBERT R. SIMONDS Associate Editor at Boston of the vessel. Visit any dock where con- siderable freight is handled, and you will find a great rush of trucks trying to unload at the last minute, freight which must get on the ship. The problems of meeting these emergencies which, how+ ever, come with such regularity as to scarcely be classed as emergencies, are solved by different companies in rious ways. When the demand on an electric motor is fairly constant but swbject to periodic high peaks, it is economy to buy a motor designed for efficient operation under the average conditions and still able to take care of the peak load. Similarly, it is advisable to design the handling equip- ment on a steamship dock efficiently to care for the average run of business and Va- FIG. 1_PACKAGES OF MISCELLANEOUS FREIGHT ARE TRANSFERRED FROM TRUCKS DIRECT TO TRAILERS WHICH ARE - son, then to have spare hand trucks or other. apparatus to take care of the times of unusual stress. On the line between Boston and New York, two new combination passenger and freight ships make daily runs through Long Island sound and the Cape Cod canal. While these vessels keep fairly close to schedule during most of the sea- there are times in the fall when heavy fogs disturb schedules and the ship due at Boston, for instance, at seven o'clock in the morning may be several hours late. When this is the case, its full cargo must be taken off and the return cargo loaded in much shorter time than usual so that the five o’clock hour of departure in the evening may be met. In order to take care of emergencies LATER FORMED INTO TRAINS AND HAULED ABOARD 13