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Dock Management Progress Section How Successful Dock Operators Have Met Problems of Giving Best Service to Ships Loaded train of trucks drawn by tractor entering steamship of Hudson Navigation Co., at midship gangplank Reduce Costs of Handling Freight URING the last summer season De combined freight and pas- senger boats were operated by the Hudson Navigation Co. between New York, Albany and Troy. The two boats that ply between Albany and the metropolis each have a freight capacity of approximately 1000 tons, while the two Troy boats are rated to carry 500 tons each. During most of the season of open water, usually somewhat over eight months, one boat is loaded at Albany, one at Troy and two at the Desbrosses street pier of the company in New York every day. Inasmuch as it is the slogan of the concern to provide “express service at freight rates”, it is natural that an efficient organization for the rapid handling of freight should have been developed. At all three points electric tractors, trailers and hand trucks play a part in the scheme of handling. The hand trucks are used on short haul work— over distances rarely exceeding 50 feet—leaving the larger part of the handling to power equipment. Four tractors are in service at New York, two at Albany and one at Troy. Ap- proximately 250 trailers are con- stantly circulating on the four boats BY P. D. ROCKAFELLER . General Agent, Hudson Navigation Co. that ply between the three points, being distributed according to volume of traffic and the nature of mer- chandise handled. Saving Depends Upon Service As is the case with practically all types of power driven equipment, the earning capacity of storage battery tractors depends largely upon the number of hours that they are in service. Each tractor that is allowed to work fairly steadily throughout a working day of 8 hours or longer is cap- able of earning a net of at least five times the wages of a longshoreman. At the northern terminus of one of the New England coastwise steamship lines, five tractors in comparable serv- ice are known to have lowered the cost of handling general cargo ap- proximately $.18 per ton, a reduction from $.68 to $.50. Considering the annual tonnage handled at _ this point this works out to a net annual saving of $25,000 effected by the fleet after all overhead has been deducted. To determine the net saving effected by electric tractors of this type, care- 27 ful analysis of costs has been made by another freight handling concern operating on the New York water- front. It has been found that the charges to be made against the equip- ment are interest on truck and bat- tery, depreciation, taxes and _ in- surance, power, maintenance and garaging. For an 8% hour day this fig- ure worked out to $3.46. The net saving effected is at least equal to the differ- ence between the wages formerly paid longshoremen for doing the same work and this figure. To obtain a reasonably clear picture of the manner in which the tractor- trailer method has been worked into the operations at the New York, Albany and Troy docks of the Hudson Navigation Co. it is necessary to con- sider the physical layout in each case, the nature of the handling prob- lems and such other factors as come into play. At New York the pier at which the two boats tie up is approximately 800 feet long and 1385 feet wide. All of the incoming freight, which is received at a platform adjacent to the street, is loaded directly onto trailers—excepting only shipments of (Continued on Page 35)