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‘ fetid [Practical Ways to Cut Hees in’ Car oO Handling oy 4 Ot es ‘ Conducted by H.E STOCK ER Quick Turnaround, a Prime Essential in Reducing Operating Cost OVEMENT is the essence of M transportation, therefore time spent at terminals by a transportation unit, ship, railroad ear, motor truck, airplane or indus- trial truck, must be reduced to the lowest practical minimum. Constant effort must be made by the manage- ment of a transportation company to find new ways to reduce terminal time. These efforts are constantly developing new methods and new types of equipment that reduce han- dling of freight. By these means the time a transportation unit is tied ata terminal is reduced. ° One of the best examples of the co-ordination of motor truck and water transportation and prompt load- ing and unloading of transportation units, is found at the Fay Transpor- tation Co., which operates a line of self propelled barges on the Sacra- mento river and San Francisco bay. This operation was described and illustrated in the March 1931 issue of MARINE REVIEW. Costs and Damages Reduced When two wheel hand trucks were used by this company, approximately 13,000 cases of canned goods were unloaded in three days. Since the cans have been placed on skid plat- forms and loaded, carried and un- loaded on these same platforms, 11,- 000 cases are unloaded in about three hours. The space occupied by the skids reduces the total cargo handled per trip but the greater 56 By H. E. Stocker speed with which the cargo is han- dled increases the total yearly §ca- pacity of the barges. In addition to getting more tonnage per year, costs are cut by having unit packages and damage is reduced by reducing the handlings. On Increasing Unit Load This excellent result is obtained because 60 to 70 cases, depending on their size, are handled as a unit, com- pared with 5 to 10 case units handled when hand trucks were used. The average load is increased several hundred per cent, and the heavier load is carried at a faster speed by one man. The hand trucker picks up his small load in about five sec- onds and drops it in about three seconds. The driver of the power truck picks up a heavier load in four seconds and drops it in the same time. The power truck will handle approximately 29 times as much freight in an hour as the man operating a hand truck. This same operation affords a simi- lar example in motor trucking trans- portation. The Fay Transportation Co. sends skids to the canners up the Sacramento river where they are loaded at the sealer. The cases are made into an economical shipping unit as the last manufacturing opera- tion is completed. The loaded skids are held in storage until the barge is ready to be loaded, then they are run on to motor trucks for the haul to the barge line terminal. Six skids MarInE REview—April, 1932 are loaded on a truck, a total of 360 to 450 cases. Although the load is decreased, the total annual carrying capacity is increased because in han- dling cargo on skids the transporta- tion time is increased. This is an effective example of co-ordination of plant, truck and barge line trans- portation. Reduction of handling is divided into three classifications—horizontal handling or hauling, vertical han- dling or lifting, and handling that is a combination of the two. Horizontal handling is put on an efficient basis by reduction of haul- ing distances either by concentrating operations in one spot or by elim- inating cross hauls. In manufactur- ing operations, this is known as straight line production. Reduction in Handlings The goal is to reduce all handlngs to the minimum and when handling is necessary to perform the handling by gravity if possible, because when gravity is used there is no expense for power, or by mechanical equip- ment, when gravity isn’t possible. In this way costs are reduced to the minimum because although mechanical handling requires invest- ment in equipment and use of power, this equipment reduces the need for labor to such an extent that large net economies result. Mechanical equip- ment is more efficient than the hand method. With a lift truck costing $3000 one man can lift and haul @