The problem of ‘lost’ containers
Searching for containers during vessel load is costly. Quay cranes typically average 20-30 moves/hour, while theoretical their efficiency could be even 30 per cent higher.
The difference is the result of cranes having to wait for containers. Containers need to be loaded in a vessel in a certain order according to the load plan, thus waiting for one container may halt the loading operation of the whole crane.
And finally, if the container is not retrieved in a reasonable time, the container may have to be left behind. How are containers ‘lost’? The most obvious reason is that the container is misplaced when taking it to yard storage area.
Without a GPS system, the driver may place the container in a wrong row or bay, hit the ‘OK’ key, and the TOS system will receive incorrect information. When someone then wants to retrieve the container from the location where it should be according to the TOS, the container is not found.
Snowball effect and ‘floating’ boxes
If that was just an isolated problem of a single container, it would not ….
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