East London test-drives four-car container system

Leonard Neill
LOADING FOUR cars into a single container is a project with which A P Moller of Denmark is experimenting at present, and if the first test load of its kind proves to be satisfactory, they will introduce it internationally in the new year.
The prototype of the special loading apparatus designed at the company's Copenhagen headquarters and shipped out to this country by Maersk Sealand is currently in East London harbour, where it was used at the beginning of this month in a 'guinea pig' operation.
Previously no more than three motor vehicles could be loaded into a 40ft container, but using special clasps and balancing systems the first four-up shipment has sailed from East London to Bristol, where it was expected to dock at the weekend. It contains four Mercedes C
class vehicles manufactured at the DaimlerChrysler plant on the harbour's West Bank.
The massive apparatus requires the vehicle to be driven onto it via a ramp where the driver vacates and turns it over to a computer driven operation. The car is moved forward to the clasps, then taken along to the container where it is loaded in a slanting position.
Although the initial loading of the four vehicles took some six hours, with various stops and starts for instructional purposes, the apparatus is designed to load four vehicles in less than 20 minutes.
Once in the container, the cars are monitored throughout their journey by specially placed sensors which will record any forms of turbulence, whether in the loading or unloading periods or while the container is at sea. In this way the extent of any damage which any vehicle may suffer will be recorded, giving a clear indication of where problems have arisen so that they can be countered in the future.
The departure of the first container coincided with a milestone for the car terminal in East London - the 10 000th container exported this year.
Currently all right-hand drive Mercedes vehicles manufactured in this country for export are loaded in East London.