Category: Corporate

Automated Terminals the Fastest Option for Trucking Containers

Source: FreightWaves | July 24, 2019

The ability of marine terminals to move ocean containers quickly is becoming a selling point for shippers frustrated with long delays seen at U.S. ports during the second half of 2018. And one of the fastest terminals on the U.S. West Coast says it is ready for the upcoming peak season.

TraPac’s Los Angeles marine terminal is one year into the first phase of a $510 million upgrade that started in 2013. The project included increasing the terminal’s size by nearly a third to 233 acres, deepening vessel berths to handle post-panamax container ships, upgrading the wharves, and the construction of a new on-dock rail yard.

In its environmental impact report, TraPac said the upgrades were needed to allow the terminal to handle 2.4 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) by 2038, up from 1.7 million TEU in 2015.

Most importantly, the new upgrades allowed TraPac to devote a portion of its terminal for automated container handling for both rail and truck moves. Andrea Connolly, Marketing Manager at TraPac, said automated container handling was a key reason it was able to handle the front-loading of containers into the U.S. last year and why it is seeing some of the lowest turnaround times for drivers at Southern California ports.

“TraPac did see an increase in volumes due to front-loading,” Connolly said. “Our fully automated process enables us to improve safety and avoid unexpected interruptions, such as substantial volume increases that can significantly impact productivity.”

Automation is a fraught topic at the Port of Los Angeles as seen in the recent debate around a project at APM Terminals’ Pier 400 site. Critics of that project point to a McKinsey & Co. survey that found respondents saying that “ports, especially fully automated ones, are generally less productive than their conventional counterparts.”

Connolly declined to address the Pier 400 project. But she said that TraPac has doubled its container capacity thanks to the use of automated cargo handling equipment, such as stacking cranes and straddle carriers.

As for trucking efficiency, Connolly noted that TraPac remains one of the easiest terminals for retrieving containers.

The Harbor Trucking Association’s Truck Mobility Data powered by GeoStamp said TraPac’s average turn times ranged between 66 and 72 minutes during the fourth quarter of 2018, compared to an average of 90 minutes across all Southern California marine terminals.

Source: TMD

TraPac has continued to outpace the rest of the port in terms of truck turns. Since June, it achieved an average 49 minute turn time for the day shift, compared to a 79-minute turn time port-wide. The only other automated marine terminal, Long Beach Container Terminal, likewise sees consistently low turn times.

Those turn times include the non-automated portion of the TraPac site. Boxes moving through the automated portion of TraPac’s yard can retrieve an import container in as little as 15 minutes, Connolly said. She noted that drivers, as well, have an easier time negotiating the terminal as both drop-offs and pick-ups can be done in one location.

“Truckers do not have to travel to more than one location to deliver a container and drop off a container like they would at a conventional terminal,” Connolly said. “This dramatically improves the safety for both drivers and longshore labor and also eliminates harmful emissions from idling trucks.”

Freight companies are paying more attention to turn times to increase driver earnings per day. Uber, Convoy and NEXT Trucking are looking at ways that drivers can find dual-transactions at the port.

“With the automated truck handling system at TraPac, trucks can expect to get in and out of the terminal faster, which means more daily pick-ups and drop-offs,” Connolly said. “Additionally, [beneficial cargo owners] can expect to receive their goods faster than competing terminals.”

Ocean carriers are likewise seeing the advantages of moving goods through TraPac. CMA CGM subsidiary APL changed its Los Angeles terminal call for its premium Asia-to-U.S. West Coast service to TraPac in June.

The Eagle Express Service offers shippers rail transit times between 14 to 17 days from Los Angeles to U.S. Midwest destinations. The service also offers shippers dedicated container yard space, truck lanes and access to container chassis.

Getting APL to switch vessel calls from its Eagle Marine Services terminal to TraPac is a result of the company’s automation investment, “which has allowed us to substantially densify our existing volumes and in turn, free up significant [container] capacity. “

View original article here: https://www.freightwaves.com/news/automated-terminals-the-fastest-option-in-container-trucking

Port Technology, Moving Up and Out

Source: American Journal of Transportation | November 12, 2018

Turn time is the bench mark by which ocean terminals measure efficiency. The longer it takes to move a container on or off the ship or through the facility, the costlier that unit becomes in terms of handling and vessel delay. Container ships aren’t getting smaller; in today’s fast paced world it’s becoming impossible for ports to compete without technology. Automation is not the way of the future; it’s quickly become the norm today.

US Ports Just Didn’t Stack Up

For years, terminals in Europe and Asia have been vastly superior at container handling. In the States the average ocean terminal performed between 28 and 34 ship to shore lifts per crane per hour. In the yard, conventional rubber tire gantry cranes or yard hustlers move containers into stacks. Both require extensive manpower. In the Netherlands terminal operators were reporting around 41 moves per hour comparatively. As early as 2015 the port of Tenjin Palapas was lifting 81 containers per crane per hour while Shanghai moved 167 containers per lift per hour using tandem hoist cranes under the control of one operator.

Initially the answer could be found in the number of cranes working the ship. Back in 2015 a U.S. terminal would put 3 to 4 cranes against a 12,000 TEU vessel. In Asia where labor was cheaper the port would throw 5 or 6 cranes against the same size ship. As ships got bigger, ports in Europe and Asia realize they had to work smarter moving to dual hoist and quad hoist cranes. In addition, the way containers moved within the terminal had to radically change. America was vastly unprepared for the megaship boom sailing over its horizon.

(Terminal Automation) The Age of Automation

As mega ships began calling Southern California it became apparent that to effectively move containers, the combination of shore cranes and yard equipment needed to work more efficiently. TraPac Los Angeles was the first container terminal to semi automate their operation. In 2015 TraPac embarked on a project to electrify and automate a portion of its container and rail yards. Utilizing Kalmar technology, a traditional ship to shore crane would drop a single box on the quay to be picked up by automated straddle carriers. Guided by magnets mounted in the tarmac these autostrads moved the boxes to remotely operated stacking cranes or the automated rail positioning crane. Guidance is assisted by advanced laser and GPS technology all controlled from a central operations hub. The days of labor-intensive operations are being replaced by the same workforce handling multiple containers in a shorter period of time. Shift changes are accomplished by one operator standing up and another one sitting down at the same console.

Kalmar Adds Remote Control to Operations

Headquartered in Helsinki, the Kalmar Group offers conventional and automated container handling equipment. Everything from RTG and RMGs (rubber tire or rail mounted gantry cranes) and masted container handlers, what we used to call “high lows” to auto-guided vehicles and automatic stacking cranes. Frank Kho, VP of marketing intelligence, strategy and development at Kalmar noted “In 2020 the container trade will be around one billion TEU. Terminals today are not built to handle this high volume, so they are under increasing pressure to increase productivity.”

Kalmar’s One Terminal concept is the integration of automated yard equipment with NAVIS operating systems. NAVIS, a leader in integrated software, has produced a terminal operating system (TOS) N4 which integrates control of physical handling equipment with container positioning and real time yard activity data. Competitive with TOS providers such as Advantech GMBH Germany and Cirrus Logistics of the U.K., NAVIS headquartered in Oakland has 30 years of experience working with terminal operators to “optimize every facet of facility operations.” TraPac added automation to an existing well-established well-run facility. Across the harbor a massive reconstruction project began in Long Beach.

Middle Harbor Takes Shape

Around the same time (2008 -2011) as TraPac was renewing its lease and undertaking development plans, the Port of Long Beach was beginning the consolidation of three aging terminals. Piers D, E and F would become the backbone of a new mega facility initially called “Middle Harbor”. The nucleus of this project was OOCL’s Long Beach Container Terminal (LBCT) soon to undergo construction. Phase 1 saw a total renovation of the existing infrastructure, improvements to the width and depth of the quay and a 22-acre landfill at slip 1 to create additional backland. Phase 2 added 40 acres of container yard by connecting the two sections of Pier F and expanding the on-dock rail from 10,000 linear feet to over 74,000 feet. Opening in April of 2016 LBCT was just under 300 acres and fully automated. Speaking about Long Beach Container Terminal its President Anthony Otto commented, “What we wanted it to be was the most technologically advanced most efficient, most cost–effective container terminal in the United States. And I think we have achieved that.”

Long Beach Container Terminal

In order to create perhaps the most sophisticated facility in the United States, LBCT executives traveled around the world to review automation in action. “What we have achieved here is a major paradigm shift in our industry, certainly here in Southern California or for within the United States” Otto said. Driven by technology provided by ABB Ports Zurich, LBCT has fully integrated multi-functional ship to shore cranes with remote controlled yard equipment to create a fully automated container terminal. Combining dual hoist container cranes with remotely driven yard vehicles and stackers the terminal is able to maintain operational consistency across multiple shifts.

Labor has done an outstanding job of adapting workflow within an automated environment. LBCT was committed to providing the training necessary to bring its work force up to the higher skill sets needed to operate an automated facility and according to management they are doing very well.

Scheduled for completion in Q-1-21, Long Beach container terminal will be 311 acres with a throughput capacity of 3.3 million TEU. The 4,200-foot wharf will encompass 3 deep water berths. 14 ultra-modern container cranes equipped with ABB port technology will be able to handle container vessels up to 21,000 TEUs. A remotely operated on dock rail yard will be able to handle 24 trains per week for an annual capacity of 1.1 million TEUs. In a recent interview Otto said, “ABB has been an outstanding partner; they have been involved in every part of this from the rail to the yard to the automated stacking cranes and to the ship to shore cranes. Everything in concert with Navis N4 which is our TOS as well as the TEAMS project for the AGVs.”

ABB Port Technology

Uno Bryfors, senior vice president of ABB Ports noted, “Automation has been maturing and spreading to all sizes and types of terminals. We have delivered automatic stacking crane automation to 27 different terminals around the world each having between 4 and 72 cranes per terminal. In terms of fully automated terminals, Mr. Byfors noted that it will still take some 5 to 10 years before we see these facilities around the world. Remote ship to shore technology has taken hold faster than automated stacking cranes. ABB operates a remote shoreside package in a dozen terminals on five continents. A notable example of full automation at work is APMT’s Maasvlatke II terminal in Rotterdam. Remote operators control all functions from vessel lifts to automated stacking at a central location. Vessel and yard operations run 24 hours a day and as with other ABB facilities shift changes are simply a matter of changing operators. There are no crew change delays. Massvlatke II has a design capacity of 2.7 million TEUs. The terminal operates 10 high speed double trolley ship to shore cranes, 72 auto-guided vehicles and 54 automated RMGs. The eight track on-dock rail terminal connects the Port of Rotterdam with the German border at Zevenaar-Emmerich.

The Future of Port Automation

Technology will continue to dominate the construction and redevelopment of ports worldwide. Automated packages as offered by Kalmar and ABB provide “off the shelf” solutions to design and development. The ground has already been broken and it is only a matter of tweaking existing technology. Shoreside labor worldwide has also begun to understand the need for their ports to remain competitive. Concerns for a stable work environment and job security are still important but with mega ships and increased terminal capacity must come that paradigm shift in port productivity. Will labor and management continue to embrace the issue of productivity through automation and allow ocean terminals to move up and out?

View original article here: https://www.ajot.com/premium/ai-port-technology-moving-up-and-out 

Port of L.A. to Deploy Fuel Cell Yard Trucks in State-Funded Project

Source: NGT News | October 22, 2018

Ballard Power Systems will provide fuel cell modules to power two port terminal yard trucks as part of a project being managed by GTI and partially funded by the California Air Resources Board (CARB).

CARB has preliminarily awarded $5.7 million to GTI for the Zero Emissions for California Ports (ZECAP) Project. The project aims to validate the commercial viability of zero-emission, fuel cell electric hybrid yard trucks operating in a demanding, real-world, cargo-handling application. The ZECAP Project is part of California Climate Investments, a statewide initiative that puts cap-and-trade dollars to work in reducing greenhouse-gas emissions, strengthening the economy, and improving public health and the environment, particularly in disadvantaged communities.

The project will develop, validate and deploy two Capacity TJ9000 fuel cell electric hybrid yard trucks at the Port of Los Angeles. The yard trucks will be operated by TraPac; Ballard will provide 85 kW FCveloCity-HD fuel cell modules for primary propulsion of each yard truck; and BAE Systems will provide the electric drive system and be responsible for systems integration by using its HDS200 HybriDrive propulsion system.

The yard trucks will move cargo containers within the terminal yard. Ballard plans to deliver power modules in 2019, and a 12-month operating period is planned for the project beginning in March 2020.

“Heavy-duty vehicles have a disproportionate impact in terms of air pollution, with buses and trucks accounting for less than 10 percent of vehicles on the road but about one-quarter of all carbon-dioxide emissions, plus a significant amount of pollutants in California,” says Rob Campbell, Ballard’s chief commercial officer. “This heavy-duty vehicle project with GTI and BAE Systems is an important step forward in addressing this issue, particularly at shipping ports where a significant amount of pollution currently occurs. Hydrogen and fuel cells deliver an attractive value proposition, including zero emissions, extended vehicle range, long duty cycles, rapid refueling and zero compromise on payload.”

“GTI is excited to be a part of this project team, including Ballard, that brings leadership and experience in their respective fields to propel the transition to a post-petroleum, heavy-duty trucking economy,” adds Ted Barnes, GTI’s research and development director. “We are very excited to showcase this breakthrough technology and its ability to provide a zero-emission solution for heavy-duty truck operators and the citizens of California.”

View original article here: https://ngtnews.com/port-of-l-a-to-deploy-fuel-cell-yard-trucks-in-state-funded-project

Automated Ports Help Carriers Get in and Out of Facilities Faster

Source: Transport Topics | June 29, 2018

The development of self-driving trucks and how they might one day revolutionize the shipment of goods inland has been widely reported. However, while lower on the radar screen, automated container ports are increasingly available for use and already have begun to benefit motor carriers in several ways, industry experts said.

Automated cranes and other systems located at ports in Los Angeles and Long Beach, Calif.; Bayonne, N.J., and Portsmouth, Va., have started to allow motor carriers to load and unload containers at terminals in much faster times than before. More efficiently and densely stacked containers at ports also help to reduce the amount of land space required by port infrastructures to operate.

Eventually, autonomous trucks and self-piloting ships might one day begin entering and leaving these autonomous ports.

But the most immediate benefit provided by these automated ports is reducing the amount of time it takes a carrier to enter a terminal and deliver or pick up a container load.

These turn times — at terminals with or without automated cranes and equipment — vary from terminal to terminal, and also depend, of course, on the amount of container traffic that peaks at different times.

On the West Coast, Robert Loya, director of operations at CMI Transportation, said turn times for his firm’s trucks vary from 30 to 50 minutes at the automated Long Beach Container Terminal, while turn times vary from 50 to 70 minutes at the TraPac terminal in Los Angeles. The discrepancy in time is due to how the Long Beach terminal is a greenfield-built terminal while TraPac’s automated infrastructure was rebuilt on an existing facility that has replaced man-operated cranes, he said.

Comparatively, turn times at non-automated terminals at Los Angeles and Long Beach ports typically take more than an hour, which can easily increase to an hour and a half or longer if there is congestion, Loya said.

“It varies from terminal to terminal, but our guys are in and out of there usually in less than an hour, and that is golden,” Loya said. “From our perspective, the automated terminals have worked a lot better and are more efficient than the traditional deployments. We definitely have no issues with it.”

On the East Coast, meanwhile, at the GCT Bayonne terminal in Bayonne, near the New York and New Jersey harbor entrance, the average delivery time at the 167 acres where semi-automated cranes are in operation is typically less than 45 minutes or just less than an hour to both drop off and pick up loads, according to terminal data. This typically compares to load and drop-off times of about two hours at some other terminals in the New York and New Jersey bay area.

“This data all speaks to how many moves a trucker can make in a day, because if your turn time is around two hours or more, a truck will only make two to three turns a day,” said Bethann Rooney, assistant director of strategy and innovation for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. “But if your turn time is 45 minutes, all of a sudden you are making four or five moves.”

Overall, motor carriers have little to do to prepare to send their trucks to automated terminals, besides having to often place an RFID tag on their vehicles for automated tracking purposes upon arrival. Drivers typically take a short introductory course to learn how and where to stand in a safety zone as their trucks are loaded and unloaded.

As for the logistics of all this automation, when a ship arrives at an automated port, massive cranes unload the multicolored containers from the ship and onto the dock. Robotically controlled straddle carriers typically lift the containers from the dock and move them on a rail system to a stacking yard. Stacking or side-feed cranes then lift the containers in stacks in the yard and are also used to load the containers on or off trucks or trains in this zone. Automated cranes thus represent the bare-bones infrastructure of an automated port. The leading suppliers include Kalmar, Konecranes and Liebherr.

More automation at a container terminal also can allow for longer operating hours, said Timo Alho, vice president of terminal development at Kalmar.

“Automation can help to keep cost of operations down, since it is likely that the terminal operators can extend their operating hours at night and on weekends, and in that way, they can offer better service to the trucking companies,” Alho said.

In the big-picture sense, autonomous port equipment, such as autonomous cars and trucks, are, in theory, more reliable, predictable and efficient than humans are, said Jussi Sarpio, general manager for ASC and RMG Cranes at Konecranes.

“Once the human factor is taken out of the equation, you see a huge jump in productivity,” Sarpio said.

However, before automated loading equipment adoption ever becomes widespread, port operators and suppliers must ready the equipment and infrastructure first, which requires massive capital expenditures. According to port operators and analysts, the construction of an automated port typically costs well over $1 billion.

“I believe the total capital investment for an automated terminal can be in the $2 billion range,” said Peter Schneider, executive vice president at T.G.S. Transportation, based in Fresno, Calif. “Some terminals just don’t see the cost benefit, while the terminals that have invested in them will not disclose how much cost they save. Automation is definitely the No. 1 choice for us, but being realistic, most of the terminals probably won’t go to full automation unless it becomes cheaper.”

According to data compiled by Kalmar, automated gantry cranes, which are located in the stacking zones of a container terminal, are the most widely used type of equipment enabling the automation of container stacking in container yards and on trucks. These cranes fall under two different categories: end-feed automatic stacking cranes (ASC) or side-feed ASCs. Currently, about 30 to 40 container terminals use ASCs globally, Kalmar said.

Autonomous trucks and boats also will likely be deployed to deliver and load containers at automated ports, although observers do not expect that driverless vehicles and pilotless container boats will begin arriving at ports any time in the near future.

“There are many bugs that exist for this last mile of autonomous trucks,” T.G.S. Transportation’s Schneider said, adding that his company has ordered an all-electric Tesla Semi that will include Tesla’s Autopilot automated driving capabilities. There are thousands of different docks out there that have all of the many variables that will pose challenges for self-driving trucks, but “that human drivers can do in their sleep, so to speak,” he said.

However, the first autonomous container ships could begin to arrive at automated and non-automated terminals as early as next year, said Peter Due, director of autonomy at Kongsberg Maritime, which is designing and building an all-electric ship for Yara International ASA that is slated to begin shipments at ports in Norway in 2019.

Meanwhile, the end result of self-piloting ships and port automation means fewer human workers will be required, which will become more of a consideration in the future as more automated ports are built.

“Society is trying to figure out what to do with this displaced workforce,” said Weston LaBar, CEO of the Harbor Trucking Association. “I’m a fundamental believer that automation can help to create jobs but just different types of jobs. The concern is what to do with the percentage of the population that can’t be upskilled.”

Other examples of autonomous boat projects include Wärtsilä’s debut of a working prototype of a remote-controlled container ship last year that self-piloted in the North Sea of Scotland. Rolls-Royce and Google are also working together to develop an autonomous ship. Neither company, however, has communicated a time when these vessels are expected to see commercial deployment.

Kongsberg’s autonomous ship, besides helping to reduce emissions thanks to its electric-powered motor, also will help to make shipping safer because it will require fewer humans on board as the ship pilots itself, Due said.

“Automation on ships and at ports will help to save lives since fewer humans will have to work in these potentially dangerous work conditions,” Due said. “These concepts are readily accepted by society.”

View original article here: https://www.ttnews.com/articles/automated-ports-help-carriers-get-and-out-facilities-faster