DPW to deploy first Boxbay stacking system at Pusan Newport

Posted on March 8, 2023 by | Leave a comment

Here’s an innovation that’s going to be popular at container terminals. It’s a fixed set of frames allowing containers to be stacked in individual pigeonholes. They’re placed and removed by stacker cranes running through the aisles. The system has been in development and testing since 2018.

Hardware innovations take a long time to develop, and they require a place for testing. The partnership of DP World and SMS Group, a German firm, combined the expertise and the need and test bed to create the product.

Stacking density may be improved up to 4 times using the Boxbay system.

This is not a new idea. Auto manufacturers and shippers have been using such arrays to store cars since the 90’s. I was shown a picture of one in Japan by Ernest Konigsberg, a Berkeley operations research professor who was familiar with the design and the optimizing software written to decide which locations to place vehicles. We would call it AI today, but then it was simply optimization software. It’s been around a long time.

An interesting question is why this technology is only emerging now. One answer is the Great Congestion about the time of the COVID epidemic. Yard storage was a significant problem during the supply chain crisis. This kind of system can improve the utilization of scarce container yard land. It’s a natural type of tech to invest in.

I’m sure we will see more such systems if container shipping demand comes back and exceeds the congestion period levels. But if ports aren’t handling so many containers, they may not be so eager to invest in this technology. I don’t see the large US ports jumping on this so soon, with traffic falling.

The article has a nice picture of Pusan Newport terminal, and judging by the stacking disarray in the right part of the picture, they can use this system1

By Nick Savvides 08/03/2023

DPW to deploy first Boxbay stacking system at Pusan Newport – The Loadstar

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Greece train crash latest: Human error to blame for tragedy, says PM

Posted on March 2, 2023 by | 1 comment

When there’s a big train wreck, things are handled differently in Greece. Transport minister Kostas Karamanlis has resigned as a result of this wreck.

It’s different in the US. Here the large railroads have a lot of influence with government regulators. When someone like Pete Buttigieg comes in who is willing to put people and safety first and big rails second, we don’t want him to resign because of the Ohio accident. He’s the one pressuring the investigators to find out the answers.

Another key difference is that in Greece, the accident involved a passenger train and a freight train colliding. Apparently human error is involved. And rail in Greece is government-owned; the Hellenic Railways Organization (denoted OSE because of its Greek language name) owns, maintains, and operates all railway infrastructure in Greece except for Athens’ rapid transit lines.

So it’s not the same at all. Buttigieg, the US Transportation Secretary, does not have anything to do with day to day operation of rail lines. He can at most insure that government regulators and investigators do their research carefully and establish if any rules were violated or need to be changed to prevent this kind of accident.

The short history of the accident compiled by the BBC below details the tragedy.

1 March 2023 05:30

Greece train crash latest: Human error to blame for tragedy, says PM – BBC News

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Ohio train derailment spurs rail safety advisory on hot box detectors

Posted on March 2, 2023 by | 1 comment

The big derailment of a train carrying hazardous chemicals in East Palatine, OH has gotten new attention for hotbox detectors (HBDs.) These are electronic boxes placed along a railway that scan the wheels of cars as they go by to see if the wheels are getting too hot. Overheating is a symptom of failing bearings or other maladies in the wheels. At least 5 accidents since 2021 have been related to burnt journal bearings, which the HBD is supposed to detect.

But these detectors have to be maintained. There is always the possibility of a mistaken reading, or of no reading at all. And someone has to check these detectors frequently to ensure they are functioning.

Accidents on rail lines are not common, which speaks to the care being taken. But even one big accident with hazardous waste can destroy a town. So any failure in the maintenance or observation of the hot box monitors is quite serious.

One question unions have raised is whether there are enough qualified workers to inspect the hot box detectors often enough. Perhaps this will come out in the case of Norfolk Southern and this accident. It would be awful if major rail lines were not following through on careful inspection of their monitoring devices.

Joanna Marsh·Wednesday, March 01, 2023

Ohio train derailment spurs rail safety advisory on hot box detectors – FreightWaves

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