Steering a financial case

Many major container terminals around the globe function quite happily without the use of auto-steering systems to drive their rubber-tyred gantry cranes. But if this technology is as good as the manufacturers claim, why isn't everybody retro-fitting it? Could it be that making a fast return isn't quite as easy as some claim?

Kalmar, Konecranes and International Terminal Solutions (ITS) have all developed their respective auto-steering solutions for RTGs. They claim operators will ultimately benefit from enhanced safety and better productivity. However, while many operators have exercised the auto-steering option when acquiring new RTGs, those trialling retrofits seem to be less convinced by the economic case.

APM Terminals facility in Algecrias is an interesting example. In 2007, ITS was contracted to fit its V-Trax solution to one of the terminal's existing Paceco RTGs. Although reluctant to discuss the results of the trial, terminal managing director, Anders Kjeldsen tells Port Strategy, “We are presently not testing nor working with auto steering retrofit tests. We have a very strong prioritisation of our projects and the focus in general is on higher return projects, and on environmental and safety improvements.”

This suggests that Algeciras not only failed to identify a financial return from full implementation of such a system, but that engineers there were not wholly convinced that improvements in safety would also be forthcoming from a retrofit programme.

ITS spokesperson, Richard Lambert, nevertheless claims the main benefit to a terminal operator is to be found mostly in enhanced safety, although this does eventually impact on productivity, too.

“Accidents and damage to containers cost money, because operators have to spend time investigating incidents, repairing the damage and re-training RTG operators to help prevent such incidents from re-occurring. Once auto-steering has been introduced, the operator needs simply concentrate on moving containers,” Mr Lambert explains.

He acknowledges that many RTG operators used to manual operation don't like to admit that automated systems can do the job better than they can, although they quickly learn that there are real benefits and improvements to be had from the enhanced working environment and therefore the new systems are usually embraced quite quickly.

Mr Lambert goes on to say that auto-steering does dramatically cut the number of accidents and near misses which are the result of operators not steering an RTG accurately. This, in turn, frees them up to concentrate on other aspects of driving, such as looking out for trucks passing close by.

Nevertheless, he adds that auto-steering does not make operators redundant, pointing out that driverless operation would require significantly more on board automation.

“It is theoretically possible to fully automate an RTG, although you still need to consider exception handling and the ground operation. Mixing manually driven trucks and automatic RTGs would cause problems. The checks and interlocks required would make a fully automated RTG operation impractical,” he says.

There are possibilities to fully automate yards, says Mr Lambert, but these are best introduced as part of a green field start up, since retrofitting existing operations involves many other considerations including changes to labour, changes to regulations and changes in relations. In addition, investment has to be ploughed into existing infrastructure, which can also result in disruption to established operations.

“In these cases, operational efficiency and optimisation are the best way forward,” he says. Also of notes is his claim that the latest generation of the company's V-Tracks auto-steering solution is virtually maintenance free.

Asked how quickly an operator can therefore make a return on investment with this technology, he says this depends.

“If a terminal is only handling one vessel a week, drivers are employed directly by the terminal and operational speed is unimportant, then the payback will take a long time. However, if RTGs are operated by casual labour, which is still the case at many ports, and the working environment is very hectic, then payback can be achieved very quickly,” says Mr Lambert.

While not everybody seems convinced of the economic case to retrofit RTGs, two operators contacted by Port Strategy had exercised the auto-steering option when acquiring new machines.

The conversion of Pier I at Durban to RTG operation prompted the acquisition of 18 RTGs from Kalmar, all of which were delivered equipped with the company's Smartrail auto-steering system and container position verification technology as standard.

Justifying the additional financial outlay required, a spokesperson from the container terminal's engineering department notes: “The main benefits will come from the correct positioning of the RTG as it moves up and down the container stack and from a reduction in overall cycle times.”

He adds that, since entering service in the second half of 2007, the Kalmar RTGs have been maintained by technicians appointed by the original equipment manufacturer and that no abnormal costs relating to maintenance have so far been identified. He adds that, because the in house maintenance team had no prior experience with RTGs, it had been thought necessary to initially outsource the contract, although a transfer of technology will eventually take place, allowing Durban to eventually maintain the RTGs and Smartrail technology itself.

“The full impact of auto-steering is still to be quantified. However, we acquired Smartrail because we wanted to both boost productivity and increase operational safety, both of which should help towards making a faster ROI,” says the engineer.

At Maryland Ports in the US, a fleet of 12 RTGs was purchased from Konecranes, initially by the port authority, although these were subsequently transferred to current operator Ports America.

Harold McFarland, the crane electrical/mechanical supervisor at the port, notes that the request for auto-steering had been submitted by the port's own engineering department.

“We did look into various alternative systems before placing the contract with Konecranes, however I don't recall there being a big difference in the price of the various auto-steering systems,” says Mr McFarland.

He explains that Maryland Ports' engineers were keen to introduce auto-steering, because it would allow a certain degree of automation to be introduced into the yard, since the new RTGs would automatically seek out specific boxes once a matching barcode had been scanned into the system.

Mr McFarland confesses that he was initially sceptical of the need to introduce this new technology. However, he concedes that the enhanced safety that the system has introduced has been worth the extra cost of the installation. In fact, he believes that terminals can make an immediate return on investment by simply considering this factor on its own.

“We have now had auto-steering for nine years and most of the operators would not go back to the former manual system. It's like power steering in a car - why would you not want to have it?” he asks.

Asked whether he would recommend auto-steering to other terminals, he says he would in terms of the overall sea change it brings to safety. Nevertheless, he suggests it would be even more cost effective if the technology were used to operate the RTGs in full automated mode, although acknowledges the difficulties that this might introduce.