container handling
careers at Felixstowe
Massive quayside cranes lift the containers off the ship. The cranes run on rails along the quay, so they can be moved from one ship to another. The crane operator sits in a cab above the container, 180 feet up in the air. The operator lowers the container onto the waiting vehicle, judging by eyesight when the container is in the right position and can be released. The vehicles are called “tugs”. The tugs take the containers to the area of the port where the containers are stored until the trucks come and collect them. Containers are usually collected within seven days.
While the containers are waiting to be collected, they are stored in long rows, running the length of the docks. In each row, they are stacked five high and seven across. Straddling the row of containers is a gantry crane.
The tugs drive underneath the gantry crane so the containers can be lifted off and stacked. When trucks come to collect the containers, they park underneath the gantry to receive the containers. In the picture to the left you can see the crane lowering a container onto a truck.
The gantry cranes do not run on rails: they have wheels and they can be steered. The driver sits in the cab that moves across the top of the gantry. He can drive the gantry crane from one stack of containers to another, according to where it is needed. When a ship is unloaded all the containers are stacked in the same area, so the gantry does not have to move around very much. But when a truck comes to collect a particular container, the gantry might need to move to a different area to get the container.
