FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

A Short Drive:

Last Leg Of An Import Odyssey

Offloading A Giant Cargo Ship Packed With New Cars Is Part Science, Part Art - October 02, 2007

Article Taken From The Star-Ledger

Researched By: Eric Townes

(New Toyotas are driven down the ramp from the Cetus Leader onto the dock at Port Newark.)

At first glance, it looked like a corporate parking garage at quitting time.  One car after another wound its way down a series of ramps toward the exit. It was a no-nonsense procession: Keep moving. No playing with the radio, Stay off the cell phone.  But these were hardly commuters engaged in a rush-hour getaway. At the last ramp, the vehicles emerged from the belly of a massive cargo ship and spilled onto the docks at Toyota's Port Newark terminal.

It was little after 7 a.m., and the unloading of the ship, the Cetus Leader, was just beginning. It would take eight more hours for 82 longshoremen to drive 3,118 vehicles from the ship's 13 parking levels onto the terminal. "Then it'll head back to Japan to fill up again," said Matthew Martyn, operations manager with NYK Logistics and Mega-carrier, the shipping company. "They won't waste any time here." At America's busiest auto port, there's little tolerance for gridlock.

Last year, the Port of New York and New Jersey's six auto terminals handled more than 690,000 imported vehicles, a 19 percent jump over 2005. This year, they are on pace to take in more than 750,000.  Port officials don't want to stop there. A couple of weeks ago, the Port Authority paid $50 million to buy about 125 acres in Bayonne and officials are considering building another auto terminal at that site.

The prominence of special ships and special terminals for auto imports represents a dramatic change from the 1960's. Back then, foreign manufactures generally sent cars to the United States aboard regular cargo carriers. Upon arrival, the vehicles would be unloaded, one by one, with regular port cranes. Sometimes the carts would be placed on steel plates that the cranes would then lift from the ship and set down on the docks. The other common method was for cranes to move the autos using straps attached to the cars' wheels. But the unloading process was slow and accidents happened frequently. "They considered it pretty good if they only had five cars on a ship damaged" during unloading, Martyn said. "Now, if we have five damages on a ship, we'd be in a lot of trouble."

By 1970, auto importers started using a new system _ one based on principles developed during World War II to quickly unload jeeps, tanks and other vehicles from landing craft. Ship builders started equipping cargo ships with hatches that swung down and became ramps, allowing vehicles to drive onto the docks. "It was the only practical way to do it," said Bob Gaffney, manager for industry and labor relations at the Port Authority. This new generation of ships became known as "ro-ros," short for roll on, roll off. Suddenly, shipping imported vehicles became dramatically more efficient. "These ships are a big part of what helped Toyota become what it is," Martyn said.

CAR TRAIN

These days, little is left to chance when transporting autos. The ships are built like giant floating parking garages, designed to squeeze as many autos as possible on each level. The rule of thumb is to park the cars 15 centimeters (5.9 inches) separating them door to door and 30 centimeters bumper to bumper. Before the ship sets sail, the vehicles are strapped down to prevent them from rolling into each other. Of course, the tight fit complicates the unloading process. On a full deck, it's usually impossible to open the drivers' door on all but one of the cars. And that's' how the so-called break-out drivers start, by driving the one accessible auto off the deck. That provides access to two or three more autos, and once they get moved, the longshoremen get inside even more cars.

"It's like a puzzle," Martyn said. "Once you start working at it, it all comes together." At the Toyota terminal in Port Newark, about one of every 2,500 vehicles sustains some damage during shipping, officials said. That's not from a lack of precautions. Longshoremen who work among the tightly packed vehicles wear special overalls to keep their belt buckles or pants buttons from scratching the paint. Anyone wearing rings has to wear gloves. Wrist watches must be covered with a plastic wrap guard similar to what's already been taped on many of the autos' fenders and hoods.

(The ship's chief officer, Antiqur Rahman, keeps careful watch as more than 3,000 vehicles are offloaded)

As longshoremen drive the autos to parking spaces on the docks, a van waits to bring them back to the ship for another run. At the Toyota terminal, many of the vehicles then go through one of the several shops at the port where mechanics install special options - such as satellite radio - ordered by buyers, said Ziggy Slusarz, Toyota's Logistics manager. Then the cars spend a few more days on the docks before truck drivers with car trailers haul them away to dealerships.

Gaffney, the Port Authority official, said that sprawling facilities with all ground-level parking eventually will become obsolete as space along the waterfront becomes more and more precious. Importers will be building multi-level garages for auto storage. "The future at the ports is that they're going to have to go vertical," Gaffney said.