CHAPTER 22. OPERATION AND MAINTENANCE OF TRANSPORTATION EQUIPMENT ASHORE. 22-01. Types of equipment considered in this chapter include the following public utilities: Locomotives. Locomotive cranes (railroad track). Horses and mules. Trucks. Vehicles (horse-drawn, power-driven, or otherwise propelled). Wheels. 22-02. Bureau cognizance. The repair, upkeep, and operation of these utilities are designated, in chapter 11 of Navy Regulations, as duties of the Bureau of Yards and Docks, except as otherwise prescribed therein. Extracts from the regulations indicating exceptions in cognizance at certain stations have been quoted in Chapter 2 of this manual. 22-03. Cognizance at stations. Article 484-18 of Navy Regulations provides that the upkeep and operation of the utilities listed above (par. 22-01) shall be under the public works department. 22-04. The function of the transportation service of a district or station is to transport personnel and matériel, as required by the activities performed therein, at the lowest cost attainable without loss of military or plant efficiency; as a service which is vitally essential to all units within an organization and exists for their common good, it constitutes a public service in precisely the same sense as applies to transportation systems in commercial life. Since the types of transportation equipment must be selected to meet the needs of the consumers, the cost of furnishing the service required can be kept down only by efficient coordination and direction of the activities involved in operating and maintaining the component units. OPERATION OF TRANSPORTATION EQUIPMENT. 22-05. Study of transportation problems essential. In a given yard or station, the logical aim is maximum efficiency of the whole establishment, even though each part may not operate at its lowest individual cost. Transportation problems should be studied with a view to furthering the efficiency of the plant as a whole, instead of considering exclusively the requirements of any part thereof. While the transportation service must be planned to meet the particular conditions involved, it should be kept in mind that these conditions frequently change, and continuous study of the problem is essential to an efficient solution. The usual transportation problems of a navy yard embrace the following: (a) Delivery of supplies and materials from storehouses to shops, ships, and other points. (b) Transfer of manufactured articles from shops to ships, storehouses, or other shops. (c) Collection and disposal of yard and ship refuse. (d) Movement of "foreign" freight cars when delivered to the yard or returned to the railroad. (e) Transportation of coal to power plant and other points of consumption. (f) Transportation of portable tools and equipment from point of storage to place of employment, and vice versa. (g) Transportation of material and equipment from ships to shops, storehouses, or dump. (h) Transportation of station personnel, as required for administration or performance of work. (i) Transportation of ships' personnel as required in emergencies. (j) Transportation service to and from other Navy units, as may be necessary. (k) Transportation furnished to other Government departments and to contractors. (1) Transportation of fire-fighting apparatus. (m) Transportation combined with weight lifting, e. g., by locomotive and auto-truck cranes. (n) Miscellaneous transportation, such as delivery of commissary stores. 22-06. Economy of express systems. The establishment of express systems, whereby transportation between shops and storehouses is handled to the greatest practicable extent by trucks or trains operating on prescribed routes and schedules, is generally desirable in that it permits the same work to be accomplished at a lower cost than is possible by special-order service. The elimination of special-order service in the interests of economy should be aimed at, so far as consistent with efficiency. 22-07. Hand transportation to be reduced to minimum; restricting use of shop power-trucks. Outside transportation of materials by hand, in pushcarts, or by shop power-trucks is exceedingly inefficient and much more costly than by power-driven or horsedrawn vehicles, especially where any considerable distance is involved, or where the route has rough pavements, track crossings, or other obstructions. The use of shop power-trucks, pushcarts, or other hand transportation is justifiable only in emergencies or when other transportation is not available. Their use for general delivery purposes should be prohibited; if adequate service is not furnished by the yard transportation system, the proper remedy is to increase the facilities of the central system and not to inaugurate improvised systems independently operated. 22-08. Centralized control a requisite of efficient operation. Since the transportation system of any station must serve all activities of the station, and is a highly important factor in the over-all efficiency of the plant, it is obvious that efficiency in operation and maintenance can not be attained unless control of transportation functions be centralized under a single responsible official. Decentralization of administration in this case is as illogical as maintaining separate power plants for the several divisions of the yard. The direction of the transportation system from a central station is prerequisite to effective disposal of the units so as to fill the demands for service. All requests for transportation service should be made direct to the central station. Where a relatively large number of units will be required, the request should preferably be made in written form a day in advance. The permanent or continued assignment of specific units to a particular division should be avoided where possible; the practice commonly results in increasing the idle time of the units and in keeping in operation more units than the traffic really requires. 22-09. Organization of transportation shop; general operating requirements. The character of the organization of the operating and maintenance forces depends to a large extent upon the general organization and other conditions on the station, the quantity and classes of transportation units in use, and the personnel available. While it is therefore impracticable to prescribe a yard transportation organization which would be adaptable to all cases, it may be stated that in general the operating system should center around dispatchers located in the transportation office, who should receive all requests for transportation service and issue all operating orders. The correct number of such dispatchers will depend on the volume of work to be handled. One may be necessary for locomotives, one for cranes, one for motor vehicles, and one for horse-drawn vehicles, or several or all of these services may be combined under a single dispatcher. Outside supervision should be under the direction of district leading men, who should keep in close touch with the dispatchers, see that orders are executed promptly and efficiently, that equipment is properly handled, and that prompt assistance is secured in any emergency. The use of a spotting board in the central station to plot the locations where the units of the system are at any time engaged is a convenient and practical method of visualizing the distribution of the transportation equipment and is of great assistance in making assignments. 22-10. Publication of rules and regulations. At all navy yards, and at other stations having transportation systems comparable to navy yard systems, there shall be compiled a set of rules and regulations suited to local conditions and governing the operation of the various transportation services which are supplied. These rules should be prepared principally for the use and guidance of supervisors, operators, repairmen, and other employees of the transportation shop, and if practicable, should be published in convenient pocket form, similar to that issued at the Navy Yard, Mare Island, Calif., under date of July 1, 1921. It is particularly necessary that such regulations prescribe the duties and responsibilities of the yardmaster and other supervisors, the rules of the road, the use of signals, safety rules, the operation of the yard express system, and instructions as to the disposition, use, and loading of all transportation units. Copies of regulations should be furnished the bureau when issued. 22-11. Unit costs a comparative measure of efficiency. The accounting instructions in force at present do not provide for the allocation of transportation charges on the basis of unit costs expressed as an hourly or task rate for the particular service rendered. In order to arrive at a practical basis for comparing efficiencies of the various services, unit costs should be determined monthly. This can be accomplished by care in issuing job orders for repairs to the individual units, so that the repair costs for any unit can be separately determined. By considering such costs in connection with the totals recorded by the accounting officer under the several transportation account numbers, the cost of the service can be reduced to an hourly or task basis by dividing the total by the number of productive hours or other units of service furnished by the type of equipment in question. In this manner there will be available each month a basis for comparing the relative costs of the various services rendered. When practicable, ton-mile costs should also be determined, as affording a more accurate determination of unit costs. Cost per mile for automobiles and trucks is required to be determined and reported semiannually on Y&D form 124. 22-12. Promptness in freeing cars; demurrage records. It should be the aim of the supervisor of the transportation system to have the largest practicable percentage of his rolling stock available for use at any time. Delays in loading and unloading frequently reduce the efficiency of transportation to an extraordinary degree. Promptness in freeing cars should invariably be insisted upon, and to this end records of time required for loading and unloading should be maintained regardless of the fact that payment for demurrage is not actually required of the consumer. Demurrage records on foreign cars should be carefully maintained, the performance of such work being a normal function of the transportation organization, 22-13. Safe lifting capacity of cranes. Instructions regarding the safe lifting capacity of all weight-handling appliances, contained in Chapter 20 herein, are applicable to locomotive cranes and other weight-handling units of the transportation system. Once each year, preferably as a part of the annual inspection of public works and utilities, locomotive cranes and other weight-handling units of the transportation system shall be given appropriate weight-lifting tests. 22-14. Locomotive cranes are not to be used for hauling cars except when it is impracticable to avoid such use, and under no circumstances shall cranes haul more than one loaded car or two empty cars at a time. USE AND COORDINATION OF MOTOR TRANSPORT. 22-15. District commandants have jurisdiction over all motor transport equipment, including passenger-carrying automobiles, motor trucks, ambulances, motor cycles, tractors, etc., assigned to any activity within the geographical limits of the respective districts. Motor transportation, however, maintained and operated |