Page 24 - Port of Baltimore Magazine - July/August 2013

[22] The Port of Baltimore ■ July/August 2013 To subscribe or renew, visit www.marylandports.com
PORT EVENTS
BY NANCY MENEFEE JACKSON
Photography by Bill McAllen
T urn the key at your side,
and a brand-new, $250,000
Caterpillar hydraulic excavator
rumbles to life. Ease forward
on the controls, and the big
tracks grind against the asphalt. Move
the joystick, and down goes the arm that
controls the bucket.
Now, take this machine that you’ve just
met and maneuver it up a ramp and into
the hull of a ship — or out of a ship and
down the ramp to the terminal. That’s a
situation that members of the International
Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) face
every day with roll-on/roll-off (ro/ro) cargo,
whether it’s tracked excavators, giant
tractors or a JLG aerial lift with a 130-foot
boom.
IN CONTROL
Rodeo Provides Perfect Platform for ILA to
Get Ro/Ro Practice
Thanks in part to its innovative Ro/Ro
Rodeo, the Port of Baltimore boasts an envi-
able damage rate of less than 0.02 percent,
meaning longshoremen consistently load
and unload ro/ro cargo without a scratch.
During this year’s 17th annual Ro/Ro
side of a wooden platform, with bamboo
poles supported horizontally in the air at
the height of a ship’s door. Trainers paid
close attention while guiding longshoremen
as they learned to operate the machinery.
“What’s important is making sure we do
During the two-day Rodeo, drivers are
allowed to practice and learn from their
mistakes in a controlled environment.
Rodeo, held at Dundalk Marine Terminal
in mid-May, nine manufacturers provided
new equipment for four training sessions,
each of which was attended by 50 ILA
representatives. A ship’s ramp was
simulated by stacking containers on either
our part to help the ILA learn how to drive
(the equipment),” said Mike Malkinski, Port
Operations Manager for Case New Holland
(CNH). “We really wanted to show the ILA
a little bit of the realism associated with
loading and unloading the ship.” He noted