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Costs of operation for materials-handling equipment fluctuate with, and 

 are associated directly to, the estimated number of hours that each piece of 

 equipment is used. These costs included gas and oil for internal combustion 

 equipment, electricity for all electrical units, and maintenance costs such as 

 preventive maintenance, overhaul and repair. 5/ Since maintenance costs are 

 based on the estimated hours of use, deterioration of equipment has been 

 included under depreciation of equipment. 



To estimate costs per hour, the annual hours of use for each type of 

 equipment were estimated for the season. These assumed hours of use are based 

 on observations in various plants of the length of the fruit-handling season. 

 They reflect an average for the industry rather than a precise figure for a 

 specific volume of business. An individual operator would have to determine 

 his time-use of equipment to estimate his hourly costs for equipment. In 

 this case they would be directly related to the volume of fruit handled. 



As used in this section actual cost of equipment, applied to any specific 

 operation, was based on the relationship between the cost per hour of a specific 

 piece of equipment and the actual time of performance of the operation as derived 

 from the time study. The unit times in the time study were based on a per 

 1,000 unpacked apple box equivalent basis; therefore, following the preceding 

 relationship, equipment costs are also based on a per 1,000 box equivalent 

 basis. 



Equipment costs include all cycles of operation which the various units 

 encounter throughout the complete overall cycle for fruit movement from orchard 

 into, within, and out of apple storage and packing plants. 



Comparison of Methods and Equipment 



Table 4 presents the comparative labor and equipment costs incurred in 

 moving 1,000 equivalent unpacked boxes of apples in 3 different containers 

 from the orchard into, within, and out of apple storage and packinghouses by 

 use of 5 combinations of handling equipment „ Included in these costs are the 

 charges for picking the fruit. 



It is rather surprising that the combined labor and equipment costs for 

 the various methods of handling a specific container are not too different. 

 For example, for the pallet box shown as Comm.-2 the total costs range from 

 $277 to $282 per 1,000 equivalent standard boxes, for the Comm.-l these costs 

 range from $262 to $267, and for standard boxes handled on pallets these costs 

 range from $346 to $349. 



On the basis of these figures if a grower-packer has the correct 

 equipment on hand he should be able to effect a saving of between $70 and 

 $85 per 1,000 equivalent standard boxes by shifting from standard boxes on 



5/ Gasoline computed at 25£ per gallon, oil at 40<t per quart, and 

 electricity at $0,015 per kilowatt hour. 



