Rearrangement of Loads in Transit 



On some of the test shipments the drivers rearranged the loads in transit 

 to redistribute the weight to comform with State weight regulations. The re- 

 moval of USDA seals on the side and rear doors of the test trailers after 

 departure from the shipping points showed that several shipments had been 

 opened en route . 



After rearrangement, the loads sometimes were not as compact as before 

 and the resulting slack and looseness of the loads contributed to the possi- 

 bility of damage to the containers and the fruit. Also, opening the trailers 

 to adjust the loads en route interfered with adequate refrigeration of the 

 loads, especially during warm weather. The use of proper loading patterns 

 would eliminate the necessity for opening the trailers during transit, thus 

 avoiding possible damage to the lading and insuring more effective maintenance 

 of refrigeration. 



Relation of Loading Pattern to Refrigeration 



The eight test shipments of controlled-atmosphere storage apples from 

 Massachusetts and Maine to Florida, Tests 30 through 37, moved from April 11 

 to May 2, 1958, the warmest part of the apple shipping season. Detailed 

 observations of the fruit temperatures of these particular loads were made 

 to determine the extent of the refrigeration in transit (table 3). In some 

 of the loads fruit temperatures upon arrival at destination were not satis- 

 factory. Apparently this was not due to a lack of proper refrigeration 

 equipment on the test vehicles, but rather to the methods of stacking the 

 boxes in the vehicle, which restricted the air circulation around the loads. 

 All of the test loads of controlled-atmosphere apples, except Test 36, were 

 mechanically refrigerated. The vehicle for Test 36 used water ice with 

 blowers to circulate the refrigerated air. This trailer had only 1% inches 

 of insulation, while those used for the other tests had 3 to 4 inches. The 

 thermostats on the mechanically refrigerated loads were generally set at 

 38° F. on departure from the point of origin except on Test 37 where the 

 setting was for 36° 



The boxes in Tests 30 through 34 were generally loaded by the crosswise 

 offset loading method with the longest dimensions of the boxes lengthwise of 

 the vehicle. 3/ The first box of the first (bottom) layer of the first stack 

 next to the trailer bunker bulkhead was loaded in the corner tightly against 

 the bulkhead and one sidewall of the trailer. The succeeding boxes of the 



3_/ There were some slight deviations from the crosswise offset principle 

 in several of the stacks in Tests 31 and 32 to obtain fuller loads. For ex- 

 ample, in the last 2 stacks of Test 31, 4 rows of the boxes were loaded with 

 the longest box dimensions lengthwise of the trailer and 1 row with the longest 

 box dimension crosswise of the trailer as shown in figure 9. This resulted in 

 a solid stack as contrasted with a crosswise offset stack depicted in figure 8. 



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