Emerging organizational values in shipping: Part 4. Decentralization—the redefinition of authority in shipping company organization

Decentralization is a major theme of organizational change in shipping. It is often seen as 'putting power back aboard ship'. However, the authors argue that this view is too simple. Decentralization poses fundamental questions about the entire management structure of the shipping company. The redistribution of authority necessary for decentralization is discussed in terms of the company organization structure.     

The Lateral Dynamics of Motorcycles and Bicycles

The paper is a review of the state of knowledge and understanding of the steering behaviour of single-track vehicles, with the main accent on vehicle design, and vehicle design analysis and behaviour prediction.

The body of the paper consists of a chronological account of the steps which have been taken in establishing the current position. Scientific study of the motions of two-wheelers has been in progress for more than 100 years, but progress was slow and many conflicting conclusions were drawn until increasing understanding of tyre mechanics, systematic application of the laws of motion for systems of rigid bodies, digital computation and modern numerical methods, and improved mobile measurement, recording, and data processing capabilities allowed the pace to accelerate.

The current position, which is that a good understanding of the relationship between design and performance has been achieved, but that by no means have all the problems of significance been solved, is described at the end of the paper.     

The simulation of a fork-lift truck and crane transfer operation

The authors of this paper make use of computer simulation techniques as a means of investigating the problems associated with minimizing a ship's turn-round time.     

Reported household gasoline purchasing experience: June 1979

A sample of 1000 households completed a questionnaire regarding difficulties encountered purchasing gasoline during the week 4–10 June 1979 and whether difficulties encountered purchasing gasoline affected household automobile tripmaking. Results of this survey were analyzed and it was found that the frequency of reporting purchasing difficulties varied directly with household income and inversely with the age of the household. The frequency of reporting that purchasing difficulties affected automobile trip-making varied directly with household income and inversely with the number of adults in the household. Further, although individual household response was highly sensitive to socioeconomic characteristics, the overall response to the survey would not have differed significantly had the socioeconomic mix of households been different.     

The Available Methods to Calculate the Wheel/Rail Forces in Non Hertzian Contact Patches and Rail Damaging

In the present paper, the methods used in railway dynamics to take into account the non Hertzian multi contact patches occurring on a wheel, are summarised. Some application cases are presented as well as an explanation of the so called “squat” rail deterioration.     

Testing and Analysis Techniques for Safety Assessment of Rail Vehicles: The State-of-the-Art

The methods currently being used in North America, Britain and Europe for the safety assessment of rail vehicles are discussed. There is considerable disparity between the methods that have been developed in the different countries. These differences, and the possible reasons for them, are discussed in the paper. Finally, conclusions are drawn and some recommendations are made for the future direction of safety assessment methods.