In response to my previous post https://www.shippingandfreightresource.com/2009/03/31/identifying-a-stow-position/ a VERY INTERESTING question has been raised by a user Sandeep.. His question being :
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information provided is very good. However could you please tell me why does the on deck tier numbering system start from 80 and only even numbers are used i.e. 82 , 84 and so on
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One POSSIBLE Answer is as below :
When containerisation first started all over the world, the containers were only 8 feet high.. At that time, the vessels were also not designed to carry so many containers, so in general it was assumed that the under deck of the container vessel can take about 10 of these 8 feet containers making the underdeck to be 80′ high..
The numbering system was counted in even numbers because they were also taking into account “half height” containers which was quite prevalent then.. So similar to the bay numbering for 20′/40′, if there was a half height then the tier numbering would be in odd numbers 01,03,05 etc and if it was the standard containers then the numbering would be in even numbers..
So there would be 10 of the standard 8′ high containers , then the on deck number would start at 80, 82, 84, 86 and so on..
Tim Phillips, Hapag Lloyd has advised the above as a possible answer.. If anyone else out there can corroborate or argue this answer or present another valid answer, please feel free to do so via the comments..
Containers are always messy!