Balance of Time Utilization of Transport Equipment

calendar working time, which consists of the operating and nonoperating time of transport equipment. The former includes the time spent on transporting freight and passengers, the time during which the transport is involved in freight handling and technical operations, the time that the transport is waiting for work and the time the transport is in the operational reserve, as well as the time the transport is leased out. In the railways, in contrast to the other types of transportation, the railway cars that have been leased out are considered in operation only insofar as they are used on public tracks. The operating time averages up to 90 percent of the total annual balance for locomotives and railway cars, over 85 percent for seagoing vessels, 55 percent for river vessels (because of the seasonal nature of river fleet operations), and up to 75 percent for trucks. The operating time of seagoing and river vessels is composed of the time under way, the anchoring in ports during loading

(unloading), and delays (en route, from stoppages, and in maneuvers).

For all types of transportation, the running time comprises the time that the transport equipment is traveling with a load as well as the time it is traveling empty. For seagoing dry-cargo vessels, for example, the running time exceeds 40 percent of the operating time, some 70 percent for seagoing tankers, 50 percent for dry-cargo (self-propelled) river vessels, and 60 percent for river tankers; for the remaining types of transport, the running time is from 20 percent to 30 percent.

The nonoperating time encompasses the time that the transport equipment undergoes all types of overhauls and is waiting for them (excluding routine repairs that are done during the operating period), the time spent in the state reserve, stoppages owing to the absence of work (vessels “laid up”), as well as the time that the transport equipment is being used for the technical and economic requirements of transportation. The structure of the balance of transport equipment time utilization changes continuously with the change in the volume and direction of freight and passenger traffic and also with the improvement in the technical facilities of transportation. The portion of the time that the transport equipment is in productive use (that is, the time of actually carrying freight and passengers) has shown a tendency to increase because of the reduction of unproductive stoppages and the improvement of the methods for overhauling the transport equipment.