Patent ID: 8306649

Claim:
A container handling facility having a landside for receiving vehicles and a waterside for servicing marine vessels and having quay cranes in a quayside area for loading and unloading containers from the marine vessels, the container handling facility comprising: multiple container stacks, each of the container stacks having first and second distinct and spaced access areas, the first access area being disposed adjacent the waterside to facilitate transfer and buffering of containers between marine vessels and the container stacks, and the second access area being disposed adjacent the landside to facilitate transfer of containers between vehicles and the container stacks; each of the container stacks having first and second mobile cranes mounted on a common track to move containers in and out of the container stack, under normal operating conditions the first mobile crane servicing the first waterside access area and the second mobile crane servicing the second landside access area of its respective container stack; a plurality of intra-facility vehicles configured to lift and transport containers along variable routes between the quayside area and the first waterside access areas of the container stacks; and an electronic intra-facility vehicle identification system configured to identify an intra-facility vehicle to receive at least one container at one of the first waterside access areas, the intra-facility vehicle identification system comprising: at least one first stop mechanism configured to stop movement of each intra-facility vehicle based on its location relative to one of the mobile cranes; a wireless sensing system associated with at least one of the mobile cranes and configured to detect a presence of at least one intra-facility vehicle within at least one waterside access area; and a second stop mechanism associated with each of the first mobile cranes and configured to stop movement of each of the first mobile cranes in response to a signal from the wireless sensing system indicating the presence of at least one intra-facility vehicle within the at least one waterside access area.