A plurality of carriers are attached to an endless belt configured to rotate in a circulating manner. At a station, a hand, a driver configured to move the hand in a rotation direction and a vertical direction, a moving distance sensor configured to measure moving distance of the endless belt, a carrier sensor configured to detect the carrier at a position upstream of the hand along the rotation direction, and a signal processor configured to operate the hand are provided. For loading an article, when the moving distance from a time point of detection of the carrier by the carrier sensor reaches a first moving distance, the hand is activated at a first acceleration, and for unloading an article, when the moving distance from the time point of detection of the carrier by the carrier sensor reaches a second moving distance which is larger than the first moving distance, the hand is activated at a second acceleration which is larger than the first acceleration. The delay in signal processing after detection of the carrier does not affect control, and both of loading and unloading can be performed in substantially the same area.