Abstract: Full roving spools are charged into and empty spools are unloaded from a spinning machine having at least one pair of parallel spaced-apart rows of roving spools by first moving spools as they become empty to a position between the two rows of active roving spools and thereby leaving the respective positions empty and then transporting them off in a predetermined direction along a path extending parallel to and between the rows. Then full spools are transported along the path in the direction to positions adjacent positions from which empty spools have been taken and are then moved laterally into the empty positions to fill same.