Eight-hour Shift Working
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local bus services in the U.S.A.,
drivers prefer to work an eight-hour shift straight through. without a proper meal break, taking snacks when they can. This is ;line of the comparisons between American and British methods made by Mr. N. W. Rolfe, secretary and chief accountant of the Birmingham and Midland Motor Omnibus Co., Ltd., in a report resulting f torn a visit paid to North America under the Commercial Motor Users' Association research fellowship of the Institute of Transport.
There were 83,618 motorbuses, trolleybuses and trams in the U.S.A., plus 143,000 school buses, compared with about 80.000 in this country. One-man bus operation lent itself to the zonal-fare systorn. but a great many potential passengers . who might otherwise travel for short distances were lost.
On inter-city routes. the Greyhound Corporation claimed that over distances of up to 200 miles they could provide faster travel between city centres than the air lines. Long-distance drivers were paid
on a mileage basis. Drivers picked their duties according to seniority rather than being 'allocated them.
• Fewer-maintenance personnel appeared to be employed than in this country in relation to the size of fleets. There was 0.37 maintenance staff per vehicle of the St. Louis Public Service Co., and 0.46 with the Milwaukee and Suburban Transport Co. A machine used to clean the insides of buses, the Buck Cyclone, made by the Ross and White Co., Chicago, took only three minutes per vehicle.
The bus was drawn up against the machine, and a hood tightly drawn over the open front door. Two rear windows were opened, and the two 74--h.p. motors of the cleaner created a strong draught from the front to rear of the bus, drawing all litter and dust into a container. Meanwhile an operative worked through the vehicle with a pressure hose in each hand; directing air blasts onto the floor and the seats.
Two undertakings were using propane as a fuel, the Chicago Transit Authority on 1,300 vehicles and the Sari Antonio Transit Co. on 220. Although m.p.g. figures were about 25 per cent. lower than obtainable from the use of oil fuel, propane cost the equivalent of only . lid. per Imperial gallon.
The American Transit Association had ' developed what were known as "transit pars" as a guide to management for testing the efficiency of operations of their undertakings. Pars represented the approximate ratios that various costs should bear to total revenue. Reckoning that profits should absorb 10 per cent. of revenue, the remaining 90 -per cent. broke down as percentages as follows:- Executive staff, 6; office personnel, 3; maintenance staff, 9; operating staff, 36; purchases of goods and services, 17; accidents, 3; depreciation, 8; taxation, 8. There was an interchange of data between undertakings using the pars, to which a. number of supporting yardsticks wera being added,Jor example that man-hours per day per bus for servicing should be 0.9.