• DESPATCHING TOFU THE LORRY LOAD.
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An Account of an Interview With t irers of Sharp's Kreemy Toffee and t to Their Garage. Other Delicacies, ;
DURING a visit which we paid to Maidstone some little time ago, a gentle breeze, was blowing towards the railway station, and our nostrils were assailed by a subtle and delicious aroma of toffee. Tracing this perfume to its source, we found that it emanated from Kreemy Works, where Edward Sharp and Sons, Ltd., produce their well-known Super-Kre,era toffee and other dainty delieacies. On the particular occasion mentioned, time did not permit of our visiting the works or going into, the transport system, but we determined to do so in the near future, and made arrangements to this effect, and, arriving at Maidstone on a second occasion, we wended our way , direct to the Kreemy Works, although to our disgust we were greeted on this occasion by a steady drizzle, and no smell except that of malt from a neighbouring brewery.
.We were cordially received by one of the directors, Mr. Herbert E. Sharp, and invited to put what questions we liked regarding the fleet of commercial motor vehicles run by the company. "What vehicles comprise your fleet?" was our first question. " Well, if you mean our commercial vehicles, there are 16 of these, of which nine are of Tilling-Stevens make, one a five-tonner (this, incidentally, being geardriven), three petrol-electric four-tonners, one geardriven two and a half tanner, and four gear-driven two-tonners. Of other makes we have three 30 cwt Vulcaris and four one ton Fords. All these vehicles are fitted with fancy bodies of the box-van type, but no doubt you have seen our vans in various parts of the country." We agreed in this, and expressed our admiration of the highly decorative paintwork and lettering and appreciation of the advertising value thereof.
Continuing, our informant said : "In addition to these vehicles, we have a number of travellers' cars, all of these being Standards."
"Have you had these vehicles for long? "
"No. All of them have been bought since the armistice. Up to that time we were running very old machines, and working under considerable difficulty, and directly the opportunity occurred for acquiring a new fleet we took it."
"We note that you appear to standardize 'particular vehicles for certait. roads. Do you find this beneficial? "
" Most certainly. StandCS ardizing has proved most helpful to us, as we are able to keep a stock of spare parts for each make, and our fitters have become expert in the repairs and overhauls required by each make. At this point, I may say that we bought Tilling-Stevens vehicles because, from exhaustive tests made with other makes of lorries, our observations showed us that these vehicles were the most satisfactory for our purpose."
"Are all your vehicles based on Maidstone?" " Yes, with the exception of one two-tonner, which i is kept, n London, but comes down here occasionally for inspection and repair." "Are all your goods delivered by road?" "No, not all ; but we deliver them by road as far as possible, and only use railway transport when it is economically impossible to run lorries because of the distance. All our goods consigned to Bristol, Wolverhampton, Poole, Yarmouth, and all inter
mediate towns are conveyed by road, so that you see we cover a very large area ; as a matter of fact, arrangements are being made to deliver to
oints even further north than at present.
any of our vehicles are making two and throe day journeys, and we find that the goods arrive in infinitely better condition than when packed and sent by rail, to say nothing of the expeditious service."
"Then you do not pack the goods when delivering by road?" we interposed.
"No, not exactly. Most of the toffee is in 4 lb. tins, and it is found quite unnecessary to pack these; as a matter of fact, we often send glass jars of sweets in the same way, and you will realize that this saves a consideralole amount of money, besides giving greater satisfaction to our customers. The heavy vehicles are used chiefly for the long journeys, the Vulcans within a radius of 50-60 miles from Maidstone and the Fords mainly for delivering in Kent."
" Are any deliveries made by horsed vehicles? "
"No ; no deliveries whatever have been made in this way during the past year, . as we found that, with horses, our radius of delivery was limited to approximately 20 miles." "What is the total weekly mileage covered by your delivery fleet? "
"Between 3,500 and 4,000 miles, but this depends to a-considerable extent on the time of year. One of the busiest tim.es is naturally at Christmas, and last Christmas each of our vehicles did its regular 100 miles per day for weeks on " Aro you considering increasing your fleet?" "This is what we have been doing during the past two years, and are continuing to do. Incidentally, it may interest you to know that 13111' five, ton TillingStevens sometimes does two runs to Birmingham in the week with a total mileage of 600."
"What system of delivery do you adopt?" " Well, where the distances are great and deliveries are being made to large towns, our vehicles always take a full load the whale way, as this is naturally far more economical. In the case of delivering to villages a full load is taken by each vehicle and distributed within a certain radius. In order to carry this out expeditiously, each driver is provided with a list giving the deliveries in correct rotation, and the vehicle is loaded up so that the last consignment of goads put in the vehicle will be the first on the list for delivery. In order to save time, the loads are all carefully arranged and checked over the day before, so that all a driver has to do is to bring his vehicle up to the loading bay, where experienced packers fill it and send it off within a, few minutes."
" How do you find the petrol consumption • works out ? "
"Well, the four-tonners average 6 m.p.g., the two-tormers 10-11 m.p.g., and the 30 cwt. Vulcans 12 m.p.g." "Do you attach any specific advertising value to your vehicles?"
"Yes, a tremendous value. Our bodies are built in a very fascinating shape, and the, decoration is carriediout with a view to bringing our products well before the public eye."
age. We keep a staff of trained mechanics arranged into day and night shifts, and we do all our own repairs and overhauling. We also have a separate department devoted to body repairs and coach painting, to which work we attach considerable importance, as appearance stands for a great deal in this world."
"As far as possible, we endeavour to have each vehicle of our fleet in dock for one day per week, so that it can be thoroughly inspected and any necessary repairs executed. In order to keep as many machines on the road as possible we keep one spare four ton engine and one spare possible, ton engine, but
so far have only had occasion to use one of these, and this by reason of an accident ; we also keep spare sets of brake bands, lined and ready for imme diate fitting. In our workshops we have a good complement of machine tools, including two screw-cutting
lathes, a milling machine and pedestal drills, and the coachbuilders have a handsaw and a planing machine. We also have a small but well equipped shop containing a, forge and a Harvey-Frost vulcanizing plant. • " All our 30 cwt. Vulcans and one ton Fords are on pneumatic tyres, and we are fitting up an elec
trically driven air compressor for inflating these, as we find that a, considerable amount of time is wasted each morning by keeping the tyres up to pressure with hand pumps.
"All the vehicles are provided with electric lighting.sets, and we have fitted up a motor of h.p., in conjunction with a C.A.V. dynamo, in order to charge up the accumulators used with these sets."
Have you thought of utilizing Giant pneumatics on any of your vehicles? ''
"Well, we have thought of doing so, but we are what you might call ' sitting on the fence.' We have had a certain amount of trouble with stones wedging between th e twin pneumatics on the rear wheels, and consequently causing bursting of the tyres, and we are inclined to think, for this reason, that single pneumatics may prove more satisfactory."
"Do you issue any special instructions to your drivers in regard to the care of the ir vehicles 1 " "Yes. When each vehicle is sent into dock the driver and his mate go over it and report on a special sheet the condition of the various parts. Ira
THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR
• mediately after a driver returns from a journey he fills up a special log card, the particulars on which are entered up in the garage log book. Each driver is -also provided with a special postcard, which he fills up and posts before 6 p.m. if he has to stay away for the night.
" If the driver finds that small repairs are required, he notes this in a book kept for the purpose in the garage. The book is examined by the garage super intendent, and the fitter completing the necessary work initials the entry to show that the work has been done Our. bombardment of questions having ceased, our informant said in conclusion : " I would like specially to mention le great satisfaction which we have received from the.
Tilling Stevens vehicles, their freedom f r e in breakdown baying proved to us 0 ii r wisdom in making this choice. The Vulcans and Fords have only recently been purchased by us, and cons equently our experience of these, although quite satisfactory up to t h e present, is somewhat. limited.
Before leaving, we were afforded an opportunity of inspecting t b e garage, and we noted that this is equipped with a Dowser un de rground tank with a capacity of 2,000 gallons, and also a Bowser hand operated a e If do measuring pum.p. In the oil stores there were four small Bowser tanks, also fitted with self-measuring pumps, for paraffin, gear oil, and two qualities of engine oil, one for the cars and the other for the
lorries. We were particularly interested to note that useful extracts from The Commercial Motor had been pasted up on the wails for the information of drivers, and that on the walls were also lubricating charts for the various vehicles. The stares are well
equipped, and the biracarcl system with minimum and maximum stocks is After expressing our appreciation of the hospitable manner in which we were received, and for the useful information which had been given, we bade adieu to KreenV Works, but not before making a more pra,cti cal and satisfac tory acquaintance with "Sir Kreemy Kant."
Emerging from the works, we found that, the _weather had improved, and the smell of toffee was again permeating the air.
That such a fleet of commercial motor vehicles is employed solely in carrying of toffee will no doubt come an a surprise to many of our readers ; it is certainlY a revelation of the extent to which transport by road has increased, as well as of the amount of toffee consumed.