OVERHAULING A FLEET OF FORTY-ONE BUSES.
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The Answer to the Question as to Whether Cost of, and Loss Through, the Annual Overhauls Do Not Constitute a Serious Handicap to the Owner of a Fleet of Small or Moderate Size.
WHEN post-war conditions began to encourage the independent operator to invest his capital in one or more buses and to put them into service on routes which seemed to justify the creation of more facilities for public travel, one of the solaces of the bus operator already established on the route now faced with competition was the thought that the newcomer, employing a comparatively small fleet of buses, would find that his chief difficulty would be in maintenance of the vehicle in safe and satisfactory running condition. It was argued that, unless a fleet of buses was large enough to warrant the installation of an elaborate outfit for its maintenance, it would not be possible to run it as a commercial proposition. There is little doubt that the frequent repetition of this argument has acted, in many cases, as a deterrent to those who have contemplated the installation of bus services on a moderate scale.
The cry has been, "Wait until You have to overhaul your buses, and you will find that, unless this can be done on a large scale, it will eat up all your profits."
To prove that this cry is a mere bogey (provided certain requirements of a rather exacting nature are met and that a high degree of efficiency is reached and economy attained in the running of the repair shop), we have investigated the methods of several concerns running small and medium-sized fleets of buses, and have chosen the London concern of A. T. Bennett and Co., Ltd., of Wood Green, N., which operates the line of buses known by the name of "Admiral," running between Southgate, N., and Victoria, and on other routes mostly in the North of London.
By the courtesy of Mr. A. T. Bennett we were enabled to investigate the methods adopted and to watch carefully,step by step, the annual overhaul of one of its double-deck buses which had been running for a year between Southgate and Victoria. The bus in question is two years old, and the overhaul is the second that has been carried out in the company's works on both chassis and body.
• Before describing the actual overhaul, however, it is as well to describe the methods employed by this concern, as there is little room for doubt that where good supervision is employed the cost of overhauls is kept down to a minimum. The " Admiral " fleet consists of 41 buses, 15 of which are doubledecked and run on solid tyres, whilst the remaining 26 are single-deckers
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mounted on pneumatic tyres. The company also runs 26 cabs, five private-hire cars, two charP-a-banes and five lorries.
With regard to the maintenance of the bus fleet, the following details may be of interest. Three shifts of mechanics, electricians, tyre fitters and cleaners are employed, the day shift starting at 8 a.m. and finishing at 5 p.m., the middle shift working from 5 p.m. until 12 midnight and the night shift working from then until the coming of the day shift. As each bus is brought in, its driver has to sign a report stating exactly anything he may have noticed that requires attention, or, in the case of a bus that requires nothing to be done to it. he has to sign a statement that it is in proper order. It has been found a wise Precaution to , insist on a signature, even if all is in order, as it prevents the drivers from slipping intr careless habits.
Minor repairs and' adjustments a r e dealt with either by the middle shift or the night shift during the time that the bus is not running, but, if anything of a more serious character be deemed necessary, a spare bus is put into commission, and the faulty one docked for repair during the daytime. A re sponsible superintendent is always present during the night to see that rules are strictly adhered to, special attention being given to pneumatic tyres during the night. A tyre expert is in attendance each night in the interests of the company which contracts for the pneumatic tyres (Dunlop).
Watching the complete overhaul of a bus that had just come in for its annual attention, we noticed that extreme simplicity of outfit seemed to be the rule, no complicated or expensive appliances being employed. That no time was wasted the following table will show:— First day.—The body was lifted by ineans of four ordi nary jacks and, when raised sufficiently, supports were placed under it, the chassis then being run forward and removed to another shop. The instant the body was lifted men began to work on various repairs and the rubbing down of painted parts, and even whilst the body was being lifted some men were already engaged on the first operations necessary for the dismantling of the units of the chassis.
Second day.—By the end of this day all units had been removed, including wheels and springs, and a thorough inspection of all members of the frame and all rivets had been made. Work on the body was also well in hand, damaged panels and mouldings being removed. Third, fourth and fifth days.—Work on units and body in hand. New parts where necessary were fitted to the body, the upholstery being cleaned and made good. The c33 staircase v/es overhauled and new treads fitted toatairs and platform.
Sixth day.—Reassembly of units completed and feassembly of chassis commenced. Work on body well forward. • Seventh day.—Reassembly In progress.
Eighth day.—Chassis assembly completed, and final touches to chassis being given.
Ninth day.—Chassis returned to paint shop after road trial. Body replaced, electric equipment attended to, and all final adjustments made.
Tenth day.—At 11 o'clock the bus was completed and was driven away to Scotland Yard for inspection. The whole operation had occupied slightly less than ten working days.
The Short List of Replacement Parts.
We understand that the replacements to this bus, ' which was two years old and, therefore, was undergoing its second overhaul, were as follow :—Three new gearwheels to gearbox, new bearings to engine and all new joints to steering parts. All the latter parts, by the way, are renewed each year in every case. When one considers that a bus in London service covers, in the course of the 50 weeks which constitutes its working year, about 35,000 to 40,000 miles, it must be agreed that the bill for replacement parts represented in this extremely short list could hardly be more satisfactory.
Each unit of the chassis was, of course, dismantled to the last item and, after being cleaned, was carefully inspected and gauged for wear. In this case the amount of wear, except of the crankshaft bearings and gearwheels, was so small as to warrant nothing in the way of replacement. Certain standards of oversizes are adopted, but the limits of safety are never approached, and so soon as a cylinder block—to take that for an example—has reached the point where it would call for its third regrinding it is replaced by another.
Simple Plant and Ordinary Facilities.
The whole of the work is done without any elaboration of premises or plant, such as would become necessary if the number of vehicles to be dealt with at one time was considerably greater. Hence individtial enthusiasm, skill and knowledge on the part of the workwen, careful supervision and a close personal touch between master, foreman and man serve to accomplish in a small way what a highly developed organization effects in the very big concern.
When the bus is once again in service on the road the consumption of petrol and oil is checked by separate staffs—one for petrol and one for oil—each one noting the amount served out to each bus and comparing it with the mileage driven. If the consumption in either case be found to be above the average it is reported and the cause investigated.
A comparison of the cost per mile of running a singledeck bus on pneumatic tyres against the double-decked type on solid tyres is interesting: Single-deck pneumatic :—Tyres, .80d.; petrol, 1.4d.; maintenance of body and chassis (this item does not include any allowance for accidents), material and labour, 1.35d.
Double-deck solid :—Tyres, .65d.; petrol, 1.7d.; maintenance of body and chassis (this item does not include any allowance for accidents), material and labour, 1.85d.
The fleet of 41 " Admiral " buses carried 12,000,000 passengers last year, the service being uninterrupted by the general strike in May last. Mr. Bennett, in the course of our interview with him, was rather proud of that fact, and he gave us his views on certain technical matters of interest to operators of buses. Dealing with the safety of pedestrians, Mr. Bennett is strongly in favour of four-wheel brakes on buses and considers that during the comparatively short period in which they have been in use on " Admiral " buses the front-wheel brakes have saved several accidents. In one case in Particular a bus Was able to pull up in 18 ins., so avoiding
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a woman who had fallen in front of it. We were glad to hear him say he considered that the side-guards as fitted to buses had undoubtedly saved many fatal accidents and that, in his opinion, they should be made compulsory on all heavy, high-powered vehicles; on more than one occasion this journal has shown that a side-guard can save a pedestrian whom the driver has, by quick steering, managed to avoid with his front wheels.
We sought Mr. Bennett's views upon chassis design in general and found him fairly well content with the ,chassis of to-day. His aim would seem to be towards refinement of travel rather than towards larger carrying capacity. He does not favour riveted frames, because of the difficulty of repairing them after an accident. Bright bolts and nuts, well fitted to carefully reamered holes, are by far the best. This, however, is quite the general opinion in the heavy-vehicle world.
The company is testing a six-wheeled bus, but sufficient experience has not yet been gained for Mr. Bennett to express any opinion of its suitability for London work.
The Operators' Views on the Best Size of Bus.
We asked Mr. Bennett what he considered the ideal bus of the future for use in London. He said that he felt sure the bits with large passenger-carrying capacity is unsuitable for such work on account of the increase in the number of stops, that a large number of passengers must necessarily entail. He pointed out that as the trailer attached to the tramcar proved a -failure for this very reason, so the large capacity bus would fail.
Briefly, his suggestion with regard to the chassis is that it should have a six-cylindered engine, six wheells, with four-wheel brakes and should run on pneumatic tyres.
With regard to the body, he is of the opinion that a single-decked bus, holding 26 passengers, and provided with a door on the near side towards the front of the bus, and the usual rear door, would prove able to carry more passengers for a given number of buses over a given route than a bus of -larger capacity could deal with in the same time. This infers a strong tendency towards the adoption of the principle contained in the old adage: "He who would travel fast should, travel alone." The larger the party or the group of travellers the slower the speed, because the delays and stops caused by each person in the party are curaulative.
The Claims of the Front. Entrance and Separate Exit.
The front door, Mr. Bennett suggests, should be used only for entering, and the rear door for exit only, the front deinto be controlled by the driver. This arrangement, he points out, would have many advantages. It would enable the driver to gauge exactly, where to stop when a queue is waiting, and would appreciably save time, as it would allow passengers to leave and others to enter at the same time, which, considering the number, of stops a bus has to make in an hour, would result in a speeding-up of the service. This, coupled with the smaller number of passengers carried, and the consequent fewer stops, would enable the bus to make, more journeys in a day, and would result in a larger number of passengers being actually carried, instead of as at present spending an appreciable part of their time sitting in buses that are stopping whilst passengers crowd in and out of the same doorway. It must be remembered that it is not the vehicles that are travelling that obstruct our streets, but those that are stopping, and our interviewee contended that, with a smaller number of passengers, a fair proportion of the minor stopping places might be passed without a stop. His suggestions on this subject are based on actual experience by comParing the number of passengers carried in a given time by the company's 30-seater single-decked buses with those carried by the larger double-decked type.