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24th June 1960, Page 60
24th June 1960
Page 60
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Page 60, 24th June 1960 — Quiel [urn-round vith "Separates"
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Employment of Demountable-body Systems by a Provision Merchant and a Lubricant Concern Have Saved Vehicle Turn-round time, Allowed the use of Smaller Vehicles and Benefited Trunk Running By P. A. C. Brockington

A.M.I.Mech.E. THE application of the Taskers demountable-body system is successfully demonstrated by the distribution of the entire output of the Plymouth factory of Tecalemit, Ltd., to depots throughout the country.

It was evolved in 1950 by Mr. E. K. Edwards, managing director of Morgan Edwards, Ltd., Featherbed Lane, Shrewsbury, wholesale provision merchants, and has been employed by this company for the delivery of groceries in Shropshire and neighbouring counties.

Care is essential in the assembly and loading of goods because of the large variety of packages and cartons conveyed in the vehicles,and because drops may be made at a number of points. A quick turn-round of the vehicles would, however, be impossible if the bodies were integral with the chassis, and both vehicles' and drivers' time would be wasted.

Loading Differences Whilst the Morgan Edwards containers are loaded in the warehOuSe. dispatch bays at the Tecalemit works are fed with goods individually from a number of departments at the ends of the production lines.

Turn-round time has been reduced at the Morgan Edwards warehouse from over 14 hours to not more than 15 minutes, and the time saved at the Tecalemit works is of the same order. On some of the Morgan Edwards routes, the system has enabled two runs to be completed in a day compared with a single delivery when rigid boxvans were used.

Smaller vehicles in the .Tecalemit fleet now do the delivery Work of the larger vehicles and trailers of the original fleet, and the system is also of

c.22 benefit in trunking with complete loads to the company's London and Midland depots for local distribution. Delivery times have been substantially reduced.

Various modifications to the container and vehicle fittings have recently been introduced by the Morgan Edwards company, whereas the features of the Tecalemit equipment are more nearly of the standard Taskers type.

Nationwide deliveries have been made in demountable bodies by the Tecalemit company for more than 12 months, the greatest tonnage on any one route being transported on the London run to Fel(ham depot. Recently established, the Midland depot is at Hatton, near Warwick, and will be organized on the same lines as the depot at Feltham.

A trunking service is operated to Middlesbrough, from which deliveries are made to the north-eastern area by the same driver. Vehicles run to centres as far north as Dundee, whilst the average daily mileage is about 240.

Although a direct comparison cannot be made with the original method of carrying goods in rigid vehicles and trailers, the reduction in vehicle turnround time of some 75 per cent. afforded by the demountable-body system represents a major advantage.

The bodies can be removed from the chassis or replaced in a few minutes, and loading is arranged to avoid waste vehicle time, a concomitant merit being the availability of bodies for loading throughout the working day.

The goods are now carried by Austin forward-control 5-ton vehicles equipped with the B.M.C. 3.4-litre oil engine, whereas the lorries in the old fleet were, in the main, of 8-ton capacity. The use of smaller vehicles has enabled the average delivery time to be reduced and, combined with the demountable-body system, has facilitated organization of fleet operations as an extension of the production lines.

A fleet of 10 Plymouth-based vehicles is employed in conjunction with 12 box containers of 900-cu.-ft. capacity and one open drop-sided type. Another vehicle is employed at Feltham for local distribution with the aid of an open container. Bodies are removed from the wooden platforms of the vehicles on to semi-permanent stands, of which there are eight at Plymouth and two at Feltham. Constructed of light-alloy material and having wooden floors, the body super

structures were produced by Messrs. Drake Motors, of Plymouth.

The Tasker body components comprise a steel framework with special side-members, each of which carries four bracket-mounted rollers. The depth of the brackets is increased progressively from rear to front to give a wheel-contact line to correspond with the angle of the ramped channelsection runners of the stands.

When mounted on the stand, the body is supported in a horizontal position. The track of the rollers is. greater than the width of the vehicle platform body by a margin sufficient to allow the lorry to be backed under the body between the Wheel brackets.

When the vehicle has been reversed for loading to within a few inches of its limiting position, projecting arms on the body move into deep socket members which are attached to the sides of the light-alloy vehicle headboard. Locking pins are then inserted through eyes in the projecting arms on the cab side of the sockets, and after release of a safety-locking device the vehicle is driven slowly forward.

Continued Support

. This action exerts a pull on the arms, and the body moves with the vehicle on the rollers of the mounting frame, which continues to be supported by the stand runners until the height of the body floor has been reduced to the level of the vehicle platform. The body cross-members are thus lowered on to the wooden floor of the chassis, and the body is then locked in position by two vertical screw-type pins at the front and rear.

In the case of the Tecalemit containers, the mounting frame incorporates 10 channel section cross-members, which give an even distribution of load. The light-alloy sides of the vehicle body are raised above the wooden platform and act as guides as the container is being lowered, as well as location members when the container is in place. Crossmembers are accommodated by slotted sections.

Locking the body-mounting rollers on the stand is performed by a single clamp acting on one of the rear rollers, clamping action being controlled by a pivoted lever extending the full length of the stand. The front end of the lever is within reach of the driver when he is sitting in the cab, and the lock is engaged as soon as the vehicle has been backed into the stand.

Tubular Guides

Stand runners are supported by six pillars, which are equipped with a tubular tyre guide on each side.

Given a suitable concrete foundation, a stand can be moved to a new position and secured in place in a few hours. This may prove of benefit in future planning.

The body superstructure has channel-section side-members, pillars and roof sticks of top.-hat section, and interior longitudinals of the double rounded-channel type. A single fulldepth roller shutter is fitted at the rear, and interior fittings include a light connected to a plug on the front bulkhead for supply from the battery:

Palleted Collection

Goods are assembled in two dispatch bays built at body-platform level behind the stands. They are collected mainly from the production sections on pallets or special stillages by battery-electric fork-lift trucks. The packages remain on the pallets to facilitate movements in the loading bay by hand truck, but the pallets are not loaded into the body.

The first demountable body was employed experimentally by the Morgan Edwards company in 1951, and for the past 12 months all deliveries have been made in containers of this type. In accordance with a policy of standardization, the majority of prime movers in the fleet are Austin forwardcontrol oil-engined 7-tonners. These number 10, and additional prime movers comprise four Thames of the same capacity. An old unlicensed lorry chassis is used for the internal transfer of containers.

Modifications to the original equipment by the Morgan Edwards company include the replacement of bracket-mounted rollers by detachable wheels, which are removed from the body before the vehicle starts on a run. Detachable wheels are used because the bodies themselves are of maximum legal width. Instead of using a platform body, additional frame members are fitted to the standard chassis to give uniform support to the container.

This is advantageous with regard to simplicity and floor height. It also gives easy access to the chassis components and thus reduces maintenance time.

Two stands are located in the dispatch bay, and are loaded direct from pallets conveyed from various sections of the warehouse by fork-lift and pallet trucks. An additional four stands are housed under cover outside the warehouse for accommodating outgoing containers and spare empty containers.

Bodies are of composite construction and have roller-shutter threequarter doors at the rear and tailboards equipped with a step. Produced by Messrs. E. J. Holyoake, Shrewsbury, they have wooden floors with dished sides which assist in steadying the load when the vehicle is running. Other details include double-skinned body sides and an interior light. This can be connected to a plug behind the cab.

Two Deliveries

Runs are made up to 110 miles, and the average length of run is about 40 miles. In some cases two deliveries are made in a day, which would be impossible if turn-round time had not been reduced by employing a demountable-body system.

Of special interest to the development of the container • system is the part played by the company in the SPAR voluntary group organization of provision wholesalers which covers the majority of European countries. SPAR was started in Holland in 1932 by a Dutch wholesaler after he had studied a system of group interworking in America, developed in the early 1920s to give smaller retailers the benefits that multiple stores derived from cheap bulk deliveries by rail.

Following a highly favourable postwar report by Marshall Aid authorities on the organization, it spread to other European countries and SPAR now has a total membership of 230 wholesalers who supply some 25,000 retailers.

"Selective Pruning" Introduced into this country by Mr. Edwards and another wholesaler in 1956, the British SPAR organization has 33 members who deliver to 2,0003,000 retailers. Reduced from an original total of over 13,000 by "selective pruning," t he smaller number. of retailers receives a much larger tonnage.of goods.

Of related significance is the concomitant reduction in the number of orders represented by the average load of Morgan Edwards vehicles. Formerly, the average for vehicles of lower capacity was 40-50 orders, and now the average is between four and five orders. It is not unusual for a complete load to be delivered to a single customer. Moreover, a vehicle capacity of 7 tons is below the optimum for the traffic that has developed. About 82 per cent, of the tonnage carried comprises goads for SPAR customers.

In an appraisal of the transport economies offered by the demountablebody system, Mr. Edwards points out that it can be measured in terms of vehicle utilization. Since the introduction of SPAR group interworking, average tonnage has been increased by 80 per cent., but overall vehicle capacity is unchanged.

Tags

Organisations: SPAR, US Federal Reserve
Locations: London, Austin, Midland, Plymouth

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