Rationing system to cope with fuel shortage
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:LJEL SUPPLIES were very nuch on my mind when I met )ick Housley and John Lindsay, iut they feel happy about Interal TransportsTransport's ability to cope vith shortages. A rationing sysam was set up last year, with ards, when the tanker drivers' trike halted supplies, and this ould be set up again if lecessary.
The department has changed fuel contracts from four dif?,rent suppliers to just one — ;hell — which offers the best irice and standard of service. flaintenance has also been similified by specifying only one rigine oil and one gear oil nroughout the fleet This was
done with Castrol's C operation.
Internal Transport does not employ any tyre fitters, but relies on tyre distributors who replace worn tyres under contract.
Vehicle disposal is organised along lines set up in Lanark. Vehicles in running order are offered for auction with no reserve price, and others are broken up and sold as loose scrap. Dick Nousley prefers not to trade vehicles in against new ones as this plays havoc with discounts. He feels that the department does reasonably well by auctioning its vehicles. -They are all written down, and anything we get is a bonus_ But we do alright when new vehicles are scarce."
The first four years for Strathclyde's Internal Transport-4 have been eventful and not without pains. The merger of 57 old 0-licences into one produced many problems, some of which are still being tackled, and the imposition of spending cuts hasn't helped either. But it is also a satisfying job for people like Dick Housley and John Lindsay who have brought in experience from a wider field than just local government to face the challenges before them.