NEW HOUSE REFUSE REMOVAL SYSTEM. Southport's Interesting Experiment with Combined Motor and Horse Haulage.
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THE SOUTIIPOP;T Corporation pro. poses to adopt new methods for dealing with the collection of house refuse, and by the means they now have under consideration hope to enact very considerable economies. The Slew system involves a combined use of both, horse and motor vehicles, and an outstanding feature ie that horde traction will be employed where it is most economical, that is,. in drawing the collecting wagon from house to heuse, and motor traction where speed LS required in conveying the loaded wagons rapidly to and from the tie. The precise detaile of the. new system are not yet available, arid the fact that the cost of house refuse collection and disposal in Southport has increased from £9,270 in 1914 to £21,390. in 1921, due to the largely increased rates for wages, which are now 24 times greater than they.were before the war, has, no doubt, been the cause of ineniry being made into legs costly' methods.
The vehicles proposed to be employed are novel in design and are a step in advance of any others now in use and as the borse-drawn wagon is to be the load body for the motor it is necessary, therefore, to deal briefly with this type of vehicle. Although it will have the large capacity of 24 tons, it will have the lowest loading level of any refuse wagon,.
4 ft. 6 ins, to top of sides, as against 6 ft. 1 in. and 7 ft. 6 ins., the heights of the sides of the existing wagons in use at Southport.
When the horse-drawn wagon is full,
• is hauled up sliding ramps on to the platform of a specially designed motor tipping wagon by • means of a. winch driven by the engine, and is then taken te the tip, unleaded, and brought back empty to. the next section. Befere the full -wagon is taken, away the motor leaves the empty wagon brought back from the tip, to take its place in the street. The motor is designed so that
it can he used for ordinary haulage when not required on helve refuse work. ,
The report of the Borough Surveyor of Southport on this scheme, which has been adapted by the Council, states that by this system one-half of the horses employed on house refuse collection and -disposal will he dons away with; the' work will be made easier for the staff, -and -the number of men required for the work will be reduced. It is: estimated that. one motor and four wagons will remove the refuse in three house-refuse sections of the town, and these sections are to he enlarged in size. There are at present nine sections.
As to the initial expenditure, the Council has approved of the purchase of a. specially designed four-ton Pagefield motor, with tipping gear, body, cab, sliding ramps, winch, etc. at an estimated cost of £1,025; and four 24 ton horse-drawn wagons with detachable shafts, costing £180 each, making a total of nearly £1,800. It is estimated that by this expenditure it will be possible to effect a saving of £745 per annum, apart from, the saving in-labour-time, end by the easier loading of the collecting wagons.
These calculations are based on the • prices of horse hire and petrol in April last. The saving of £745 is made up as
• follows :—
Horse Haulage Only. Present system Amount of house refuse removed per horse vehicle and driver, 23.4 tons per week; total cost, £7 5s.; cost per ton, 6s. 2d.
Motor and Horse Haulage.
New system :— Amount of house refuse estimated to he removed per motor with three horses, drivers, and collecting bodies, 181 tons per week ; weekly cost of running motor, • including standing charges, £18 14s. 9d. ; weekly cost of running three horses, drivers, and vehicles at £7 10s., £22 10s., making a total of £41 4s. 9d.; cost per ton, 4s. 7d. ; annual saving effected in haulage by one metor and three wagons, 9,412 tons at is. 7d. per ton, £745.
Interviewed by a representative of The Commercial Motor, the deputy borough surveyor of Southport was hopeful as to the economical possibilities• of the scheme which has been adapted by the Council, and declared that it would mark a big step forward in the efficient handling of house refuse. Asked for his views on the suitability''ef electric vehicles for doing this class of work, he said that in Southport an entirely different set of circumstances had to be taken into consideration than would be the case„, Gay, at a place like Birmingham. Southport was a. rather spacy town, with plenty of width between the houses, which, in some parts of the town, were rather scattered: Hence the collecting vehicles had to traverse,a comparatively long distance in some localities before they collected one Ioad.
The new system has not been adopted without criticism, the value of which the reader is best able to judge. It may summarized as follows :— (1) The purchase of the three motor wagons and 12 other loading wagons would cost the town from £6,000 to £7,000, and this would mean the disposal at scrap prices of plant which had cost probably thousands of pounds ; {21 the four-ton wagon could not be turned in the widest &treat of Southport without backing or reversing a time or two. With all the equipment, such as skids, winch, rollers, tip arrangements, the motor would. weigh' 4 tons 10 cwt. to 5 tons. without a Toad. As the loaded wagon is estimated to weigh 2 tong 15 cwt., and the empty wagon itself 30 cwt., there would thus be a total of about 9 tans.