150 in-depth interviews ■ potlight problem areas
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EN vehicle operators and iufacturers meet in order to out problems, conflict often es. Operators feel that their I requirements are far from by what is on the market, manufacturers stress that are interested in learning it will enhance the marketaqualities of their products. manufacturers argue that dotry very hard to find out. -le complication is that all rators do not want the same iges and that if specific imrements were introduced on scale sometimes said to be 3ssary, the price would go up he point that no one would it to buy the model.
o doubt vehicle manufacturdo want to know how users
to their products and how r meet the requirements, and this end much market re-ch is carried out.
ne of the most comprehen. exercises of this type covera particular area of vehicle ration has just been carried by my company, CV Marr-)g Support Ltd, to find out in le depth what the tipper rator wants. What is particunoteworthy is that the rerch was undertaken as a coarative venture by the rators — represented by the d Haulage Association tipper mittee — and chassis, body equipment manufacturers. I the results establish firmly 3s where requirements are ig met and others where nges and improvements are irable.
all started following RHA's )er Convention at Harrogate year when after lengthy :ussion RHA decided to take lead in initiating a syndicated -ket research investigation. It )roached all UK chassis nufacturers and importers ; major body and equipment cers involved with tippers. response was completely itive and a total of 19 cornies agreed to support the ject financially with RHA also ng a full participating share.
It is valuable to know who supported the project. On the chassis manufacturing side there were DAF, Ford, Iveco (Fiat and Magirus-Deutz), Leyland, Mercedes-Benz, Renault, Sandbach Engineering, Scania, Seddon Atkinson, Talbot and Volvo and companies producing tipper bodies and equipment were Crane Fruehauf, Craven Tasker, Edbro, Multilift, Telehoist, Welmech and Wilcox plus rubber suspension makers, Norde.
The research programme was extensive.
A total of 350 in-depth interviews using a comprehensive questionnaire were undertaken among both haulage and ownaccount tipper operators selected on a random basis. The 11 sampling areas chosen covered the UK and represented recognised differences in tipper operating conditions. All interviews were conducted by a team of commercial vehicle specialists briefed fully before field work started.
The principal interest in tipper operators and the manufacturing industry as a whole concerns the responses to questions aimed at establishing the relative importance of various aspects of tipper specifications. We can also learn which are the areas which it is felt are not being given adequate consideration by manufacturers generally. A presentation on these aspects will be given at Tipcon by Richard Booth, who organised the research programme and evaluated the results for the final report.
For the manufacturers concerned in the research, a proportion of the research will enable them to take action to improve their competitiveness in the market. This part related to the attitudes of tipper operators to individual makes of chassis, bodies and equipment, to the type of problems experienced or anticipated and to considerations taken into account when deciding to buy or not to buy specific makes. The extent to which operators interviewed felt that chassis available on the market were suitable for tipper use tended to be influenced by the specific type of work their vehicles were used on. Where the vehicle was being used for purely on-road work or where the off-road conditions were good requirements were similar to those for normal haulage vehicles.
In the two-axle and artic categories a "normal" road chassis appeared to be quite adequate for tipper application irrespective of the type of work.
Tippers in these categories identified in the research were rarely used in very arduous site conditions, but, of greater significance, they were commonly used for alternative types of work including haulage as well as tipping.
With the multi-wheel categories, however, operators required the necessary chassis strength, suitable axle and gear ratios, suspensions and engine torque characteristics to cope with the worst off-road conditions encountered even if the vehicle spent most of its time on public roads.
While almost two thirds of operators interviewed felt that chassis available were generally suitable for tipper application, something like 50 per cent of them felt that improvements
could be made in at least one area of specification. Twenty five individual areas were put forward. This, I think illustrates the problem of the manufacturer in achieving total acceptability across the board.
Operators in the lighter weight categories were far more satisfied than those running heavier vehicles. In fact, three quarters of 3.5-15.9-ton-gross vehicle operators and half of those with 16-ton-gross tippers proposed no improvements at all as com pared to between a third and 44 per cent in the three-axle, fouraxle and artic categories.
In terms of specific areas where chassis were felt not to be suitable, the main area where dissatisfaction was frequently expressed related to the cab.
The most frequent comment was that cabs are often too luxu rious and refined for tipper work and this applied in all sectors except where the vehicle was on long distance operation. Clearly tipper operators would welcome the availability of alternative low-specification cab interiors in many cases.
The main negative comments related to the difficulty of clean ing cab interiors and the need to )rovide easier-to-clean surfaces Ind replace carpeting with rub)er mats was stressed. Another :ommon suggestion was that ,eat trim materials that lasted anger ought to be used and that he level of protection against orrosion given to cabs should le improved.
In fact, less than a quarter of hose interviewed were satisfied hat enough was done to ninimise corrosion, the biggest ,roblem areas being the cab oor and door surrounds. This was a particular concern of cornanies involved with site work nd there was strong support for ainforced-plastics cabs among mong eight-wheeler and artic perators.
There was more criticism of xhaust system design and iyout than in any other aspect f chassis specification during le research.
Worry about the extent of amage suffered when on site Dnditions was the reason for lam/ adverse comments on this abject. Operators saw one soluon as the mounting of the exaust system higher in the chass, but over half of those iterviewed favoured a vertical xhaust behind the cab. A irther advantage of this stated ,f a number, was overcoming e problem of exhaust blowing in the driver's face while he stood at the side or rear during the tipping operation.
Part of the market research was concerned with operators' views on who should fit individual items of the tipping ,equipment — the chassis manufacturer or bodybuilder. Perhaps because they had had trouble in the past owing to difficult access for mounting the power take-off with various chassis components in the way, more than 20 per cent felt that this should be the chassis makers job. Other equipment, it was felt, could, with advantage, be fitted by the chassis manufacturer, including tipping gear and tipping controls.
There were few instances of negative attitudes to turbocharging of engines. In the two-axle categories the preference was for naturally aspirated but six and eight-wheeler and artic users were about evenly divided, those for turbocharging finding advantages of fuel economy and higher power output without increasing size or weight, those against feeling naturally aspirated were reliable with less to go wrong.
When probing to establish views on transmissions for tippers, interviewers found that a straight four, five or six-speed gearbox was the most popular on the two-axle categories. To obtain the extra ratios needed on the higher weight vehicle, some operators went for range change, others for splitter designs, and it was interesting that similar reasons were given for supporting each type.
Some operators felt that splitter gearboxes were more reliable, easier to operate and preferred by drivers, and others made the same comments in respect of range change. It seemed that users were generally happy with the type of box in the vehicles actually operated and as a result there was a tendency to favour range change more as gross weight increased.
Operators in all weight categories were strong supporters of synchromesh engagement, main reasons given that they make driving easier and enable quicker changes to be made. Overall, about 70 per cent of operators were in favour of syncromesh, the figure being 81 per cent in the lightest category and between 60 and 70 per cent in the heavier sectors.
This pattern of percentages was followed also when it came to considering the value and benefits of single-speed as against two-speed axles, but in this case the majority were supporters of single speed. A lot depended on previous experience and even in its best sector — 16-ton-gross two-axle — twospeed only achieved 40 per cent. In the lightest two-axle and the heavier categories up to 80 per cent preferred single speed.
Reduced maintenance, fewer problems and greater reliability were the main points made by those happier with single-speed axles, and the general attitude to this as well as to other areas of specification suggested that unless there was a very good reason to do otherwise, operators wanted to keep design as simple as possible.
Simplicity was one of the strongest reasons for most operators not being interested in fullyor semi-automatic transmission. Over 80 per cent of operators interviewed saw no advantage in such transmissions to counter the complexity, but price was seen as another drawback. But operators did not put simplicity above everything else because there was strong perference for hub-reduction axles. Looking at other areas specification, there was opin for and against automatic br, adjustment, those against pressing concern about relia ity and referring to bad ex ience with seizure of t mechanism. On the question axle load indicators, well o half the operators interviev, would be interested in buy such equipment, but with • strong proviso that accuracy z reliability better than exist and earlier types was neec and price must be right.
Many operators also indical that they would be interested specifying equipment to disei age the power take-off wher gearbox ratio is engaged, I others felt that a warning light buzzer was adequate and 1 only practical method in the CE of vehicles such as tarmac lay, having to tip while on the mov
By far the most popular velopment in tipper specificati is the use of rubber suspensio
There was wide interest in t especially in the multi-whee categories. This confirmed co ments made during the tech ni, session at Tipcon 1980, a some respondents said th would be specifying rubber st pension on their next vehi, mainly because they we convinced that benefits woi include reduced maintenan, lower weight, less wear and te and improved reliability.
One of the most importE sections of the market resear project and one of the most teresting was that which had t object of finding out the level importance of different factc taken into account when pt chase decisions are made for t. pers. First, the interviewe asked what factors were cons ered essential when alternati makes of vehicle were beil considered. And to ensure tlnone of relevance had be overlooked, the point w. probed by showing a pre-c fined list of possibilities.
The operators were thr asked to list the most importa five of their final list in order priority and after collating ti returns, a weighted score w calculated by multiplying tl mean score by the proportion Operators including each facto' It was not suprising that tl factor considered most essenti
in all weight categories was r liability. Other aspects whi, came high up the listings we initial price, spares and servi back-up and fuel consumptio
laden weight was considered particular importance by usof three and four-axle tippers I other interesting results re that freedom from corron, cost of spares and cab nfort came at or close to the :tom of the lists covering the lividual categories.
:ollowing on from this, erators were asked to 3luate the vehicles they ran in ation to the considerations ed. This section will enable inufacturers to assess their -formance in the market and way users see them as meet1 requirements.
n general, there were few as where operators were lously dissatisfied with their licles and this was certainly
case in the lighter two-axle -egory and in the 16-ton-gross ;tor except for concern at 3res and service back-up with me makes.
n three and four-axle and artic :egories there was a general jh level of satisfaction on the score of reliability. There were just one or two exceptions but there were quite a number who were not very satisfied with fuel consumption, spares back-up and spares prices — not only for imported chassis — in the heavy vehicle categories.
The part of the market research study that was concerned with tipper bodies showed that operators were generally quite happy that the manufacturing industry was giving them what they wanted. An obvious reason for this is the large number of companies producing tipper bodywork. Over 90 different bodybuilders featured in fleets covered by the research so it is likely that even the next unusual request could be met.
Certainly over three quarters of those interviewed were "totally" or "quite satisfied" with the availability situation. And when asked to put forward suggestions as to where improvement in bodies could be beneficial, over 70 per cent saw the need for none at all.
Those that did have suggestions were mainly looking for extra strength in various areas. In all, a total of 19 individual points were made, the actual numbers supporting those relating to aspects other than "strength" being quite small and indicating that the variety of bodybuilders can meet most normal needs.
Confirmation of a number of what have been general views was given by the study. Included in this is the relative position of steel against light-alloy bodies. It is clear from the results that steel is favoured at the bottom end of the weight scale, light al
loy at the top and nearly two thirds of the light two-axle operators preferred steel. But going up the weight scale, light alloy took over and reached 89 per cent with artic operators. Similarly sub-frames on bodies were popular at the bottom of the scale and monocoque favoured at the top end.
On the question of other "desirable" features, very few operators wanted automatic or remote-control tailgate locking mainly because they liked drivers to ensure positively that the rear end was secure before moving off and also to checking that the rear was clear prior to tipping.
Three-way tippers were seen to have no value for normal tipping operators — only local authority operators saw value in this type of unit and then only in the lightest class. And a simple sheeting system is likely to be welcomed by many operators — but it has to be simple, reliable, light and not too expensive to be acceptable.
As with tipper chassis, views were sought on the most important purchase considerations related to bodies. The results were similar through the five weighl categories. In each one, strength was in the first place, followed in various different orders, by weight, durability and purchase price. Delivery time and availability were not seen as being ol much importance — no doub1 the level of competition sees tc that.
Apart from an indication thal additional and stronger competi• tion is desirable, the tippei operating industry is well servec by makers of tipping gear anc power take-off and hydraulic pump equipment. All require. ments appeared to be caterec for. In fact with more than 80 pei cent of respondents indicatinc total or reasonable satisfaction the only real general criticisnwas that about competition.
Various suggestions for detai improvement were made by C. small number of operators pri manly concerned with oil leak: in tipping gear and support fo the idea of a device to disengage the pto when engaging a gear.
The most popular type of gea came out as single-front-enc and all were quite satisfied will tipping angles and speed of tir of equipment now available.
Ranked as the most importan consideration for purchase wa: durability and safety followed bs parts availability, ease of main tenance and reliability.