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Cut-throats Mr. Hands letter (CM June 7 "Too much undercutting - )
Page 103
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is timely and the industry would do well to take his advice.
The Road Haulage Association longdistance group publishes to members a Rates Guide, the last printed figures being produced in 1965. In spite of the steady increase in all costs since that date, rates prevailing on most trunk routes between key towns today are anything down to 20 per cent below those figures, instead of up to 20 per cent above, as one would reasonably expect.
Perhaps the preamble to that same Rates Guide holds the reason—it was published because, after de-nationalization it was felt that many operators "had engaged in longdistance road haulage without experience and knowledge and this was leading to traffic being carried at rates that were inadequate".
At the R HA meeting in Leicester recently for members to meet RTITB officials, the same need was echoed by transport executives with a plea that the urgent need for managers' courses be met as soon as possible, courses that those same managers wished to attend. Yet for 25 years and more Commercial Motor and other journals have published Cost Tables and articles on costing for all to read. Road fund tax, depreciation, insurance, drivers' wages, tyre costs, fuel costs, and all other basic items can vary little if anything, between operators yet there is an imagined mystique which deludes a majority into thinking that they can always "do it a bit cheaper" than the chap round the corner.
Road haulage need not look to manufacturing industry and commercial firms generally for relief from this state of affairs; as one executive was heard to say recently: "What does it matter to us if many road hauliers are slowly going broke because they don't know their own costs and so cannot quote economic rates? There will always be another one to take their place when they finally disappear." He could have added: -And the second one will also bleed slowly to death for our benefit."
In the meantime a lower return on capital than any other industry would accept, a position high in the league table of bankruptcies, wages and salaries low by the standard of industry generally, mediocre working conditions, long hours, and inability to attract good quality staff are the general result.
The industry should look to itself and stop cutting its own throat; given time and £153m or more of the taxpayers' money the railways will do that quickly enough while road haulage is divided within its own camp.
M. D. BUSH, Braunston, Rugby.
In use till 1955
I was particularly interested in Mr. L. Davies' letter {CM June 71 and, after searching our records, have come up with one or two snippets of information concerning the 1 00ton Scammells.
In 1928 or thereabouts, Mr. E. C. Marston of Marston's Road Services Ltd., a Liverpool heavy haulage concern, approached the technical staff at Scammell asking if it was possible to design and build a 100-ton vehicle capable of carrying out-of-gauge railway locomotives between factory and docks. Scammell agreed that it was and as a result KD 91 68 appeared in the following year.
It was powered by the well-tried Scamrnell 7 litre four-cylinder petrol engine developing 80 bhp at 1,800 rpm, the bore and stroke being Sin, and 51in. respectively. While such a power unit was suitable for use in the company's 25-ton and, later, 40and 45-ton machinery transporters, its performance in the 100-tonner had been grossly over-estimated, so in October 1932 the Pelican Engineering Co. (Sales) Ltd. of Leeds replaced it by a 6LW Gardner, necessitating a front chassis extension and longer bonnet, and resulting in an increased unladen weight from 32 to 35 tons.
At least two carrying frames were used with this machine, the first having a 40ftwheelbase and the second 50ft (for loads not exceeding 65-ton using a tandem eightwheeled rear bogie). A four-wheeled singleaxle bogie was also available.
During the Thirties, this vehicle passed to Edward Box and Co. Ltd., another Liverpool haulier specializing in the movement of railway locomotives and similar indivisible loads, and ended its working life in the Glasgow area, finally coming to rest in Jack Hardwick's yard some years back.
The second model, BLH21, was also built in 1929, this time to the order of Metallic Ore Production Co. Ltd. of St. Austell, Cornwall. The semi-trailer, a 65-ton model, served as a mobile baseplate for a Garrett rotary kiln used at the various mines owned by the company.
When Pickfords acquired this machine during the Thirties, it also had a 6LW Gardner substituted for the original power unit and, with a new 100-ton semi-trailer, was allocated to the Sheffield Heavy Haulage Branch.
BLH21 was in regular use right up to 1955, when the tractor was sold to Rush Green Motors of Hitchin, Hertfordshire, where, I believe, it has remained, and the semi-trailer provided with a solid-tyred front bogie for operation with drawbar tractor units. This trailer could still be in regular use.
I shall not go into lengthy explanations of chassis construction and methods of loading and unloading; suffice it to say that a fully
detailed article on these 100-tonners will be appearing in a -future edition of our monthly journal, C.V.R.T.C. News, which is available free of charge to all our members.
D. N. MILLER, Editor, Commercial Vehicle and Road Transport Club News.
What happened?
I read with interest the letter which asked: -What Happened to Scammell BLH21?" by Mr. L. Davies of Swinton, Lancs. I should imagine that this was one of the very few built which went into service, to Edward Box Ltd., heavy haulage, of Liverpool, later taken over by Pickfords Ltd. with that company's steam haulage units.
I believe I last saw the above vehicle in a commercial vehicle agent's sale yard, in Hertfordshire. As far as I know it is still there. J. P. VINES, Contractor, Hardwicke, Glos.