Working Costs of Lancashire C.C. Steamers
Page 37
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
LOCAL AUTHORITIES generally go to considerable trouble to heep check of the running and working costs of their motor vehicles, and, in almost all cases, they prepare statistics which give in a concise and complete form such details. Such information is of considerable value to other municipal users, since it enables a ready comparison to be made with similar machines which they may employ, whilst it not infrequently offers illuminating data to ordinary commercial users For these reasons we think that the tables which are contained in a report of the county surveyor of Lancashire, Mr. W. H. Schofield, giving details of the working of the council's steam tractors, steam wagons and trailers for the year ended March 31st last will be of interest.
There are two tables, one giving the comparative working costs for the fleet, the second dealing with an analysis of payments in connection with each vehicle.
The original cost of the complete fleet was £8,527, and it is composed of two Garrett steam tractors, each with three six-ton rubber-tyred trailers, and four Leyland steam wagons, each with a sixton rubber-tyred trailer.
During the year the fleet of vehicles hauled a total of just over 53,491 tons of material, the total mileage in connection with the work being 17,390 loaded and 27,599 unloaded, the total ton-miles being 143,105. Although the steam tractors actually hauled more material than the steam, wagons, it must be borne in mind that with these vehicles three trailers are used.
The average cost per day on working expenses, it Will be seen, amounted to £3 1s. 90., and it is pointed out in the report that, if the sum of £5 5s. per day be taken as a fair payment for the hire of a motor wagon, the six wagons would have earned in the 1,524 days in which they worked over £8,002, as compared with the actual cost, as shown in the tables, including capital repayments over a term of five years, of £6,867 17s. 6d. The actual saving over team labour, as shown in the report of the surveyor, amounts to a sum slightly in excess cf £1,526.
The analysis of payments makes instructive reading, because it shows the relative expenses under various headings. It will be noticed that wages accounts for more than half of the total working costs of the six vehicles, fuel under one heading, and tyres, repairs and renewals under another, being second and third respectively with a percentage which is more than 35 below that for wages.