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Containing costs for low-value traffic

6th February 1976
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Page 77, 6th February 1976 — Containing costs for low-value traffic
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

by kin Sherriff

AVONMORE Farmer's Co-operative in the Republic of Ireland collects and processes 70m gallons of milk annually. Its 4,800 bulk suppliers are contained in an area the size of Yorkshire.

Since 21 creamery societies amalgamated to form the co-operative in 1972, the transport manager, Mr C. Fleming, has been planning and implementing schemes to simplify the operation and contain the transport costs for what is essentially a lowvalue traffic.

To achieve these aims Avonmore has developed sophisticated equipment, trained staff and introduced controls which are constantly improving the productivity of the company's vehicles.

The basic function of the transport department is to collect milk, deliver some of the processed products like butter, cheese, p owder, chocolate crumb and casein to customers. In addition, it carries farm equipment from its central stores to its farmer members.

There are four areas in the Avcmmore group— at Monasterevin, South Tipperary, Barrowvale and Kilkenny; each has its own transport manager and an assistant transport manager. A measure of the efficiency which the group seeks is illustrated by the fact that the assistant transport managers are required, in their conditions of service, to qualify for merribership of the Chartered Institute of Transport by examination.

Little time is wasted at Avonm ore "in committee work," but the regional transport managers meet with Mr Fleming once a month to discuss common problems and consider aspects of inter-work ing which would be mutually beneficial. "They run their own regions within company policy but with the minimum intervention from headquarters," said Mr Fleming.

The principal assistance in the day to day operation which is supplied from headquarters to regions is a computer printout of a control document. This has resulted in 86 per cent utilisation of the company's 169-vehicle fleet during the high season. In terms of milk collection, the high season is from March to September, and during the low-yield period an intensive care and maintenance programme is carried out.

Milk per mile

The control document carries the usual information covering details of driver, his vehicle and his hours; it also shows the miles covered and the consumption of fuel and oil.

However, in addition it details the number of gallons of milk lifted, the number of calls made and shows gallons collected per mile and gallons collected per call. In the high season the figure per mile should not be less than 14 gallons, but this can fall to as low as one gallon in the low season.

If, in the high season, the figure falls below 14 then the transport department can trace the source and cause of the shortfall from the drivers' daily returns. Should this prove' likely to be of a permanent nature routes are readjusted to bring the average figure back to the acceptable level.

Drivers at Avonmore require more than hgv driving skills., They are trained to take samples of milk later to be used for analysis of fat content; they are trained to recognise, by sight and smell, sub-standard milk. As the milk is loaded into their vehicles at either a farm or the creamery a sample is taken off through a sealed pump unit, bottled, labelled and returned by the driver to the laboratory at the processing plant at the end of his journey. The 47 3,300gal tank units make 2,400 calls a day—about 50 calls for each vehicle.

The vehicles are all fitted with two-way radio and should a driver suspect he has contaminated or substandard milk, he is instructed to contact his regional headquarters, give his location and await the arrival of a milk advisory officer, who carries out an analysis on the spot. One gallon of contaminated milk could affect a full tank load, so it is vital that the driver is skilled in this early warning system.

There are two methods of collection in operation at Avon more. The first and most favoured is direct from farm tanks into one of the 3,300gal tankers. The other is ex the creamery after the farmer has delivered his own consignment in cans.

When the first method is used the small tankers work :a a set route. Since milk produc tion does not fluctuate greatly in a season the transport de partment can programme when and where the collection tanks will be reaching their capacity.

They work into the system a roadside transfer from the small tanks to a "mother" tank. This super tank collects from two feeder tanks at the same spot and carries up to 5,000gal.

Six of these vehicles on AEC chassis run between the road side transfer points and the processing plant or one of the 21 creameries which are scat tered throughout the four regions. The ultimate in bulk handling, however, is direct from the farm to the processing plant, by-passing the creamery.

This shows an obvious saving in handling charges and in pro perty costs. And eventually this will be how the Avonmore processing plant is fed. Depending on the size of the farm, the milk will be stored either in bulk refrigerated tanks on the farm or in cans. In the refrigerated form milk can be collected over an extended period each day, up to about 16 hours, and of course, only needs to be collected on alternate days as is happening in some of the Avonmore areas at the moment. Milk which is already refrigerated can be put directly into storage at the processing plant without further cooling. Deterioration in quality is minimised and consequently less responsibility is placed on the driver's shoulders in this respect.

Roadside collection

Obviously, there is a high capital cost in installing refrigerated bulk tanks at farms. The smaller suppliers for whom such a method would be uneconomic either deliver their milk in cans or have it collected from the farm by one of the tankers drawing it from a water-cooled storage system. Normally, roadside collection from cans works out at between 10 and 20 cans per stop. One of the main problems with this method •of bulk collection is that since it is water cooled the milk must be picked up daily. This means that the milk from the previous pm and the collection day am milkings have to be collected and delivered to the creameries by Ipm or it will deteriorate. Cows do not recognise the laws of man, and traffic schedules and milking takes place as nature has decreed. Many of the smaller farms are able to I ease tanks from the creameries and this, of course, is an aid to smooth and rapid bulk collection.

For the moment a total of 28m gallons of milk is transported to creameries by farmers' own transport, but this is a method which hopefully will disappear in the not too distant future.

Milk intake is measured on a meter mounted on the small collection tankers. It passes through a sight glass and it is during this process that the driver takes off his sample. When the supply is exhausted the driver inserts a record card into the meter. This stamps the load number and the gallonage drawn off. The card runs for 16 days so that the farmer knows progressively how much milk he has supplied to the cooperative. Here again, it is the driver's responsibility to ensure that the record is accurate.

Avonmore also supplies its milk suppliers with record sheets which the farmer completes. It shows the yield of each cow at each milking, so that from the animal through to the creamery the gallonage is recorded. Once milk has been taken into the creamery the " mother" tanker takes it in 5,000gal consignments to the processing plant where it is drawn off into storage tanks.

Milk is also transported to the plant in 3,300 gallon tanks. These are fitted with "in built" wash.

Immediately the last pint leaves the tanker an automatic tank wash switches on and the tanks are cleaned instantly. The Avonmore tanks are the result of much co-operation between the operator and Blackwater Engineering Company, one of Ireland's principal tank manufacturers.

The 3,300gal tanker specification resulted from a visit to Germany by the operator and Blackwater. They are con structecl from 10 swg stainless steel and are mounted on Ford DT 2014, 154inch wheelbase chassis cabs. The two individual compartments in the tank are tested to 5 psi without support and are fitted with sprayball units.

The 5,500gal tanks are made of the same gauge steel, with three compartments. The outsides are mottle polished and the tanks are being tested again to 5 psi. They are mounted on Dyson unitised air suspension tandem axle running gear.

Both tanks comply with projected EEC-,type regulations. The suction unit has been fitted on the rigid vehicles between the tank and the cab. This Means that only a short pto is vequired and, according to Mr Martin Breen, the assistant group transport manager, •this has reduced maintenance costs.

As part of the Blackwater Engineering contract for constructing and supplying the tanks they are required to provide a maintenance and repair service, One of Blackwater's engineers is permanently based at the Avonmore vehicle repair workshops at Ballyragget processing plant. Tank and tankmounting repairs are carried out on the spot and down-time is minimal.

Dairy farming in Ireland is very much an exporting business. About half of the butter produced by Avonmore is exported, 80 per cent of its cheese production goes abroad, and mainly to under developed countries, all of the powdered milk.

The processed cheeses, the butter and powdered products are packed in either cartons or canisters and palletised for shipment in containers. Despite the fact that the Kilkenny operation is buried deep in rural Ireland, Mr Fleming keeps in close touch with his contemporaries in the UK and the rest of Europe, in both the EEC and EFTA countries. He aims to run a highly disciplined and efficient operation at the lowest possible cost.

Not far from Kilkenny in the village of Barris, County Carlow, Seamus Kelly is a farmer cum bulk bodybuilder cum operator. He is fitting Wilcox aluminium bulk bodies to semitrailers both for use by himself as an operator •and for other bulk operators in the county. He runs two ERF tractive units with Gardner 240 engines and Wilcox bodies on Crane Fruehauf running gear.

However, the Wilcox bodies are bulk carriers with a difference. They are the first I have come across which are capable of being TIR sealed. As such they are available to carry grain in the South or move across the border into Northern Ireland with whiskey or other bonded goods. They, can, of course, also be used for trips to the UK and Europe.

Versatile

Mr Kelly takes the view that because grain carrying is seasonal traffic, bulk bodies have to be versatile, and he reckons that his bulk transport varies right across the entire haulage spectrum. "To me, bulk means filling the body and there is all of 70 cubic yards,' he said. He argues that there is T1Cr room for specialisation in rural communities and that versatility of equipment is the only economic way of running a haulage business.

Like most bulk grain carriers in the Irish Republic Mr Kelly finds that much of the traffic originating in the Republic is being carried by vehicles from Northern Ireland or by operators from other parts of the British Isles looking for return loads. He says this is because standing charges such as tax, insurance and interest on capital investment are much higher in the Republic than they are elsewhere in Europe.

This was part of the reason for Mr Kelly choosing to import bodies and mount them himself. But he confesses that this do, it-yourself method has not reduced his costs sufficiently to compete on equal terms with "foreign" competitors.


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