Seven Ways to Cut Costs: Crush-loader Hopes S EVEN ways of
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reducing costs in passenger transport were suggested by Mr. Moore. these were:—
(1) to stagger working hours to reduce peaks.
(2) To reduce running times by linking services.
(3) To extend the use of large singledeckers.
(4) To simplify fare schedules to ensure that all fares were collected.
(5) To adopt a night-safe for paying in cash.
(6) To make full use of ticket-issuing machines.
To examine routine methods of administration and discard those no longer of service.
Before the war, West Bromwich Transport Department operated at an overall cost of 13d. per mile, including adequate provision for renewals, but the figure had now risen to 28d.
• Delay in granting applications for increased fares frequently caused losses to be built up which could not be offset by the resultant increase in revenue. "With reserves long since eaten away by successive deficits, the position is often desperate," said Mr. Moore.
(7)
Off-peak Services Cut
Economy was, therefore, essential. Many undertakings had reduced frequencies at off-peak hours, but at the most the savings produced were trifling. Real economy could be achieyed by flattening out the peaks, but these were bigger than ever. At West Bromwich. for instance, 27.5m. passengers were carried in 1940, whereas last year the figure was 5I.3m.
These conditions were fairly general and had caused fleets to be increased. To find work for buses at off-peak periods, even when the return was comparatively small, was often a matter of financial prudence, as only basic fuel costs need be covered. Moreover, offpeak services frequently provided a useful public facility at little extra cost. t he answer to the problem was a nation-wide campaign for the staggering of working hours in industry.
There was often a certain amount of slack in running schedule's that could be taken up, particularly by coupling services. Staff, however, had other ideas. Generous running time, which might have been necessary in the early stages of a service, was regarded by operatives as an unalterable right.
Staff had been difficult to obtain since the war, but recently the position had improved in the Midlands, because of a recession in other branches of industry.
Mr. Moore thought that the solution of the labour problem might lie in a national wages policy, with wages and conditions graded according to service B2 to the community. Sooner or later, the five-day week would have to come.
Mr. Moore believed that the crushload single-decker would reduce operating costs and carry a payload equal to that of a double-decker at peak periods. It was, he thought, preferable for passengers to stand in a moving vehicle rather than in a queue.
Conditions under which one-manoperated vehicles were run would have to be carefully chosen, and in Britain the fare range alone would normally prevent, their general use. To introduce flat fares in this country would usually require the charges to be so high as seriously to discourage shortdistance passengers.
One-man Buses Needed
Nevertheless, at West Bromwich, a flat fare of 2id. would be adequate, assuming that there was no decline in the number of passengers carried. It might be that a flat fare could be charged on suitable services and the zoning method used on others. There were both scope and need for the oneman-operated vehicle on urban services.
Simplified fare schedules might increase the certainty of collecting all fares. There was no excuse for Id. stages, return tickets and workmen's cheap fares.
The night-safe system of paying in cash produced effective economies. The work of checking the money could be spread out evenly the following day and fewer clerks were necessary. While the conductor was counting his cash and paying it over the counter to a clerk, he was drawing wages. If the nightsafe system was adopted, suitable duty adjustments might be possible, in some cases, to ensure that the total time allowance was not reduced to the employee's detriment. The effect would be to lower slightly the number of staff required.
The general use of ticket-issuing machines had gone far towards achieving complete fare collection, but much more could be done by simplifying schedules. The machines had had to be designed to deal with complicated systems. "How much better if the fare lists could have been redrafted to fit a standard machine of proved efficiency," Mr. Moore commented.
Administration costs, particularly in the ticket office, had been reduced greatly by the introduction of machines. The conductor also benefited, especially, as there was no question of his having to pay for lost tickets. He also had more time to supervise loading.
As evidence of the effectiveness of economy measures, Mr. Moore said that West Bromwich vas, among municipal undertakings, the last-but-one to depart from pre-war fares. Even then, application was made for new charges to produce only £60,000 a year, although working expenses alone had increased by £150,000 a year since the end of the war.
Greater economies could be effected by overhauling administrative methods. Too often, there was a tendency to compile detailed analyses of revenue, week by week, without regard to the value of the result.
There was disagreement between members on the desirability of staggering hours. Mr. Parker thought that too much emphasis had been laid on the subject and that it was for the operator to provide the service.
Keep Out Five-day Week
Mr. Harrison hoped that the five-day week would not come to the transport industry.
At Exeter, the regular working week had been increased to 48 or 50 hours, with the result that men earned more and fewer staff were required.. The cost of uniforms, superannuation and sick pay was also reduced. He thought that municipal operators ha I been too prone to pass increases in fuel tax to the public.
Mr. Miller referred to a lack of enterprise on the part of some local authorities. It had, he said, taken four years to persuade Portsmouth Corporation to run open-top double-deckers on the seafront. Cardiff's system of flat fares had been foredoomed. Southampton's crush-loaders were not, he thought, being acclaimed by the public.