PROBLEMS OF THE HAULIER AND CARRIER.
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How Best to Carry 100 Tons 100 Miles.
rpHE sub-title of this article needs to be elaborated _L a little. What we are about to discuss is how to transport 100 tons of material a week for a distance of 100 miles, that being a typical example of the sort of problem which often crops up in connection with haulage contracting. Of course it is rarely that it appears in so simple a form as that. Putting it broadly, the problem generally resolves itself into deciding which is the best type of vehicle to employ on a given contract, taking into consideration the amount of material to be moved and the distance through which it has to be transported. Of that problem the foregoing is a fair exe
The haulier is asked to quote a price for moving 100 tons a week, say, from Liverpool to Birmingham. The contract is a long one, long enough to justify him in obtaining vehicles specially for it, and the question before him is what is the best size and type of machine to do this job, so that he shall be able to obtain a maximum profit and yet quote a fair competitive price. We have to try, in this article, or perhaps this and others, to answer that question for him.
We are, at any rate, fortunate in that we have the problem before us in its broadest possible shape : there are no limitations of load, and the collection and delivery is presumed to be fairly straightforward. We 'understand that it is simply raw material to be collected at Liverpool and delivered at Birmingham. The load, therefore, may be of any dimensions, being determined In that respect solely by the capacities of the vehicles which it is decided to employ. The actual distance from Liverpool to Birmingham by road is 95 miles. If we allow a mile or two extra for detours and for putting the vehicle up at one end or the other, we can take a round figure of 100 miles as being convenient for our calculations ; at least, it is not sufficiently inaccurate to affect the principle which we are trying to establish.
Carrying the Load in Big Units.
At first sight it seems as though the solution of the problem will lie in the direction of utilizing big-loadcarrying units in collecting as much material as possible at once, thus eliminating a certain proportion of overhead charges. The best scheme would seem to be to make use of a 12-ton lorry—a six-wheeler, of course, either articulated or rigid—pulling an 8-ton trailer, so that 20 tons of the material are moved at a time. With a machine of this capacity, five loads a week will suffice to move the whole of the 100 tons named in the contract, and the first thing we want to know is how many
such vehicles will be necessary for the job. To arrive at the answer to this question we must know how many loads each machine can carry a week. Given adequate loading and unloading facilities, it should be possible for each to do the double journey twice every week— that is, allowing 20 hours for travelling and four Tor loading and unloading. Now this, it will be observed, assures an average speed of 10 miles an hour. Legally, of course, this is out of the question, since the maximum according to the law is 5 miles an hour. Fortunately, that limit is rarely enforced and, as a matter of fact, there should be no difficulty in keeping up the average of 10 miles an hour, which is usually possible. The roads throughout are good, apart from such times as bring the extreme conditions that have prevailed recently, and the vehicles also, presumably, will be of good make and quite capable of maintaining such an average without difficulty, notwithstanding the ditnensions of the load.
The Incidence of Loading and Unloading.
The weak point about this scheme, if we consider the matter only, as I might put it, mathematically, is that but four hours are allowed for loading and unloading, and that, unless special facilities are available, is not sufficient time to deal with 20 tons. As a matter of fact, these problems in actual practice never work out according to strict mathematical fontiuke. As we have set it down, provision is made for a six-day week of eight hours each day, and it would appear that it would be necessary for the driver to be present while the loading and unloading is going on. Actually, it is not likely, that that will be at all necessary. It is more than probable that the vehicles will be loaded and unloaded in his absence, while he is asleep or having his meal. Experienced readers will agree with me that, in all probability, a driver who is working on a job like this will do quite a lot of his running in the evening and early morning. It may be taken that his week's work will pan out on something like the following lines:—
He will pick up the loaded lorry and trailer during the Monday afternoon and set out on his journey, getting as far as he thinks convenient that night and putting up at any of the small wayside hostelries well known to him and his fellow-drivers. He will set out again early on the Tuesday morning and arrive at Birmingham in the middle of the day. Suppose, for example, he leaves Liverpool at 3 o'clock. By nine, when he will probably have had enough, he will have done 60 miles or so, and will have arrived somewhere to the north
west of Stafford. There he will stop and be up again at six the next morning ready to start at seven, so that it will be quite possible for him to get to Birmingham by 11 o'clock, or perhaps a little later. Then he will leave the lorry to be unloaded and call back for it at 4, 5, or 6 o'clock, according to circumstances, the time being governed more probably than not by his intentions as regards his sleeping place for the night. It is quite likely, for example, that he will endeavour to get away at such a time that will allow him conveniently to put up again at the place at which he slept the night before. On Wednesday morning he will leave betimes and get to Liverpool again in the afternoon, giving the people at that end ample time to load so that he can get away again next morning with his second load and so on. There is no need for me to enter into any greater detail. I have, I think, shown that it is quite possible to do two journeys a week, more being out of the question.
Steamers Best for Trailer Work.
Now as to the type of vehicle to be employed. I am only going to consider the steamer, as I think it is always the best for trailer work. The cost of one outfit of the capacity I have indicated will be 11,500, including trailers and all accessories. It is clear that, since one outfit can only move 40 tons a week, three will be necessary for the contract, so that the initial outlay will be somewhere in the region of 14,500. Actually, this necessity for three is one of the disadvantages of this particular scheme, since one of them will only be able to find work for half its time in connection with this contract. There will only be one load a week for it, whilst each of the other two is doing two journeys. Of course, that arrangement has its advantages in that the third one can stand by and its availability will render tho chance of failure to fulfil the contract almost negligible, since there will always be a spare lorry available to do at least one journey a week. At the same time, that is rather an expensive way of ensuring against failure to fulfil a contract.
The Costs of Operating Each Steamer and Trailer.
Now to work out the costs of operation. A set of tyres will cost £160 on the lorry and £56 on the trailer, 1216 in all. The fuel will be consumed approximately at the rate of a hundredweight per 8 miles, so that 24 cwt. will be required for the whole double journey, plus sufficient to get steam up three times, say, 25 cwt in all, which at 45s. a ton is 56s. 3d. Oil and grease will cost 5s. per return journey and tyres £2 10s. Maintenance, by which I mean the proper proportion of the amount which will eventually have to be spent to keep the vehicle on the road, will amount to 11 the double journey, and depreciation to 32s. The total of these is £8 3s. 3d.
The weekly standing charges reckoned up per week will work out as follow :--Wages, 76s. for the driver and 65s. for his mate, £7 is. Maintenance allowance while they are away from home, four nights a week, £3. Licences, £60 for the vehicle and 16 for the trailer, total £66 per annum, spread over 50 weeks, £1 6s. 6d. Insurance will be 15s. a week, interest on first cost 29s., and rent and rates it Total, £14 11s. 64. a week. Add to that 116 Os. 66. for the running costs for two complete Journeys a week and we arrive at a total of £30 18s.
There will be two vehicles at that rate, and a third one doing only one journey a week. If, for the time being, I assume that there is no other work upon which that third vehicle can conveniently be employed, then we shall have to reckon in the wheIe of the standing charges, which will, however, be less than those set out above to the extent of 30s., because the driver and his mate are only away from home two nights a week instead of four, so that the standing charges will be £13 is. The running cost for the one double journey will be ES 3s. 3d., making a total of £21 4s. 9d. for that particular vehicle, and the total cost of moving the 100 tons per week is £93 Os. 9d. This matter will be discussed further next week. S.T.R.