Motorists Who Prefer Coach Tours
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By P. A. C. Brockington, A.M.I.Mech.E.
Coach Operator Combines Skilled Servicing of His Customers' Cars with Extended-tour Facilities : Tour Films Maintain Interest During Winter Months
CAR-REPAIR facilities provided by a Midland coach operator
encourage many business motorists to enjoy a carefree coaching holiday while their cars are being overhauled. The company concernedare Stockland Garage, Ltd., Marsh Hill, Birmingham, whose four directors are two brothers and their sons. This solidarity of family interest is reflected in the concern's policy when drivers apply for permanent employment.
About half of the 32 coach drivers engaged on private-hire work and seasonal tours and excursions are employed throughout the year, and a qualification for the job which is normally insisted upon is that they have an established home in the Birmingham area.
The directors consider that the good driver merits a professional status. Out of season, the permanent Stockland driver divides his duties -between privatehire runs for schoolchildren, theatregoers, industrial workers and so on, and jobs as a booking clerk, garage assistant or any other that it is expedient he should undertake. In his spare time he may take lessons in French as an aid to organizational ability when he is a courier-driver on foreign tours. •
The senior directors, Mr. I. V. McLaughlin and Mr. J. H. McLaughlin started the business in 1929 with a Bean 16-seater, which was purchased on hirepurchase terms, and they fully appreciate the value of team work in coping with expediency. Their father, Mr. J. McLaughlin, provides an outstanding example of sustained endeavour by rising at 4 a.m. and taking a very active part as a driver on the hire cars run by the concern. He is 75.
A motorist who goes on an extended tour may leave his car on the garage premises with the knowledge that it will he ready on his return with a fully charged battery and tyres inflated to e18 correct pressures. Many owners take advantage of the repair and servicing. facilities offered to have their cars overhauled or repainted in their absence.
These facilities often tip the balance in favour of a coach tour in preference to a holiday by car. An increasing number of motorists now acknowledges the financial and social advantages of a carefree coaching holiday, which provides a comfortable and ordered itinerary without responsibility.
The garage has recently been enlarged to provide accommodation for 25 cars in addition to the coaches, and the new buildings include booking halls and pro vide toilet amenities. Doors at both ends of the garage enable manoeuvring time to be reduced to a minimum.
The Stockland fleet is run in conjunction with the vehicles of an associated. concern—Burnley's Garages Ltd.—the combined fleet comprising 18 oil-engined coaches and five petrol-engined vehicles. Oil-engined chassis have been employed since 1947 when the first Daimler CVD6 chassis with the Daimler 8.6-litre engine was purchased and fitted with a Burlingham 33-seat body. Out of the original six Daimlers in the • fleet, four are still in service, one coach • having covered 120,000 miles. The staff speaks highly both of the engine and the transmission, no major trouble having been experienced with any of the units. The fluid coupling and Wilson gearbox are now very popular with the drivers, who at first considered the use of an easy-change gear system was prejudicial to their reputation as skilled operators. All new drivers are trained on the Daimlers.
Of the latest additions, three are Leyland Royal Tiger chassis with 37set Burlingham bodies, two Royal Tigers with Yeates 41-seat bodies, and two chassis of the same make with Duple Ambassador and Harrington bodies, both having 41 seats. The remaining Leyland is a Comet with an Eaton two-speed axle. This has a Burlingham 33-seat body and is by far the most economical to operate of all the oil-engined vehicles in the fleet.
The latest Burlingham body to be fitted to a Royal Tiger chassis has a Weathershields two-piece lift-up roof of amber-coloured Perspex, each section of which is hinged at the front. In the
open position, the gap at the rear is 7 in.. and this creates an air-extractor action which is found very beneficial in hot weather. Many of the sliding roofs of existing bodies have been similarly converted.
Other oilers in the fleet include two Maudslays powered by A.E.C. 7.7-litre units, with Burlingham 33-seat bodies, and another Maudslay with a Santus body. Two Guy Arabs with Santus 33seat bodies were purchased to operate weekly services in Devon and the West Country, the 10.6-litre Meadows engines providing ample power for the steepest gradients. As an experiment, one of these units has been replaced by a Gardner 5LW engine, which is economical and reliable, but does not provide sufficient power to satisfy the drivers.
All the petrol-engined coaches are of Bedford manufacture, four being Vega 33-seaters and the fifth an O.B. chassis with a Plaxton's body. • These vehicles provide a high standard of comfort and have an important advantage over the oil-engined coaches in that the tyre costs are comparatively small. Full running.
cost comparisons cannot yet be made, but it is possible that the saving on tyres associated with the use of the petrolengincd coaches will partly, if not wholly, offset the fuel-consumption advantage of the oilers.
Although Elle consumption of the Vegas is at the rate of about 10 m.p.g. compared with 13-14 m.p.g. yielded by the oilers, the tyres cost £40 a set less and have an average life of 40,000 miles compared with 24,000 miles obtained from the covers of the larger vehicles.
Careful attention is paid to tyre main tenance, the covers being examined by the driver and later by a mechanic after every trip. Acting on the advice of the Dunlop inspector, the tyres on twinned rear wheels are matched and their pressures balanced. According to the inspector, the width and camber characteristics of the majority of roads are such that the difference in loading is negligible.
Increasing the relative pressure of the outside tyres causes the inner tyres to develop heel-and-toe wear. Suitable covers are remoulded. . The Michelin metallic covers are outstanding in this respect as they can generally be processed three times.
None of the oil-engined coaches has run a sufficient mileage for the power unit to require a major overhaul. New standard piston rings are fitted after 30,000 miles, and at 80,000 miles the pistons are regrooved to take a set of Wellworthy rings. Fully detergent lubricating oil is employed and changes are normally made at 4,000-mile intervals, the distance being sometimes increased by necessity at the height of the season up to 7,000 miles. Oiling and greasing are performed after 1,000-2,000 miles running, or every 14 days.
Garage equipment includes a Weaver stealn jenny for cleaning the chassis before overhauls and inspections, a Laycock four-gun high-pressure washer, Tecalemit and Uni-Gun pressure greasers, Black and Decker valve refacer, a lathe, power-driven saw, recellulosing equipment and gas and electric welding sets. A Tecalemit greasing plant is provided for car servicing, and the latest-type of Crypton one hour battery charger is used for both coach and ear batteries.
Tyres are dealt with by the use of a Harvey-Frost tyre remover. A comprehensive range of fast-moving spares is kept in the stores, and the agency run by the garage enables any repairs to the cars of coach-touring owners to be expedited.
Co-ordinating private-hire work with tours and excursions during the summer season in such a way that vehicle standing-time is reduced to a minimum is considered essential to economic running. The daily tours run by Stockland Garage, Ltd., are mainly to seaside resorts, and many of the private-hire bookings are made by groups of people who meet on the tours and decide to arrange an outing on a friendly party basis to one of the resorts normally visited. Because of this, it is possible to organize most of the private-hire trips within the framework of the existing tours programme.
The permitted radius of the daily tours is 130 miles, and it is usual for one driver to drive the coach throughout the journey with a 24-hour rest period on the day before and the day following, with eight hours off duty at the destination. Picking-up points are spread over an area within a radius of about six miles of the garage, which greatly assists in obtaining full payloads
The extended tours in Britain include a seven-day tour of -Devon and the Cornish Riviera, and foreign tours of 14 days' duration cover Belgium, France, Austria, Switzerland and Northern Italy. The currency regulations have in the past restricted the scope of the itineraries, but the increased allowance of £40 granted earlier this year has eased the situation and is considered ample for the most comprehensive tour required by holidaymakers.
A measure of the popularity of foreign travel is found in the increase in the number of passengers carried on these tours since 1947, when the total was 56. In 1952 the number had risen to 2,075.
The latest vehicles to be added to the fleet are sent on the foreign tours and are driven by two courier-drivers, who must have a thorough knowledge of the countryside and its historical features. The directors often take on the job to gain personal experience of touring conditions and of the hotels and so on, so that they may fully appreciate the drivers' difficulties and be in a position to suggest ways and means for coping with tricky problems. Good deportment and an equable temperament are
essential qualifications of the courierdriver.
Throughout the winter season, cinema shows of the tours in colour are given six or seven times a week with the concern's projector at schools, institutes and clubs. These have done much to interest potential passengers in the attractions of coach travel. Cartoons, short comedies and features of industrial interest are included in the programmes, which are becoming increasingly popular. A boardroom on the garage premises is nearing completion, and this will be used on special occasions for giving picture shows.