SATISFACTION FROM A SENTINEL STEAMER.
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The Experience of a London Borough. Municipal Costs for Mechanical and Team Haulage Compared.
MR. F. J. SLATER, the borough engineer of Camberwell, has prepared a report on the work done by the 31-ten Sentinel steam wagon recently purchased, as compared with the present team labour employed in the borough.
Details of the running costs from January 3rd to March 31st, 1922. are as follow :—
Total working days, 63 Total mileage, 856.6£ s. d.
Fuel ... 28 1 9 Lubricants, oils, utensils and sundries ... ... 10 12 2 Insurance at £31 16s. 3d. per annum, and licence, equals per quarter 7 19 1 Repair and fittings ... 11 4 4 Wages . 104 9 10 Depreciation per annum, say, 10 per cent. (viz.,
10 years' life) of £1,200, equaLs per quarter... 3000
Tyres-857 miles at 10. per mile ... 5 7 1
He has gone carefully into the matter of each load carried by the Sentinel wagon, and estimates that if the work had been done by horse and cart the cost would have been £631 11a. 8d., showing a saving of £239 14s. 5d. as h result of employing the Sentinel wagon during the three months in question. He points out that during this period he had opportunities of using the Sentinel of an exceptionally favourable character—the work of hauling materials from the canal wharves to the roads on the housing estates, and it should be borne in mind that similar favourable circumstances are not likely to exist the whole year round.
It has been found that the Sentinel wagon, with the use of This works out at the rate of 5.7 pence per ton-mile.
Comparing the same class of work with team labour,and assuming that each-cart averages 4 tons per day, and travels a distance of 10 mites, at a cost of £1 9s. 91d., which is the present -rate, then to do the same work as the Sentinel 61 horses and carts are required, which is equivalent to a cost of £9 13s. Tid.
. This works out at the rate of 8.7 pence per ton-mile. The saving effected per day by the use of the Sentinel, as compared with the present team labour, is as follows:—
Taking, say, 250 working days in the year, then the net annual saving on each Sentinel steam wagon over team labour would amount to £865 12s. 6d.
Experiments were carried out with the collection of dust, but owing to the spasmodic .manner in which these experiments were conducted, the result obtained cannot yet be taken SS reliable. He is afraid that the use of mechanical traction on this service will only afford a satisfactory result when they are able to have two vehicles working in conjunction.