Time Saved on Delivery Rounds
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THE high labour costs involved in local deliveries throughout Canada have led Smith's Electric Vehicles, Ltd., Gateshead-upon-Tyne, to develop battery-electric 1-ton and 30-cwt. vehicles specially for this market. In designing the N.C.B. Commutor, the company has been primarily cOncerncd with accessibility.
Sufficient head-room for a man to stand or move about in comfort has been achieved by keeping the floor as low as possible, bearing in mind the limits of the .special forward-control chassis. Full-width hinged rear doors, which can be secured to the sides of the body when open, together with either sliding or jack-knife cab doors, provide easy access to the interior, and the driving seat does not cause obstruction.
Instead of a partition between the cab and the body there is an adjustable rail which serves either to keep the goods in position or to provide a handhold for the vanman. A deep windscreen and wide side windows afford excellent visibility when driving in either the statiding or the sitting positions. For maintenance purposes there are large trap-doors in the floor of the body, and a detachable panel in the front, through which the control mechanism can be serviced quickly and easily by a mechanic.
Canadian laws being somewhat different from British, all food-delivery vehicles must be fully enclosed. Moreover, all Comrnutors exported to the Dominion are fitted with stronger bumpers set at a, standard height. Those employed on milk rounds are constructed with light-alloy corrugated floors and have insulated roofs. A vehicle of this type is to be exhibited at the Toronto National Fair from August 22-September 6.
The success of the design can best be judged by the claims of the operators, who say that they now have half an hour in hand on what was normally a four-hour round. As may be judged from the picture above, the van's appearance is functional yet pleasing.