W HAT would be the practical effect on operating schedules of
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a 30 m.p.h. speed limit for heavy goods vehicles? To discover the answer to this urgent problem, The Commercial Motor has just conducted seven tests extending over 1,178 miles.
The object was not to establish how many miles could be packed into a legal working day, but to find out• what a conscientious, safe driver could reasonably be expected to do. The motive was inquiry, and not the proving of a case for a 30 m.p.h. limit for heavy vehicles. In fact, she evidence does show conclusively that such a limit would make no excessive demands on drivers and would not prejudice public safety.
The results which 1 have recorded could well serve as a basis of agreement between employers and employees on the question of schedules.
An A.E.C. Mercury articulated 12-tonner with an Eagle drop-sided semi-trailer was chosen for the purpose and was laden to 18 tons 6 cwt. gross. Carefully timed runs were made from London to Liverpool, Liverpool to Newcastle upon Tyne. Newcastle upon Tyne to Manchester, Manchester to London, London to Birmingham, Birmingham to Swansea, and Swansea to London.
22.2 m.p.h. Averaged on Ice
Despite snow and ice, it was possible, never exceeding 30 m.p.h., to average 22.2 m.p.h. running time and 19.35 m.p.h. including all stops, on the seventypical trunk journeys.
The vehicle was driven by an experienced trunk driver and statutory rest periods were observed. In addition, short tea breaks were made during the morning and afternoon. It was intended to limit these to 10 minutes' duration, but the time taken to get in and out of cafe parks, and delays in service, usually extended them to 15 or 20 minutes. Nevertheless, even the longest journeys were completed well within a total of I 1 hours. Whether an increase in the speed will materially benefit all operators of heavy vehicles is a question which is by no means cut and dried. Even if a higher average speed is achieved, there are many problems connected with loading and unloading times and conditions that can, in certain cases, nullify the advantages of a shorter journey time. This applies particularly if drivers' wages are increased and much waiting time is involved as a result of completing a journey in a shorter time.
Examples can be quoted to show the effect of a higher average speed on various hypothetical services, but greater benefit can be gained from my tests if the results are applied to existing services by operators who
T. littlnrin8ram
know the precise condiStone Lions to be encountered. To enable this easily to be done, maps_ of the routes are given and progress hour by hour is indicated on them. Rest periods and fuelling stops are also marked. In the tabulation on page 170, a summary of the results is presented in such a way as to show how any journey compares with the overall average for the tour.
On pages 168-170 1 give brief reports of the conditions prevailing when the tests were conducted. From these it is possible to see that the tests were not carried out under freak conditions and that a fair number of obstacles was met, such as diversions, traffic delays, bad weather and so on. All these contingencies were allowed to influence the results, as they were typical of what every driver is likely to encounter during a long journey of this type.
On the basis of an average of 22 m.p.h., which is the figure that most operators would adopt on the strength of my tests, the maximum mileage that could be covered in an 11-hour working day would be 242. Some allowance must, however, be made for stops during the two 51-hour periods and I think 15 minutes each is the minimum that should be granted. This reduces the maximum daily figure to 231 and from this total, 11 miles must be subtracted for every further half-hour that the vehicle is not moving. This allowance includes loading and unloading times, fuel stops and all other predictable stops.
Another point that is well brought out by the tests is the complete safety of a well-designed heavy articulated outfit, even under bad road conditions, at 30 m.p.h. Liberties cannot be taken, of course, and it would be unwise to infer that such a vehicle can be driven over treacherous roads with careless abandon, It must be treated with respect, but in capable hands it is safe. The wider use of anti-jack-knife devices may greatly increase safety.
Coupled with a30 m.p.h. limit, the extreme manceuvrability and lower running costs of " artics." should B13
assure a promising future for them. My tests show that a 12-ton load can be carried between suitably disposed points in London and Birmingham during a 51-hour driving period. Within 15 minutes at the most, the driver can drop one semitrailer, couple up to another and be back in London in a day. As a conclusion to the seven test runs, the A.E.C. Mercury tractor and Eagle semi-trailer were subjected to the new road-test procedure adopted by The Commercial Motor and the report will appear shortly.
Before I embarked on the tour it was . suggested that my efforts to maintain 30 m.p.h. would be foiled by other vehicles travelling at a maximum speed of 20 m.p.h. This was far from the case. Usually the test vehicle, running at 30 m.p.h., impeded the progress of vehicles legally limited to 20 m.p.h.
Once the vehicle had left the main trunk roads, steep hills were encountered, smelt as when crossing the Pennines, road conditions automatically limited our speed and the maximum of 30 m.p.h. was rarely reached. Average speeds on these sections were consequently well below the figure of 212 m.p.h., but as all the runs included long stretches over good flat roads, the loss was recovered in the day's work.
It soon became apparent that an increase in the speed limit to 30 m.p.h. would not necessarily yield a higher average speed on every route, but trunk working over good arterial roads would, in some cases, produce a higher figure than 22.2 m.p.h.
Bargaining Point
This is an important point to consider in any bargain that might be struck by the employers with the trade unions for an increase in pay to reward the theoretically greater effort that the 30 m.p.h. limit would entail. Arguments for longer rest periods would probably be voiced and might reasonably be conceded. The 5f-hour spell might fairly be broken up with a rest period of, say, 15 minutes. I adopted that procedure and the driver, Mr. F. Thurlby, an employee of A.E.C., Ltd., was not unduly fatigued after driving for r, 10f hours and 203 miles. bb r min During the runs I took mileages at hourly periods, noted all stops, traffic conditions and
the state of the roads and weather, and timed -, all normal traffic and traffic-light stops. These times are given in the table on page 170. • i Brief descriptions of the journeys appear in the
paragraphs.
London to Liverpool
A FTER leaving the works of A.E.C., Ltd., Southall, at r-k 8,45 a.m, we headed for the AS road. Our route through Harrow and along the Watford by-pass is the choice of many drivers who serve the industrial area west of London.
An hour after leaving Southall, we had passed through St. Albans and a few minutes later we stopped for our first rest period. This was taken earlier than originally intended, to enable the photographer to catch us up. At Markyate we joined a long stream of traffic that was wending its way through the vehicles parked at the side of the narrow road. Our speed dropped to a crawl for a while, but once clear of the village we gained speed and continued uneventfully to a point beyond Toweester. Road reconstructions delayed us here for about three minutes. We did not stop again until Lichfield, where, after 118 miles of driving, we took 45 minutes for luncheon.
It was 3.30 p.m. when we reached Newcastle under Lyme. The traffic stream kept moving on this occasion, but Newcastle is a potential bottleneck. Between Newcastle and Holmes Chapel, where we had a 20-minute stop for tea, snow had packed hard on the road and a maximum speed of 20-25 m.p.h. was necessary.
Through Knutsford and Warrington, the road was clear our only Other delay was at Warrington Bridge. where traffic coming in from Chester caused some congestion. e Street Station. Liverpool, was passed at 7 p.m., 10-i rs after leaving London, with 203 miles added to the cle's mileometer reading.
• erpool to Newcastle upon Tyne
kTHER than take the lower road through Manchester, which we would be using on our return journey, or the hem n road across the Pennines from Preston, which_ it have been snowbound, we chose the A58. This road es through Bolton, Bury, Rochdale and Halifax, and Ives some stiff pulls over the between Lancashire and ir speed seldom rose above n.p.h. on this part of the In between winding our through the towns, we were 1. climbing hills in an .ect gear or rolling carefully ice-covered slopes. Our age speed was only just over 15 m.p.h. between Bolton Halifax, and this was by far the lowest during the le tour.
is on a stretch like this that allowance would have to lade if the general figure of 22 m.p.h. was adopted for dating journey times.
; soon as we had‘passed through Leeds, where we had half-hour break. a much better speed was maintained. joined the Great North Road at Wetherby and, apart a short stop for tea, and a slight traffic delay in ington, we were able to proceed at a steady 30 m.p.h. most of the road to Newcastle upon Tyne. We crossed Tyne at 6.40 p.m., 9f hours after leaving Liverpool, ag stopped for a total of 70 minutes on the way. Our ige running speed during the day was 19.75 m.p.h.
Newcastle to Manchester
ALTHOUGH it was snowing when we left Newcastle upon Tyne and our prospects for the journey to Manchester looked grim, this trip proved to be the most uneventful of the tour. Newcastle's morning traffic was easily negotiated and in Gateshead three laden Tank transporters were overtaktn without much bother. The Al road was free from traffic and 30 m.p.h. was maintained over long stretches.
Having left the Al at Bramham cross-roads, we stopped for luncheon on the outskirts of Leeds. A temporary traffic diversion was in operation in Leeds and another in Huddersfield. I am pleased that these diversions were included in our run, because they are the kind of contingency that every driver is likely to meet from time to time.
Icy roads and two heavily loaded eight-wheelers appeared to slow our progress outside Oldham, although I doubt whether we should have made much better time over the hilly, winding road if we had had it to oorselves. Furthermore, it was intended that our tests should be practical and realistic, and instances of this nature show that the results were nat obtained under freak conditions,
Manchester to London
A LATE start (9.20 a.m.) appeared to help, as there was little traffic in Manchester and 22 miles were covered in the first hour. Snow was falling by this time and the roads were slippery. At Holmes Chapel, we joined the end of a line of traffic, with the result that the next 22 miles took 1 hour 20 minutes to cover. At 11.50 a.m. we pulled out of the line, which by that time was merely crawling, and stopped for 10 minutes for a cup of tea. On leaving the cafe we found the vehicle hemmed in by other lorries and a further 10 minutes was spent in arranging for one of them to be moved.
Once away, Mr. Thurlby kept the speedometer needle well up to the 30 m.p.h. mark and we soon passed through
Stone and Lichfield. Outside Lichfield we stopped to refuel and instead of taking the A5 road, as on our outward journey, we headed for Stonebridge and the Coventry by-pass.
Running time over this road was much the same as on the A.5. but I preferred this route, as the road was wider and in many parts has a dual carriagaway. From Weedon. where we rejoined the A5 road to Southall, the run was so uneventful that the only notes I made related to our stop for tea near Dunstable and our arrival at St. Albans at 6.30 p.m.
As on our outward run, the distance of 22 miles from St. Albans to Southall was covered in a little under an hour. This is quite a good speed as the first 10 miles from the works at Southall are through busy suburbs.
London to Birmingham
AFTER a week-end of snow and reports of impassable roads, we were faced with the decision whether or not to continue with our programme. We were anxious to complete the tour', but it was never intended to be a miniature "Monte-Carlo."
We agreed to proceed with caution as far as was possible while-maintaining a reasonable speed in safety. When we arrived on the Western Avenue at Northolt, it was covered with packed snow, but there was very little traffic. At Red Hill, on the Oxford road just beyond Uxbridge, the chances of completing the run looked thin. Fortunately, we climbed the ice-covered hill without difficulty and were then confronted with the choice of two routes, the BicesterBanbury road or the A40 to Oxford and thence to Banbury and Warwick.
The former was chosen at the last minute, as most of the other traffic was taking the Oxford road. For the next 50 miles we were travelling over roads covered with ice and snow, but again there was little traffic to hinder us.
Our first stop was at Waddesdon after exactly two hours' driving, during which time we had covered 43 miles, Shortly after our 25-minute rest we were riding on clear roads and our journey was completed without further complications.
We reached Birmingham at 1.35 p.m. and at Acocks Green we filled the fuel tank before continuing into the city. The Bull Ring was passed at 2 p.m., after less than 54 hours on the road. A 25-minute rest and 10 minutes for refuelling had eaten into this time and half the journey was covered with extreme care over treacherous roads.
Birmingham to Swansea
ALORRY which had overturned on the ice near Bromsgrove on the A38 road indicated that great care was again required. It was, nevertheless, possible to keep the speed up to 30 m.p.h, over some clear sections. and the 25 miles to Worcester were covered in 68 minutes.
Our only traffic delay occurred in Bromsgrove, where delivery vehicles conflicted with buses and " through " traffic. Our one and only route error on the tour put us on the wrong road at Worcester. We found ourselves heading towards Tewkesbury when we should have joined the road to Monmouth.
We stopped for tea and then continued on an altemalive road via Upton-on-Severn and the Malvern Hills. This joined the main Worcester-Monmouth road at Ledbury. but before we reached Ledbury we had another set-back. At the foot of the Malvern Hills, Mr. Thurlby noticed that the
water temperature had risen to 200° F. With a severe climb before us this was disturbing, so we stopped to investigate.
As with all the hills on the tour, the A.E.C. tackled this one manfully, and we were soon over the top and descending into Ledbury. Monmouth was reached an hour later and, after a further 15 minutes' driving, we stopped for luncheon at 1.35 p.m.
Usk, Newport and Cardiff were all passed within the first hour after luncheon, and a good speed was held along the arterial road (A48) to Port Talbot. Here the road narrowed and the traffic increased.
The last 14 miles to Swansea, via Neath, took 45 minutes and we arrived at our destination at 5.45 p.m. Again we had averaged slightly more than 22 m.p.h. during the day. The fast runs along the trunk road between Newport
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and Swansea had more than made good the low average between Worcester and Monmouth. Despite the temptation to speed on the open road, we still limited ourselves to a rigid 30 m.p.h. maximum.
Swansea to London
'THE run along the Swansea-Newport road was, as on the I outward journey, covered at a gopd pace and Newport was reached at noon. After a short delay at the traffic lights by the bridge over the Usk, the river was crossed.
Over the first seven miles out of Newport, an average speed of 28 m.p.h. was maintained, but our hope of keeping this up was soon frustrated. An elderly and ill-kept lorry, almost obscured by a pall of black smoke, was leading a line of four heavily loaded vehicles over a hilly stretch of road. The Mercury overtook them one by one, and we passed the offender after some two miles had been spent in its smoke-haze. An hour after leaving Chepstow Bridge, we joined the A40 road just outside Gloucester and before turning on to the Gloucester by-pass we stopped for luncheon.
Five hours' driving had put us 105 miles from Swansea, and we were left with 98 miles to cover in the afternoon. Snow was falling when we left Gloucester and it continued until we reached Witney, by which time the roads were getting slippery. There was little traffic on the road, so that we were able to maintain a fair average speed and the Oxford by-pass was entered at 4.30 p.m.
We continued for another hour before stopping for tea, by which time the snow had ceased. High Wycombe was remarkably fre,:. from traffic, but we were held up at two sets of traffic lights. We reached the Southall works at 6.30 p.m., when the day's mileage was seen to be 203—the same as to Liverpool. Running time was 30 minutes shorter, so that our average speed on this journey was slightly higher than on the run to Liverpool. The small difference indicates that our tests give an accurate average that can be applied to most major trunk roads in this country.
The results of these runs can be applied to rigid and articulated vehicles, as the increased average speed would be achieved in both cases. An important point to remember, however, is that time wasted at terminals will represent a greater loss, because running time will be more valuable. To speed up turn-round as much as possible, " artics " can be used to great advantage, and a higher legal running speed would enhance their popularity considerably.
A good example of this is the London-Birmingham run, on which a driver could do a double journey in an 111-hour day provided that a speedy turn-round, such as can be achieved with an " artic." was possible. With a higher limit, vehicles, would not be driven faster than at present, but more economical use could be made of working time.