The Working of A BREWERY FLEET
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An Impression of the Delivery Work of a Busy Yorkshire Brewery Bringing into Light the Particular Requirements of this Class of AFLEET of motor vehicles of outstanding interest is owned by T. Bounden and Sou, Ltd., of Stone Trough Brewery, Halifax, a private company which has a long connection with brewing in the district. Working over a wide area of the West Riding of Yorkshire and East Lancashire, this company's lorries are noticeable for their smart and well-kept appearance. Not only is this factor insisted upon, but the fleet of eight Leylands is expected to perform in a highly efficient manner and to carry out arduous duties in a very hilly district.
The town of Halifax is one of the most diffieult in the country from the point of view of transport, and the Ramsdell concern's vehicles do not simply keep to the main roads, which follow the easier gradients, but have to take in many by-roads in order to carry out deliveries at the hundreds of inns, hotels, shops and clubs which are either owned by the brewery or on its list of customers.
This brewery concern owns 300 licensed properties and, amongst other developments, has recently taken over the Armley Brewery, Ltd., of Leeds. The main delivery area extends between Leeds and Rochdale from east to west, and from Keighley to Wakefield north and south, but regular deliveries are .sentto Stockton, Thornaby-on-Tees, Middlesbrough and Blackpool, as well as to Seatand, near Chester. In many instances the deliveries are made weekly, but some of the customers are supplied fortnightly. Almost invariably, with the exception of the long 1342
journeys just mentioned, the lorries make two sets of deliveries per day.
Delivery in any part of this thickly populated area immediately surrounding Halifax is mode possible in this way. For deliveries within a short distance of the brewery a stable of about a dozen horses is kept, as horse haulage is found to be economical for very short journeys.
Of the eight motor vehicles, seven are of the G.H.2-type of 4-tons capacity, with bodies built by Messrs. Constantine,of Hipperhohne, to the special design of the purchasers. These have been found to be admirably suited to the general needs, a 50-cwt. vehicle being used for small loads and for
getting to inns and clubs which, on amount of their bad approaches, cannot be reached by the larger vehicles. The fleet has been built up since the war period, a large proportion of the work having been, up to that time, undertaken by the railways. The transfer to motor vehicles has proved to be not only economical in the vital matter of finailte, but much more satisfactory from the point of view of the delivery of the beer more Quickly and in better condition.
Long Daily Return Journeys.
The return journey to Blackpool of 115 miles, that to north Yorkshire of 153 miles, and that to Sealand, in Cheshire, of 153 miles, are carried out in one day, the vehicles taking out a full load and bringing back a load of empties. When deliveries were sent by rail often four days elapsed before the beer was put into the cellars,' and the condition was then far from satisfactory. With the lorries the difficulty of .leaky casks is avoided.
Three of the newest lorries have pneumatic tyres, and these have been adopted after severe tests. With pneumatics the speed of the lorries has been increased, whilst the reduction of vibration is having a very good effect upon costs of maintaining bodies, chassis and power units. The men select their own journeys, taking turns in making their selection, and on the shorter journeys, or on the journeys where there may be some waiting time, as in the bringing of malt from the kilns, opportunity is taken to give a little additional attention to adjustments and cleaning. In this way the men get turns with the long journeys, and the question of favouritism is removed.
With the exception of the small vehicle, the lorries are each worked by two men, a driver and a loader or caddie, and the men share in an interesting bonus scheme, which was devised by Mr. G. P. A. Russell, who, in addition to being in charge of the maintenance of the fleet, 'attends to all the electrical work in the brewery.
A Good Bonus System.
Mr. Russell describes the effect of the introduction of the bonus as nothing short of remarkable. The men appreciate the monthly allowance, and, further than that, it encourages the drivers to take a much. greater interest in their vehicles. They know that they are to get a personal benefit by the better performance of the lorries, and so learn to study the effect of their driving not only upon the petrol consumption, but also upon the vehicles themselves. In the matter of brakefacings alone the bonus scheme has effected a comiderable saving.
The men do not now depend upon their brakes to anything like the same degree, but make more use of engine compression for decelerating purposes. The average distance covered with a set of brake-facings, even in this hilly distrioe, is in the neighbourhood of .30,000
Mr. Russell lays great stress upon the importance of a well-balanced engine which is free from vibration. The fleet in his care covers 12,000 miles per month, and a lorry purchased in 1010 has just been sold after travelling 111,782 miles. In point of fact, every lorry that has been sold had completed over 100,000 miles and was in good condition when disposed of. The small vehicle now in service has covered some 18,000 miles each year since starting work.
The vehicles are, however, only taken into the garage for extensive overhaul work after every 40,000 miles of
running. The chassis are then completely stripped in the company's own shops. Bearings are made up from rough castings and carefully fitted, and the engines are run in on a special stand under power supplied from an overhead shafting. There is an ample supply of machine tools in the workshop, and jigs have been made to ensure -working to fine limits.
• For cleaning purposes, parts taken from an engine or chassis are sprayed with paraffin on a specially assembled fixture made from a •disused atmospheric yeast press which uses one supply of paraffin over and over again. Similarly small parts are cleaned by a spray fitting attached to a Harvey-Frost air compressor, which ejects a fine spray of paraffin at 150 lb. per sq. in.
Keeping Vehicles in Service.
The careful attention to details which is given during the overhaul certainly pays, and painstaking garage work, coupled with careful driving, which is encouraged by the bonus scheme, means that time off the road is reduced to an absolute minimum. Practically all the maintenance work on the fleet is carried out without the vehicles being taken from their journey schedules, and this, the fleet maintenance manager largely attributes to his efforts to avoid engine and chassis vibration, Vibration, he rightly points out, sets up crystallization or fatigue in some part or another, and in this way trouble is caused which eventually leads to a stoppage, or even a serious breakdown with costly consequences.
For the motor vehicles a convenient garage just outside the brewery premises is used. This is centrally heated. The loading arrangements in the yard were adopted when horsed transport was in vogue, and perhaps other arrangements would have been adopted if present-day conditions had been foreseen. Nevertheless, matters work with admirable smoothness. The lorries do not discharge their loads of empties when they return to the garage at night. but draw up in the yard in the morning when, first, the empty boxes of bottles are removed. Full boxes are loaded before the vehicles pass along to discharge the empty barrels, and then pass to a lengthy covered loading bay on which the full barrels have been assembled in readiness for rolling on to the partially laden lorries.
In the designing of the bodies special attention has been given to the stresses set up due to overhang of loads when taming and on cambered and uneven roads, and the stays have been specially strengthened to meet these strains. All the platform lorries have double floors with oak bases and soft-woad surface boarding, but as an experiment rubber is being considered for surfacing in place of the soft wood, mainly with a view to reducing vibration still further. this being difficult to--prevent when lorries travel over roads where granite setts are extensively used, as is the case in many parts of Yorkshire and Lancashire.