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Radio Raises Inter rks Transport Efficiency
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By F. G. Clark, A.M.Inst.T.
Famous Engineers Find Trailers and Semi-trailers Valuable for Short Hauls
THE introduction of a system of two-way radio control has enabled the famous Bath engineering concern of Stothert and Pitt, Ltd., to obtain greatly improved use from their inter-works road transport fleet than was possible under the former system which was largely based on telephone communications. Installed nearly four years ago, the radio telephone has proved itself an invaluable tool of transport management.
During my talk with the company's transport controller, Mr. A. B. Kinloch, A.M.I.M.I., I saw several instances of the speed and flexibility with which decisions on vehicle deployment could be made and implemented by means of radio.
.Stothert and Pitt's products are known the world over. There must be many people in distant lands who know the name " Bath" not as a spa or a showplace of_Georgian architec lure, but as the city where the rows of huge cranes on the local docks were built.
Besides cranes, ihe company manufacture a wide range of other engineering products, including deck machinery, contractors' plant, such as mixers, excavators . and vibrating rollers for compacting road-beds, and many types of pump, some of which are fitted to special-purpose road tankers for the discharge of liquid or powdered loads.
The company, believing their business to be engineering, have set their face against. engaging in general road haulage on their own account. For this reason, they rely entirely on hired road transport or rail for the delivery of their products to home users or to the docks for export.
They also find it economic to make use, for certain routine work, of outside vehicles hired on contract-A licence. Under this heading come the Austin 5-tonner operated on scheduled service to and from railhead, and the two Bedford tippers permanently E26 employed on the clearance of furnace slag and ashes and for the transport of swarf and other scrap material.
Inter-works transport is in an entirely different category, and, especially in a large engineering organization of this kind, should be treated as an integral part of the works production system.
Since their foundation in 1820, the company have been steadily expanding in the western half of the city and now occupy five separate works, Newark, Victoria, Avonbank, Weston Island and Bellotts Road. Broadly speaking, the main erecting shops are at the Newark Works, and the fabricating and machine shops are at Victoria and Avonbank.
At Weston Island, fabricated assemblies are held in store. This works is also the centre for mixer assembly. The assembly of vibrating rollers is carried on at Bellotts Road. The factory of an associated company at Bitton, a village a few miles from Bath, occasionally comes within the orbit of inter-works transport, but for the most part movements are between the five works named.
Most of this inter-works operation takes place over public roads carrying heavy general traffic. A peculiar feature of Stothert and Pitt's work is the high proportion of over-width or over-length loads requiring police sanction for their movement by road.
The other problems are those with which most factory internal transport departments are familiar — restricted entrances, loading and unloading bottlenecks, short-notice changes in departmental transport requirements, and, in general, the long succession of minor crises which are seemingly inseparable from this kind of transport operation.
Since the war the company have built up a fleet of articulated and rigid vehicles of varying capacities. For the heavier work, they use either an exWD. Chevrolet tractor, converted from four-wheel to two-wheel drive and fitted with a Bedford petrol engine, or a Fordson Major agricultural tractor. hese units are operated in conjuncwith four four-wheeled trailers. carry loads up to 10 tons, the transdepartment has on call four mmell Scarab mechanical horses six Sca.mmell platform semiiers, four of which are 18 ft, long two 22 ft. long.
igid vehicles include two Thames form lorries, a 5-tonner and a nner, for mixed loads, an Austin mt. van normally run on a :duled inter-works parcels service, three Austin pick-ups for general es.
iithin the various works areas three dson tractors are engaged on :ial duties. One is operated with mi-trailer for hauling finished pro
from the shops to the rail ons in the siding. Another is used le Victoria works for shunting rail ons and a third is employed for Ing vibrating rollers over the test • Although the fleet is a mixed bag, alt the vehicles are uniformly well turned-out in a distinctive livery of light green. True to their policy of limiting their transport commitments, the company entrust vehicle maintenance and repair to local overhaul concerns, although the drivers are responsible for routine servicing. Effective use of inter-works transport depends upon close centralized control by an official or officials with the experience and the authority to determine priorities and to allocate vehicles to appropriate duties. In order to establish closer fleet control, Stothert and Pitt decided in 1954 to instal a V.H.F. radio telephone system. At the same time, Mr. Kinloch was appointed to the post of transport controller.
The fixed radio station and the vehicle installations were all supplied by Pye Telecommunications, Ltd., Cambridge, the fixed station being set up at the Newark Works. Microphones were fitted in the first vehicles to be brought into the system, but on the rest of the radio-controlled fleet hand-microphone sets were installed.
Hand microphones give clearer transmission and are more trouble free in operation than microphones. Aerials are hinged and swept back over the roof of the cab to clear a low bridge at one of the works.
It was a Saturday morning ;when went to call on Mr. Kinloch, and, because his assistant was off duty, he was himself in charge of the fixed station, the hub of the control system. It was a splendid opportunity to watch the system in actual operation, and most of our discussion was punctuated by rapid exchanges on the radio between Mr. Kinloch and the drivers, not to mention a constant stream of telephone calls from the various production departments with requests for transport.
Two incidents served to demonstrate the practical benefits of radio control. One concerned the movement of a large crane sub-assembly, a truck top and pin-rack, from the Newton Fields storage area to Newark Works, where it would be needed for a week-end shift, working to meet a delivery date. When the mobile crane at Newton Fields had placed the load on to the vehicle, its driver immediately called Mr. Kinloch, gave him the width of the load and advised that he was all ready to move off.
Thereupon the traffic controller telephoned the appropriate department of the Bath City Police, provided details of the nature of the load and the route, and was given immediate clearance. Within three minutes of receipt of the first radio call from the driver, Mr. Kinloch had called him up and given him the "go ahead."
Warm tribute was paid to the co-operation received from the local police, who recognize that Stothert and Pitt's drivers are experts in transporting these awkward loads. Normally, as in the instance quoted, the loads are allowed to move unescorted, but a police escort is welcomed when a really outsize piece has to be hauled.
The second incident involved one of the drivers who had been taken ill suddenly. He called the controller and told him what had happened. The sick man's vehicle was at that moment being unloaded by a works crane, and he had arranged that it should be moved out of the way by another driver when its load was cleared.
This action, I gathered, was typical of the responsible attitude to their work adopted by these men, most of whom have been driving for the company for many years. Following this hitch in the morning's planning, Mr. Kinloch had to get busy calling up drivers and re-arranging work schedules so that the invalid's more urgent assignments could be covered.
These adjustments were made rapidly and directly, with no possibility of misunderstanding arising. I hesitated to think what the results would have been if the situation had had to be sorted out by telephone, with messages being passed through third parties.
Incidentally, this little contretemps highlighted once again the value of the articulated vehicle on this type of short-haul work. Knowing that two of the Scammell outfits were due to be delivering goods at the same works, Mr. Kinloch called up both drivers in turn and told one man to drop off his semi-trailer as soon as he arrived, leaving the other driver to do the necessary shunting. The man thus freed was ordered to take his tractor unit off to pick up the sick driver's trailer and to carry on with the latter's work.
Full advantage is taken of the flexibility of the tractor-semi-trailer outfit on a regular shuttle service between the main structural shop and the Newton Fields stores. Working with two semi-trailers, one of the Scammell Scarabs is kept almost constantly on the move.
There are limits to the extent to which this policy can be adopted, principally because of the restricted nature of some of the loading bays. This makes it impracticable to leave a semitrailer standing in the bay to await picking-up by a tractor. Within the limits, however, tractors and trailers are " juggled " in the interests of operating economy.
In their native city Stothert and Pitt enjoy a high reputation, and the radio telephone system makes its own small but valuable contribution to the good relations between the company and the local public. All the drivers have instructions to report immediately to Mr. Kinloch the details of any road accident they may witness, and the traffic controller thereupon makes the necessary 999 call. The speed with which assistance is summoned by this means is symptomatic of the efficiency of this well-proven transport communications system.