HOW "THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR" CUP WAS WON.
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The Men Who are Responsible for the Fleets Providing the Competing Teams Tell of the Enthusiasm of the Drivers and their Mates in their Efforts to "Lilt" the Cup.
n UR very hearty congratulations, Mr. Ambler, upon the fact that, once again,7the Shell-Mex team has won The Commercial Motor Cup," was the way in which we opened a chat with the cilia motor engineer to Shell-Mex, Ltd., on. the Monday following
the London Parade, —
" Well, we are glad," replied Mr. Ambler, " to be the first to get our name on the new cup," and so it seemed, for whilst we sat opposite him at his desk different officials of he company—cane-6 in to shake his hand and add their own congratulations, so it was quite evident that, throughout such a vast organization, with world-wide interests and extensive commitments, full importance was attached to the very simple matter of the aims and ambitions of the department concerned with the motor fleet.
It is probable that the Shell-Max fleet is the largest or, at least, one of the largest in the country engaged in the transport of anyone commodity It is spread throughout the length and breadth of the land, the country being split up into twenty divisions, each having its divisional manager, fitafi and offices. The employment of the fleet in eeeh division is under the control of the manager, whilst for its maintenance a motor inspector is responsible, reporting direct to the chief motor engineer with offices in London. The duty of each inspector is to visit the garages in his division and inspect every _vehicle regularly, making his daily report to headquarters, explaining the needs of the vehicles and, where necessary, asking for instructions or confirmation of his. own action. Sometimes, of course, the presence of an inspector may be required in an emergency case-; for this reason he is always in touch with his office by means
of the telephone and can leave his routine work in order to deal with the new problem.
Repair shops are established in different centres, to which all but adjustments and running repairs are sent. By means of daily reports from these shops the chief motor engineer ie kept fully advised of the position of the vehicles under repair, whilst the weekly reports from divisional managers provide the basis for clever wall charts, of which there are eight framed and displayed on the walls of Mr. Ambler's office. Fach chart covers six months' workings and includes a record concerning every vehicle, classified according to geographical division. At a glance one can see how many vehicles are operating in a division, what vehicles are working and what are in dock for mechanical attention. Any 'departure from ideal working can thus be instantly detected and forms the subject for a question if necessary.
Further charts show the number of the fleet, the number being repaired and the percentage ,of the one figure to the other. It is rather remarkable that the record wavers along the 5 per cent, tree, sometimes a little more, sometimes a little less. Five per cent. undergoing overhaul or. repair is a Tow figure, and 95 per pent. fleet .efficiency is,yery good indeed. The best bus fleet Operation in this country gives 10 per cent. in the workshops and a 90 per cent. efficiency.
For much of this 95 per cent. the 031.U.A. parades all over the country are. responsible, as the drivers and their mates are brought to take a keen interest in their vehicles and, by meane. ef spit and polish, to scrutinize them and -to rePort at °nee. anYthing that appears to be a departure from normality of
condition. In each division it is the practice, once a quarter, to give bonuses to the drivers of the two vehicles which appear to be in the best condition and which have had a good record for three months. A lot of circumstances are taken into consideration, so that every man has his chance for a bonus. The garage of the London division is at Fulham, where Mr. Ambler first laid down the principles, learned by him whilst he was in the Navy, of cleanliness, orderliness, promptness and efficiency, and the Fulham garage, which is under the personal superintendence of Mr. R. T. Smith, is regarded as the training school for garage foremen. The supervision of all the other divisional garages is in the hands of men,who have graduated through Fulham. It is felt that fitters who work under orderly conditions in a clean garage will do better and more careful work, and an esprit de corps is created which operates to the benefit of the fleet and the company's business. With regard to the vehicles which codmpeted at the London Parade, the three Thornycrofts and one of the Leylands were ex-service machineS. Two of the former had covered 108,500 miles and 110,300 miles respectively, the third of that make having travelled 96,600 miles in the company's service. The Leylands had covered 99,000, 62,800 and 50,500 miles respectively. The three Scammell tank wagons had averaged 10,000 miles apiece. The fact that they secured 14th place in the competition with such a short mileage to increase their marks shows that ,their condition was as good as that of any of the ether vehicles.
Shell-Mex, Ltd., have competed for The Commercial Motor Cup from 1920 onwards. In 1921 they won the Cup, the condition of the vehicles setting a new standard for appearance. The enthusiasm of another ex-naval man brought the 'Wethered fleet to a high pitch and for three years the fight between the Wethered and Shell-Mex teams has been very close. Mr. Ambler wishes that Messrs. Wethered had not regarded themselves as hors concours this year, as he believes that his company had a good chance of winning even with such competition. The way in which the teams are chosen is thus :— The men were told, a year ago, immediately after the 1924 Parade, that .another attempt would be made to lift the Cup and that in February, 1925, the vehicles would be inspected an2 three of each of the three makes already named would be chosen. In February the vehicles were picked and the drivers of the selected machines then began to go strongly at the job of bringing them au point. The men are very keen and although, as Mr. Ambler assured us, the vehicles were at work right up to the Friday evening before the Parade, they were ready by midnight and took their, place in the line early next morning. All the tales about machines being off the road and having the attention of the fitters do not apply to Shell-Alex vehicles. What is done, however, is to turn out a machine, after its regular shop overhaul, as clean as ever it is possible and to say to the driver, "That is the condition in which
you are to keep it." That the first two places in the Cup competition were won by Shell-Mex teams is a great feather in the cap of the men who operate from Fulham and they will make a very strong effort to retain the Cup in 1926.
The Winners of the Third Place.
The first desire of the directors of the British Petroleum Co., Ltd., was to enter six teams of three vehicles each or The Commercial Motor Cup, and a fortnight before the Parade 36 vehicles out of the London fleet of somewhat more than a hundred were paraded and 18 chosen. The reduction to three teams was made to meet the wishes of the Commercial Motor Users Association. The men thus had but a fortnight in which to apply their finishing touches, and as the company has no repair shops each driver
and his boy had to do the work in their spare time and quite unaided. This was impressed upon us by Mr. Tovey, who has charge of the company's transport in the " London Town branch." Mr. Meldrumthe manager of the branch, and who takes keen interest and keeps in close personal touch with the fleet—and Mr. Tovey seethed, in the course of a chat we had with them, rather disappointed that they had not won, their second team securing third place and the other teams, '23rd and 27th places, being highly commended. But we think they have nothing to be ashamed about ; rather they should be proud to have got so close to such redoubtable competitors, for the mileage covered by their vehicles ranges from 14,800 to "32,300, so they clid not get a great deal of help in the marking from this source.
The drivers of petrol-distributing lorries are primarily salesmen ; then, secondly, they are clerks, because they have a lot of booking and recording to attend to ; lastly, they are drivers. When they reach the depots at six or seven o'clock at night they have to account for their sales, pay in cash, record all transactions, check empties and balance their stocks, and only after that can they get down to the matter of cleaning the vehicles. Every lorry must be washed and polished overnight,and this is done by the man and his boy, whilst _the latter cannot do anything in the way of relishing during the stops in the course of a round as, in many districts, this would leave the way open to pilfering. To get their Ionics to parade-finish the men B29
worked all the Friday night and then, because customers could not be n-eglected and the drivers are the only ones familiar with their respective rounds, they had to take spare vehicles and do their ordinary day's work on the Saturday of the Parade, getting to Lincoln's Inn Fields by two o'clock in time for the judging. Such keenness calls for much. praise.
The Gas Light and Coke Co. in Four Early Places.
four teams were entered by the Gas Light and Coke Co. this year, and these obtained 4th, 7th, 9th and 12th places respectively. There were three vehicles in. each team, all being of the Dennis 3-4-ton type, but whereas six of these were fitted with open bodies normally used for conveying coke, the remainder were vans employed upon gas-stove and meter delivery work.
Each team was drawn from a different depot, so bringing in an element of competition between the various centres from which the vehicles are worked by the company. The depots chosen were Harwood Terrace (Fulham.), Kensal Green, Haggerston and Shorediteh, the first-named being highest on the list with 4th place. When one considers that in each case the vehicle ,came off duty about 4.30 p.m. on the Friday eveningbefore the -Parade and that no special time was allotted to the drivers for cleaning, it will be agreed that the places obtained reflect great credit upon the., drivers of the vans concerned. Mr. Walter MacDowall, chief officer of stores, and in charge of the company's fleet, informs ug that the condition of the' vehicles on parade represented quite a normal state aaffairs, and the cleaning was entirely accomplished by the drivers, no night staff being kept for the purpose.
Mr. MacDowall very kindly gave us some running cost figures relating to the six months ended December, 1924, for the vehicles on parade. Incidentally, very accurate records are kept arid these costs include everything except depreciation, tax and garage. The six coke-carrying lorries make about four journeys per day, and the figure representing the cost of running per mile is almost exactly is. for each. The vans, on the other hand, are engaged upon house-to-house delivery werk, involving many stops, so that the cost per mile in this ease averages about is. 5d. per mile. Six m.p.g. to 7 m.p.g. is obtained on these Dennis lorries running on benzole produced by the owners. In replacing older types, the Gas Light and Coke Co. have taken the opportunity of simplifying the repair and maintenance problem by, reducing the number of different makes employed." Thus, at the present time, practically all the lorries above 30-cwt. capacity are of Dennis manufacture, whilst chassis built by Guys are employed for the smaller capacity work. Altogether, the company's fleet numbers 57 petrol-driven lorries and 10 steamers.
The company's repair -wotir$ are now concentrated at the Harwood Terrace depot under the control of Mr. Thompson, and here every chassis is sent for an overhaul after-completing two years' work,
whether or not if appears to be, in urgent need of this. Like other concerns running big fleets, the Gas Light and Coke Co. find it essential to systematize overhauling, and by so doing they reduce involuntary stops on the road to a minimum.
Compared with other years, the vehicles which were shown on parade were comparatively new, the greatest mileage accomplished by any one of them being 7,100. We think that the coke lorries made a particularly good showing, considering the rough nature of the work upon which they are habitually engaged.
The Anglo-American Oil Co.'s Teams.
The two teams entered by the Anglo-American Oil Co., Ltd., consisting of three Foden steam wagons and three Thornyeroft lorries, secured 5th n30 and 20th places respectively. All thesevehicles are normally employed on distribution work in the London area and were chosen for the Parade as being representative of good British practice in the two types of haulage vehicle—steam and petrol.
The Thornycrofts are of the Q type, fitted with 1,200-gallon spirit tanks, and are used for making
bulk deliveries of motor spirit from the company's rail and canal depots to the various service stations in the London area. Major Beaumont informs us that each of these vehicles has been in service for about two years and that he finds the to be of sound mechanical design, economical to run and capable of maintaining this running efficiency over Icing periods. The drivers are made responsible for greasing, oiling and minor running adjustments under the supervision of the engineer-superintendent, and also execute the bulk of the work in connection with cleaning operations.
As regards running costs, Major Beaumont points out that these depend very largely upon the annual mileage or, as he terms it, the rate of working, in addition to traffic conditions And other factors. The Thornycrofts shown on parade cover about 10,000 miles annually, equivalent to 40-45 miles per working
day, and, at this rate of working, the total cost averages about is. 5-id. per mile, including all run ing charges and fixed charges except interest on capital. Similar vehicles have proved capable of giving as much as five years' service before being put into dock for a general overhaul.
The Foden steamers headed the prize list for steam vehicles on parade. Major Beaumont is particularly pleased with this result, because, he says, the teams working these wagons are particularly keen and hard working. Each wagon has seen about five years' service; . two are fitted with 1,200-gallon fueloil tanks ; whilst the third carries a type of body fast becoming obsolete—namely, a boxvan for transporting petrol in 2-gallon cans. This body is fitted with a steam-piping fire-extinguishing apparatus. The total cost of operating these vehicles, which accomplish about 10,000 miles annually, is in the neighbourhood of Is. 7d. per mile, which is an excellent figure for steamers operated in the London area.
Particulars of running costs are most. carefully kept, and a series of "average tables" is used which shows the cost per mile averaged over halfyearly periods for vehicles working at differing rates. These average figures can be checked at any time from the day-to-day a.counts kept, but, of -course, a true average can only be obtained by taking a lengthy period, such as 4-5 years, which will include the cost of undertaking a general overhaul.