PROBLEMS OF THE HAULIER AND CARRIER.
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Continuing the Story of the Man Who Was Carrying Meat From the Wholesaler to the Retailer.
TIOLLOWING a promise recently made, I devoted my pages in the issue of last week to the story of a man who was fortunate enough to make a series of contracts with the salesmen in the wholesale meat market at Smithfield, London, just as is possible in any of the big towns in the provinces, where there are similar markets, and where similar conditions prevail; that is to say, where the retailers for miles around come down to the market in the early hours of the morning, leave their orders and expect the goods to follow them to their shops in time for them, in their turn, to take and execute the orders of their own _customers.
I showed how the contracts came to be obtained in the first place, and then I proceeded to describe the sort of work which falls to the lot of those who take on jobs of this kind. I started out with this particular haulier one fine morning, turning up with him at his own garage at 5.30 a.m. I accompanied him to the market, going with him as he collected the meat which he had to deliver, and went along with him on his journey.
Twenty Miles: Four and a Quarter Hours.
By the time the limit of our weekly article had been reached we had made deliveries at Hammersmith, Barnes, Richmond, Twickenham and Teddington, making, as it so happened, one delivery in each of these places. I described the little delays which took place in connection with the various deliveries, delays which arc inevitable, and a knowledge of which is most essential to the man who would quote for the carrying out of work of this kind. The fact that these delays occur—are bound to occur—and that there is no practical way of avoiding them was what I wished to make quite dear, even to emphasize, so that .I might prevent the inexperienced hand from making some pretty expensive blunders in tendering for similar work. I should also like to point out that I have in no way exaggerated those difficulties. The journey which I have in part described, and the description of which I am now about briefly to conclude, is no journalistic myth, but was actually undertaken by me for the purpose of this article.
Kingston, the next place on our itinerary, was reached at a quarter to ten, so that, as we had set out from the garage at half-past five, the 20 miles of actual travelling so far accomplished had taken four and a quarter hours, an average running speed of rather less than five miles an hour.
There were five calls to be made here, and these, for reasons similar to those already given in connection with the earlier part of the journey, occupied an hour and a half. • We left Kingston at 11.15 o'clock, and set off on the return journey to town empty. We were actually due back at Smithfield Market at 1 o'clock, and therefore took the opportunity to take on board a little muchneeded refreshment at a coffee-stall in the neighbourhood of Victoria Station before going on to the market, which we duly reached at the time appointed, having covered in all during the morning 36 miles. The total time occupied in covering this distance, including, of course, all stops, was seven and a half hours.
Second Half Similar to the First.
The afternoon of that day was very like the morning. It took-us an hour and a half to get loaded up at the market, and, incidentally, I was told that that was pretty quick work. Leaving at 2.30 p.m., we arrived at our first place of call, 13 miles away, at 3.40 p.m. Twenty minutes were occupied in delivering the goods, so that we got away at 4 o'clock.
Another twenty minutes brought us to the scene of our call No. 2, five miles away. There were five more calls in the same area, completing that day's work at 5.30 p.m. There were, however, 16 miles still to be run to get back to the garage, and that and the putting of the car away for the day brought 7 o'clock along. The afternoon's performance, too, totalled 36 miles, and occupied all told six hours, reckoning from the time when we kept the appointment at Smithfield at 1 o'clock.
Summing up the day's performance, the total distance covered was 72 miles, and the total time occupied, including the brief stop for a meal in the middle of the day and a still more brief one in the afternoon for a cup of tea, was 13i hours—a good long day ! The mileage per hour, worked out over the total time, still comes out, it should be noted, at round about 5 miles per hour, which seems to be a fair average for this sort of work, although, naturally, it must vary a good deal from day to day and from job to job. The point to bear in mind, however, is that about 70 miles per day is as much as can be done, and from 300 to 350 miles per week, if there is work to be done five days each week. This is, of course, important to us in reckoning up our costs, which depend so very much upon the weekly mileage.
Sizes of Packages.
There is no useful purpose to be served by descriliing the various packages, if I may use that term, which were delivered on this trip. The kind of contract I am trying to review may be entered into for many other things besides meat transport. I must, however, give the weights of each delivery, because the information will be required when we come to try and fix a scale of charges which shall be remunera
tive as well as attractive to the client. The variety can be Judged from the wide, almost extreme, differences in the weight of each. Mention has already been made of one, delivery No. 3, consisting of half-a-dozen sheep's kidneys, weighing only 2 lb. in all. At the other end of the scale comes No. 9, consisting of several sides of beef, carcases of mutton and odd stones of other meats, totalling 1,500 lb.
The actual weights delivered were as follow:— Delivery No, 1, 120 lb.•, No. 2, 800 lb.; No. 3, 2 lb.; No. 4, 18 lb.; No. 5, 1,200 lb.; No. 6, 760 lb.; No. 7, 52 lb.; No. 8, 980 Ib.; No. 9, 1,500 lb.; and No. 10, 680 lb. These are the deliveries in the morning and the total is 6,112 lb.
In the afternoon No. 1 was 890 lb.; No. 2, 210 lb.; No. 3, 16 lb.; No. 4, 860 lb.; No. 5, 1,720 lb.; No. 6, 420 lb.; and No. 7, 28 lb. The total for the afternoon amounted to 4,144 lb.
There is nothing very material, as a matter as fact, about the total weights, so far as our costs of running are concerned; they are mentioned because they afford proof of the necessity for a 3-ton lorry for the job. A 2i-tonner might perhaps have done, but leaves no margin for eventualities, for rush periods like Christ
mas, and is, moreover, not such a popular size, and therefore less easy to find on the second-hand market.
There are two things of very great importance to the reader in this story : the cost of operation of the vehicle and the return which is necessary in the way of payment for the work in order to make the proposition a profitable one.
The cost of operation of the lorry will not vary very much from that given in The Commercial Motor' series of tables. -The comparatively large number of stops would undoubtedly have the effect of increasing the petrol consumption to something slightly above the average; on the other hand, the fact that the vehicle is running all the time on well-kept town streets will have the contrary effect, besides minimizing tyre wear, depreciation and the cost of maintenance. It may he taken, therefore, that thestost per mile will be between 10.08d. and 9.48d., according to whether the mileage is 300 or 350 per week. We may take an even figure of 91c1. per mile, and we shall not be very far out. In my next contribution I will amplify this by taking account of establishment expenses and profits, and endeavour to work out a scale of charges to meet the
requirements of this class of contract. S.T.R.