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B on uses
Page 150
Page 153
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Must be Generous
This Atkinson L. 1586 eight-wheeler, fitted with a body by Lovell's Motor Co., is used for the transport of confectionery by G. F. Lovell and Co., Ltd., Newport. The vehicle was supplied by James Howell and Co., Ltd., Atkinson distributors. through Belle Vue Services, Newport.
TOWARDS the end of my previous article I introduced the subject of bonus payments to drivers. I began by describing a comprehensive plan which made provision for payments and fines relating to work done, punctuality, cleanliness of chassiS and body., regularity .of attendance, and on top of all these payments a substantial Christmas present.
Each driver is responsible for keeping his vehicle clean, and there are no half-measures about the requirements in that respect. Not only the body and exterior are expected to be
kept clean,but also (he underparts
and every detail of the chassis. That this is no sinecure will be appreciated when 1 state that for the major part of its time a vehicle may be carrying tarred roadmaking materials, and each winter a large tonnage of sugar-beet.
To put this part of the scheme into effect the services of the drivers are requisitioned. They serve as checkers. There is a rota, and each week two drivers take their turn to examine all the vehicles. They are provided with an analysis sheet capable of accommodating all the marks for the whole af the fleet. Marks are awarded as follows: front wheels, 1; cab, outside, 2; cab, inside, 7; engine, 4; battery, front axle and body, 1 mark each; chassis, 3; gearbox, 2; rear axle, 1: rear wheels, 2. A total of 20 marks is possible for a perfectly clean vehicle.
A study of the marking system confirms the fairness of this allocation. Obviously the mos-t difficult part to clean thoroughly is the engine, and for this the greatest number of marks is awarded. Clearly the next item in order, based on difficulty, is the chassis, and for that three marks are awarded. The gearbox is'less accessible than the rear axle, so that it gets two marks as against the rear axle's one.
Latitude Allowed The two drivers whose duty it is to check this feature go round the. fleet with their analysis sheet and award marks according 'to their view of 'the efficiency with which the work has been carried out. .A certain amount of latitude is allowed as to the day on which the vehicle must be clean. If for some reason a driver cannot do it at the week-end he is allowed until the following Wednesday to carry out the work.
The payment for a thoroughly clean vehicle, that is one which has been awarded 20 marks, is 1,0s. per week. Add the £1 paid on account of good work (see previous article) and already we have arrived at the position where a driver can earn £1 10s, per week bonus.
This bonus for cleanliness is not paid in cash. It is held up until the end of the year. If the number of marks c60
awarded is no more {nail 15 out of the maximum of 20, not only does the driver not receive a bonus but_ he is -fined out of his total bonus otherwise gainedthrough.out the year. Actually it is rarely that the percentage of marks awarded for cleanliness: is less. than 90. Usually, in any one week, the lowest percentage is 93; quite often it is 100.
No one can deny that this is a good way of awarding
a bonus likely to pay dividends in respect a efficiency of operation. It has often, been urged in this journal that the first step towards the efficient maintenance of the mechanism of a chassis is that it should be regularly cleaned. The mere operation of cleaning often discloses incipient faults—the slackening of a nut or the fraying of a wire—which might pass
• unnoticed and become serious.
The general effect of the operation of this scheme has been to raise to a high standard the cleanliness of these vehicles. On one occasion I examined several of the vehicles as they came into the garage in the evening, and rarely indeed have I seen chassis parts so clean and void of the usual incrustation of dust and dirt which so often covers most of the engine, gearbox, rear axle and other exposed parts. The process of education up to the high standard, was told at the time, was somewhat slow, but once the appropriate standard was reached it became permanent and required only a minimum of effort to maintain.
Identity Lost
There is one more point to which I should like to draw attention before terminating this part of my subject. In order to prevent victimization for perhaps retaliation is the most appropriate word) by a disgruntled driver on one or both of the two drivers responsible for examination of his vehicle when the percentage of marks awarded is abnormally low, the results of the examination for cleanliness and the award of bonus marks are not disclosed until some eight" weeks or so have passed, by which time the identity of the checkers responsible has been lost.
Now I come to the third part of the bonus—the longterm assessment and the averaging of the .marks awarded in connection with the first part of the scheme, concerning regularity and punctuality. The peculiar advantage of this is that it penalizes drivers who are apt to take a day off now ankagain when they think they will. This is something which all operators have experienced from time to time The period over which this check is made is eight weeks, 48 working days.
The log sheets are put together and re-read with their markings of "good," " fair " and "poor. This time.
however, "good" reports are awarded one mark, " fair " receive only a half, and " Poor " none. The total number of marks assessed on this basis relates to 48 working days, so that a man who has " good " for every day of the 48 and was not absent on any of those days would obtain the maximum of 100 per cent., which is 48 marks. His total, however, May be diminished because on some days he obtained only half a mark and on others nil.
Suppose, for example, a man was absent through reasonable cause, such as sickness, or having had permission from the employer to be absent, he might have worked only 40 days. If he had obtained 40 marks he would still be 100 per cent., because the 40 marks would be put on a basis of 40 days, thus giving him a fair chance against the employee who had been, as it were, absent without leave.
if, however, he has been absent eight days without permission, his 40 marks—assuming that he obtained a mark per day for each of the days he did work—are calculated on the basis of 48 days, so that his percentage, instead of being 100, as in the other two cases, is calculated at 40 over 48, which is 831 per cent. That is the way in which this part of the bonus scheme takes account of regularity of attendance at work. For this the award is 10s. per week for each of the eight weeks for 100 marks gained.
Fund Built Up
There is, however, an addition to the amount made up as follows—half the fines levied on drivers who have not properly cleaned their vehicles is put into a fund. This is made up to £10 by the employer and to that is added half the amounts levied on drivers being late. This additional sum is distributed to the first six men in order of bonus earned on the eight-weeks' average scheme. Half this sum is divided between the first two of the six; a third is divided among the third and fourth, and the balance is paid to the fifth and sixth men, Most of the traffic is carried in tippers. Some of it, however, such as sugar-beet and ashes, has to be manually loaded and unloaded. Drivers who handle this traffic are paid a bonus of Is. per load.
At the end of the year, the company pays a further contributiozt into the bonus fund of 5s. per man per week-03 per annum—and this is divided among the participants in proportion to their total figures for bonus: if a man's total is 90 per cent, of the maximum he is given an extra 90 per cent, of the £13 in addition to what he has already earned. Finally, at the end of the first year's working, each driver is given a Christmas box amounting to £10.
It might be as well if I recap. Note the factors which are Involved in the operation of this scheme: they are work done, cleanliness of the vehicle, kind of traffic carried, deduction for unpunctuality and absence without leave. There is also the Christmas box.
For the first of these, the amount of work done, the driver can earn as much as £1 per week, paid in cash at once; for cleanliness, a further 10s. per week; for good average all-round performance, including punctuality and regularity of attendance, a further 10s. per week which could be augmented to some slight extent by the addition of a portion of the fines paid by delinquents and, on . top of all these, a supplementary bonus award at the end of the year. The foregoing are what might be called bonuses on general performance. To them must be added bonuses for particular traffics and Christmas bOxes.
As an indication of the generosity of the scheme and -at the same time giving some idea of its, benefit to the driver who strives to meet all its requirements, the following figures giving the amounts earned during the first year of operation of the scheme by the man who received more than any of his mates are of interest.
On the cartage of sugar-beet at ls, per load, £9 6s. For ashes at the same rate, £1 Is, weekly bonus, paid-in .cash, £42 6s. 8d.; bonus for cleaning the vehicle, £9 13s. 10d.; weekly bonus (the amount of eight weeks' averaging) £45 Is. 3d.; additional bonus (the percentage of the £13 added by the employer) £11 5s. 40.; Christmas box, £10. The total is £128 14s. Id., nearly £2 10s. per week. In the first year of the scheme's operation. £1,700 was paid to 15 drivers.
Make-up of Committee An important aspect of the scheme is the method of its working, its administration. This is carried out by a committee composed of three directors and three employees. The latter are selected by the men themselves.
When I last described this scheme, some years ago, it was promptly criticized by an operator who was highly e-xperienced in all aspects of goods haulage and passenger carrying. He wrote saying that he could not understand how a company employing 15 men and paying statutory wages could afford to hand over £1,700 in bonuses_ The short answer is that the scheme was successfully put into operation and continued so, barring alterations of a trifling amount. The proof of this pudding is certainly in the eating and no one complained about it. The company's balance sheets were quite satisfactory, not showing signs of suffering as the result of this apparently extravagant plan.
1 would like to suggest at this point that if, by the payment of this bonus, the net profits of the company were increased by £1,701, it would still be worth while if only for the fact that the drivers were able to add substantially to their earnings and at the same time increase the tonnage carried by the vehicles they drove.
The difference between these two operators seems to be a fundamental one. One has sensed the wisdom of paying a little more to his men in the belief that it would possibly be profitable to him if he did so. Events have justified that belief. The other has not yet realized the basic truth that, by giving his drivers a monetary interest in seeing that the most is got out of his vehicles, the business is likely to be more profitable than otherwise.
One of the features of any bonus scheme must be that it is generous; a scheme which benefits the worker to the extent of 10s. per week is not going to make much of a stir among the drivers of vehicles: it is insufficient. In a matter of this sort it is no use half doing a job. For this bonus to succeed in its object it must arouse the interest of the men who are to earn it. Is it likely that any man is going to be enthusiastic about a possible 10s. per week extra? Of course not. S.T.R.