Municipal Vehicle Design Needs Improvement
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Speaker at Institute of Public Cleansing Conference Complains that Some Vehicles are Too
Complicated : Another W antsbnprol'ed Automatic Loading Arrangements TWO speakers at the Institute of Public Cleansing's annual conference at Torquay, this week, referred. to the need for improvement in street-sweeping and refuse-collection veh icles.
In the presidential address, Mr. H. E. Edridge.. M.B.E., cleansing superintendent of Chesterfield, said that although there were no revolutionary designs on show this year, it was to be hoped that when restrictions on manufacturers were withdrawn, there would he progressive improvements in dustless and automatic loading and selftrimming devices to ease the work of loaders. He also considered that there was scope for improving sweepercollector and street-washing machines.
Mr Edridge admitted that the restriedon on the allocation of vehicles to.the home market prevented the introduction of new vehicles. As a result local authorities were forced to operate overage vehicles at heavier maintenance and fuel costs, and refuse-collection was often delayed when spare vehicles were not available.
Over-elaboration
Court John H. Lewis. M.B.E.. 3.P.. chairman of Birmingham Salvage and Stables Committee in a paper entitled Public Cteansine from a Chairman's Point of View." mentioned that manufaclurers had made great efforts to provide improved methods, apparatus and vehicles for street cleaning, but he cOnsidererl that there was still room for improvement. Coun. Lewis was of the opinion that recent design tended towards over-elaboration, which, perhaps. was caused by the force of circumstances.
The decrease in the density of rubbish demanded packing devices to maintain a reasonable payload. A variety of such devices had been produced, whicn, he said, "whilst ingenious in their conception, confused the mind with their complexity," Vehicle manufacturers deserved sympathy when faced with the demand to produce simple vehicles with special packing and other arrangements.
Qualified Praise
After applauding their efforts in the past, Coon. Lewis tempered his praise by adding: "Some of the vehicles we have seen, whilst exciting tAmiration for their elegance and ingenuity displayed in design and mechanism, nevertheless are too intricate for our particular services."
He considered that the primary need was for robustly constructed vehicles of the simplest design to meet the essential requirements, and of correct loading height. "Too low is almost as bad as too high," he added. Municipal vehicles should be planned for ease in washing and .cleaning, and ample room should be provided in the cab for the loaders, with additional space for their tools and equipment.
In his opinion, some authorities did not keep abreast of the times in their policy of purchasing outmoded replacements, instead of buying some of the modern vehicles available.
Conn. Lewis! experience had proved that by offering a prize for vehicle maintenance and cleanliness, drivers were encouraged to be careful In a paper entitled Manpower and Public Cleansing" Mr. Frani Flintoff. director of. public cleansing at Southendon-Sea, made observations on time and motion study 'it relatior to refuse col lection and street sweeping, .
In breaking down the work of the loader F into eight processes, only two of these—bin-emptying and trimming—could, he said, at present be obviated by mechanical arrangements. One bin-emptying device 'which he mentioned, demonstrated at the International Conference in 1948, saved less than a , minute in every man-hour operated. Assuming that the effort of emptying a bin was less than that of lifting one, but possibly greater than carrying it, Mr. Flintoff considered the saving of fatigue to be proportional to the saving in time, approximately onesixtieth.
Doubtful Benefit
An essential prerequisite of the scheme was the use of bins with 'hinged lids to work with an Oschner shutter, or one of similar pattern, and in his opinion the advantages gained in saving time and fatigue would not be sufficient to justify such an installation.
Packing the refuse enabled more economic payloads to be carried, which, in conjunction with automatic trimming, was instrumental in reducing the demand on labour. In a week's trial, with eight bade-s and one vehicle, Mr. Flintoff estimated that the loading rate was increased by 10 per cent.
There were potential economies in reducing the size of fleets by employing vehicles of larger capacity and in using fewer loaders because of a -higher loading rate. When assessing the results of
trials, the advantages should be balanced against the higher operating costs of self-packing and trimming
vehicles. Specialized vehicles carrying' heavier loads would reduce or dispense with the relays adopted in many areas: Mr. Flintoff's observations on the sweeper-collector vehicle included its limitations, which, he maintained, reduced its field to a relatively small part in street cleansing. It would not, he said, sweep footpaths or leave a clean patn on a heavily cambered, cob
bled or uneven surface. Too much material was removal on a newly surfaced road. vihica also caused heavy wear on the brooms, and hand assistance was required to remove the trail when the machine was operating on a short stretch of road.
Other drawbacks to mechanized sweepers, outlined by Mr. Flintoff, were their inability to clean pavement channels or remove weeds, or to be used in areas where vehicles are parked. He thought the operating cost of the mechanical sweeper was equal to that of five street orderlies.
• Mechanical Sweeping Considering its limitations and remembering that :-Street orderlies were complementary to its working, he estimated that, the mechanical sweeper could he operated profitably. only where more than 10 beats were covered ay one machine. Maintenance occupied a proportion of the daily working time, which threw additional work on the manual sweepers. In areas where three or more mechanical sweepers were used, it was more profitable to employ a fitter to maintain the vehicles in an off'-working period.
From his experiments, Mr. Flintoff recounted observations in using a pedestrian -controlled battery -electric orderly truck to reduce stieet-sweeping labour in an area where mechanical sweepers could not be employed effectively. With a gang of four men, three of whom were sweeping and one was following to load and operate the truck.. he found that the men were less fatigued and they covered a greater area in a given tima, especially in hilly parts of the town.
£500 Saved An extended test had shown that labour could be much reduced and an ultimate saving of £500 was expected in the first year's operation. He had found that the most suitable type of body for the electric street orderly cart was a hand-operated tipper of 14-cubic-yd. capacity, or a detachable container of the same size.
When the cart is loaded, it is driven to the depot for unloading into a trailer. Where the hand-operated tipper is employed, the vehicle is driven up a ramp for unloading and in the second case the detachable container is replaced by a mechanical aid.