The Use of Motor Vehicles in Haulage of Materials on the Highway.*
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By F. W. SMART, Chief Assistant to County Surveyor of Bedfordshire.
During the year 1911-12 the Bed-. fordshire County Council erected a Highways Depot in -Bedford principally for the manufacture of tarmacadam. The town of Bedford is so situated that for practical purposes it may be taken as being in the centre of the county. There are 735 miles of main roads directly maintained by the County Council. The tarmacadam plant commenced work on the 1st April, 1912, and the annual output of manufactured material is about 12,000 tons. It atonce became apparent to the Highways Committee that some means must be provided for the conveyance of this material and tar, slag dust, etc., to the various parts of the county as past experience had taught that hired lorries were both expensive and disappointing. After full consideration the County Council decided to purchase three 36-40 h.p. -petrol lorries from Messrs. Commercial Cars, Ltd., of Luton. The deciding factors in favour of petrol lorries as compared with steam lorries were as follow:— Speed of 8 or 12 miles per hour as against five miles and consequently a greater daily mileage and no waste of time taking in water.
Trouble with tubes and boiler of steam lorry.
Petrol lorries are not affected by weather conditions to the same extent as steam lorries, especially during the winter months if the steam lorry has steel tires. Less damage to roads by rubber tires than by steel tires, which does not, of course' apply in the case of a steam lorry with.
rubber tires. .
One man only is required on a petrol lorry as against two for
a steam lorry. Convenience of petrol compared With coal fuel
The three lorries have, up-todate, travelled 39,284., 28,824, and 29,944 miles, and have conveyed 11,617, 13,192 and 9599 tons respectively, and the author regrets that the detailed costs for the year ended 31st March Jest are not yet completed, so the workings of the lorries for the year ended 31st March, 1914, have been taken and are as follow : Total cost of each lorry, inclusive of all fittings, £722 3s. 4d.
Capacity of body, 5 tons. Body Depreciation is written off at the rate of one-seventh the total cost each year.
It will be noted that the cost per working hour is 45.8d., and this figure and not the cost per ton mile is the one taken as a basis -for' the allocation of the amounts into the main road general abstract books, the time sheets giving the exact numbers of hours, and so avoiding the difficulties of measurements which would be necessary if the basis were per ton mile. Daily sheets are supplied to each driver, and the mileage recorded by a mileometer, and the sheets are checked by the stores clerk.
The cheapest steam lorry hired in this county works out at 50s, per
working day of 10 hours, and experience proves that one of the Council's lorries can convey an equal quantity of material and cover the same distance as the hired lorry and trailer. Analysing the above detailed costs it is found that the lorries have each worked an average of 2528 hours, and taking the number of working hours at 54 Weekly it will be seen that the lorries have remained idle an average of 280 hours or 28 working days inclusive of holidays. In order that the County Council may convey road material by their own lorries on to any cartage length the following clause is inserted into each cartage agreement :- " The County Council reserve to themselves the right to cart tar macadam or other materials from the County Council depot ' to any length of road, and to cart by their own motor lorries from any station to any length of road." In a county with a. large. mileage of Main roads and with only three motor lorries, it will be seen that the surveyor can so arrange to cart road material on to the road lengths for which there was no competitive tendering for cartage, and so save considerably. For example, in the northern part of this county some of the cartage lengths are six miles from the nearest
station and the lowest cartage tender is 5s. 6d. per ton; and frequently that carter has only one team available. Apart from the serious inconvenience of being unable to get the material carted just when it is required, if; say, 200 tons of material were required for that length, the cartage cost by horse labour would be £55, whereas a lorry, if provided with two men to help fill and empty can convey 20 tons daily to that length six miles from the station at a total cost of £22 Is. 8d. (based on 45.8d. per hour plus 6s. per day for two men), which sum is less than one-half the cost of horse-haulage. All such road lengths as these are ear-marked, and the material for same is not ordered until the tar macadam work for the season is completed and the lorries are available for work outside the depot. When leaving depot on the Monday, sufficient petrol for the week is taken and stored in a convenient place near where the lorry is to work, and no difficulty has been experienced in finding suitable storage for either petrol or the lorry. In comparison with horse haulage in this county the cost is from 6c1. to Bd. per ton mile for horse haulage as compared with the lorry price of 3.93d.
For a comparison of lorry versus railway freightage a typical case in this county is as follows :—Dunstable is a town about 20 miles from the depot, and -the railway rate is 4s. 8d. per ton or for. 20 tons a total cost of £4 138. 4d., to which must be added a eartage rate on to the -jobof, say, -Is: 6d. per ton, making a total of 26 3s. 4d. A lorry can convey 20 tons in twO working days at a eost of 23 16s.'0., "or £1, saving of.2s. 4d per ton or £117 on lopo tons of material conveyed. The 4s.. 8d. rate is certainly_ very high, and is accounted for by the traffic having to pass over two companies' lines, btit taking the rate from the depot t;o Luton (direct route on the Midland ,Railway) the railway rate is 3s. per ton, and upon the same basis as above it is found that by the use of lorries a saving of 8d. per ton or £33 on 1000 tons of Material .delivered is effected. These figures. appear very small, but when a full year's working is taken into consideration the total saving is very apparent. On Saturday mornings, from the very outset when. the lorries were riew,7`a-• practice: has always been made, no matter how busy, for each lorry. to take out one load only, or two if -theworkbe-close to the depot, and devote the remainder of the morning to washing down, cleaning, oiling, and generally overhauling, -andexperience has proved that it is' most essen
tial and economical to have a weekly overhaul.
With regard to the running of the lorries, the engine of the first one purchased was not taken down until it had done 22,000 miles, and then only because it Was considered time for a general overhaul. The engine, gearbox, etc., were in splendid condition, taking into • consideration the distance the lorry had run. The most serious troubles to contend with were tires and broken ball-races in the back driving wheels. The guaranteed tire mileage of 10,000 miles could not at first be obtained from the twin tires of the driving wheels, and it was nearly two years before the best make of tires to suit the particular class of traffic and lorries was ascertained. Front tires have always run 20,000 or. more miles, and now twin driving wheel tires are still running which have fravelled 14,000 miles; and are good for another 1000. With regard to the broken ball-races, these usually broke when. the lorry was constantly upon very rough ground, such as gravel haulage from pits or on a particularly rough and hard piece of road.
• At the time the lorries were purchased only, two singlewere fitted to each hub; but it is passible now to have either a hub with two double ball-races, or roller in •lieu of ball bearings. Either of these if fitted will practically eliminate all hub troubles. With respect to petrol supplies, the author is quite convinced, that buying in bulk _and. having storage tanks with automatic apparatus for filling into the lorry tanks, is the. most economical method of handling petrol when several hirries are in use. The question
of the particular make of spirit to suit the lorry is also a. most important one. The price of the various spirits of reputed same grade by different makers hardly varies, and in order to deal fairly with the matter it was decided to carry out a test by actually running a load over a. certain route on one spirit and repeating the journey on another spirit. This test was carried out. on two occasions, and it was found that a mileage of 4.34 and 6.42 per gallon respectively could be obtained from what were apparently the same grades of spirit and at the same price per gallon. In rural districts at the present time it is almost impossible to obtain competitive tenders for horse haulage, and the Highways Committee were so satisfied as to the. economy of the petrol lorries that at the last meeting they were fully prepared to purchase another lorry for work during the present season, but in view of the fact that the makers could not promise delivery within nine in oaths the purchase was postponed.
In conclusion-it is the author's opinion that itis ,practical economy all round for a County Council to own its own fleet of lorries, as the 8urveyer has :a direct control Over the drivers who very quickly take in interest in the work, and are thus a direct means of communication between the depot and office and all the various gangs at work in the county. The surveyor cab ascertain daily the exact quantities that each gang is dealing' with, and can be assured that all orders Wen overnight*ill be carried out the following day in accordance with the instructions given.