Q Till now I have operated a fleet of rigid vehicles
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but I feel that I can obtain better working and greater flexibility with articulated units. Can you say what is the ideal ratio of trailers to tractive units?
Ai, is difficult to be precise about the best ratio of trailers to tractive units, so much depends on the nature of the operation. The majority of operators who run articulated units do so for greater platform length than the conventional artic flexibility and, therefore, operate on a one to one basis. However, those who do use the artic vehicle conventionally, that is dropping one loaded trailer and picking up another -either loaded or empty — usually apply a ratio of 11/2 trailers to one tractor.
There are of course, operators who hire out trailers to others as well as operating their own artic units and these would have a far greater number of trailers than just their own needs_ It is obviously wasteful of capital to have too many trailers standing idle involving expenditure on standing costs such as insurance, depreciation, rent and rates, hire purchase interest and so on. It is important, therefore, that you schedule your tractive units carefully to make the best use of the minimum number of trailers in operating your service efficiently.