L.P.G. Suppliers Favour "Artics"
Page 49
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THE demand for liquid petroleum gas, both for domestic and industrial purposes, has risen greatly in Ireland during the past six years. Suppliers with a network of depots and dealers are McMulians Kosangas, Ltd., Dublin and Belfast, an Irish-Danish concern.
Seven of their eight long-distance delivery vehicles are Leyland Super Comet tractors with B.T.C. Four-in-Line semi-trailers. Articulated outfits were chosen chiefly because of difficulties in manceuvring rigids in many parts of the country. Even so, some delivery points are inaccessible to " artics," so that cradles to carry 14 cylinders have been built on the tractors. When a lane to an awkward delivery point is reached, the semi-trailer is detaOted and left parked on the main road, and the tractor makes the delivery solo.
Bodywork of the semi-trailers was built by Messrs. J. Griffith Roberts, Dublin. Floors arc of oak and the 6-ft.-high stake sides of steel tube. The semi-trailers arc 24 ft. 6 in. long. Cylinders are loaded upright in three tiers, shaped timber battens being placed between each layer to prevent contact between the cylinders. An average load is of 480 cylinders weighing about 12 tons.
The Super Comet outfits are almost entirely engaged upon supplying depots and dealers. There are depots in 17 main centres in Eire serving 870 dealers who may run out of stocks between deliveries from Dublin, from where the operators have 31 regular routes. Each vehicle makes 15 drops a day and covers 950 miles a week. A typical run lasts for two or three days, and the longest—to the south-western tip of the country—four.
Drivers and mates keep to the same vehicles and routes. There is no empty running because discharged cylinders are carried on return journeys. Fortnightly servicing is performed in Dublin and Belfast.