One Day's Work (New Series) No. 4.
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House-to-House Delivery with a One-ton Argyll Van in the Service of the Direct-Supply Aerated-Water Co., Ltd.
When I presented myself at the Kingston depot of the Direct-Supply Aerated-Water Co., Ltd., on Wednesday morning, the 23rd ultimo, just before the hour of seven, I was surprised to find such a very large number of vehicles loading up for local delivery service of the different aerated waters manufactured by this enterprising company, the management of which (with Mr. E. Goddard as the managing director), during the past few years, has found it necessary greatly to increase the number of its factories and depots in various parts of London and the provinces. The products of this company are now conveyed, either by motorvan or horse-drawn vehicle, direct -to the user in almost every street, lane and village within a radius of 60 miles of the company's head office adjoining the Manorgate Works, at Kingston-on-Thames. The equipments of the various depots of this company are up to date in every detail, and the amount of aerated water which leaves its many factories and depots conveys the impression that there must be a large number of thirsty throats within the area of the -widespread operations. Some hundreds of horse vans are now in use, but I trust that many of these, in process of time, will be replaced by motor vehicles. It is some twelve months ago now that the company purchased its first motor, and at the present time it has three at work.
The particular van which Mr. Goddard permitted me to accompany on that day was a 151t.p., two-cylinder Argyll, worm-driven van, listed by the maker as capable of takinu a load of one ton, and I was told by Mr. P. H. Godfrey, the manager of the Kingston branch, that this particular machine,
chiefly on account of its capacity for high speed. is principally employed in the making of weekly deliveries to customers at Ashstead, Claygate Esher, Hersham, Hook, Hounslow,
Leatherhead, and Oatlands Park, and that the number of users in these districts, to whom deliveries are made regularly, amounts to between 450 and .500. On those days on which the van is not employed for house-tohouse delivery on one or other of the rounds comprising the places mentioned, it is used for feeding or clearing the Guildford depot, and its owners also find it useful for the relieving of breakdowns of horse-drawn vans, and for the despatching of goods to other branches of the company. %%here a rush of business,or a breakdown of the factory machinery renders it impossible for the branch manager to give adequate deliveries within the district for which he is responsible.
After the van has opened up a new district, and it has been ascertained that the available trade within that district is sufficient to warrant its establishment, a sub-depot is opened, from which house-to-house deliveries are frequently made by means of small horse-drawn vans.
On the morning of the 23rd ultimo, we left the works at Kingston about 8 o'clock with 34 dozen syphons of soda water, limes, sweet ginger, and other aerated waters, the gross weight of which was about 251 cwt. Proceeding via Surbiton, Hook, Lower Malden and Telegraph Hill, the first delivery was made in Oxahott Lane, and from there, by a. somewhat circuitous route, Leatherhead was reached at 9.20. Practically the
whole of the day's work of delivery was performed within a radius of five miles of Leatherhead, and, in this district, 121 calls were made, during the course of the day, in one-third as many streets. Some of the deliveries necessitated runs of two to three miles, down private or unmade roads, many of which are not shown on any map in existenee, so rapidly is this district being " de v eloped." The delivery of mineral waters is quite different from any other type of delivery work so far dealt with in these articles, as the driver and porter are not only the carriers, but also the salesmen, and the magnitude and value of the sales depends to a great extent upon their enterprise and discrimination. The van is, in fact. a perambulating aerated-water store, The frequent startings.and stoppings of the motor. at intervals of a few hundred yards, is extremely trying to all parts of the engine and transmission gear, but throughout the day the machine gave no cause for anxiety. It certainly got away with its load rather slowly at times, but this was due entirely to the fact that it had a 25 per cent. overload, and some of the gradients on which the van had occasion to stop were pretty severe: having once got on the move, however, the van showed plenty of speed and ample power. It was only the brief bursts of speed that made the day tolerable to me, so monotonous was the work of delivery. My judgment, however, told me that the van probably suffered more as a result of high speed, with its overload, than it did as a result of the repeated starting on a gradient.
There is very little variation in the load between the outward and homeward journeys of an aerated-water van, as, although it may start out with 34 dozen filled syphons, it usually returns with the same number of empty syphons, and the difference in the weight of 34 dozen filled and 34 Ibsen empty syphons is only about 7iewt. In batches of three, six, and twelve, the filled syphons were exchanged for empty ones at various places of call, and I was interested to note that an enormous percentage of the liquid load consisted of soda water, whereas the sweet waters formed but a very small part of the load and were not in very great demand. I therefore gathered that, in spite of the increased taxation on whisky and other
spirits, there were still some people who indulge in those beverages; this is, to my mind, evidenced by the quantity of soda water delivered, for I can hardly believe that in all the houses at which sods water was delivered will it he consumed in its '4 neat" condition—or with milk!
The work performed by this Argyll van is of such a character that a high average daily mileage is impossible, and, as a matter of fact, during the past seven months, its average has only been about 30 miles per day.. This necessarily means a relatively high cost per mile, but, as such a large bulk of its running is in new, or comparatively new, districts, the advertisement value should not be lost sight of, and it may be taken as a fact that the Direct Supply Company is more than satisfied with the general performances of its motorvans, two of which are of the well-known Argyll make. The company's fleet is maintained in running order by Mr. E. A. Turner, of Coombe Lane, Kingston, who has an agreement with the company for the maintenance of the machines in running order. The low weekly mileage results in high wages but low repair costs per mile run.