Three Motor Wagons Save £1,200 a Year.
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Results of Three Years' Experience on a 25-tni1e Trip.
We have been able to gather some valuable data from the records kept by Messrs. Allen and Hanburys, Ltd., the famous manufacturers of infants' food and wholesale chemists. This company purchased a three-ton Thorny croft steam wagon (No. 1) in 1901, a second by the same makers (No. 2) in the spring of 1903, when a Yorkshire steam wagon (No, 3) was also bought. The statistics which are in our hands are most voluminous, and in themselves testify to the great care which is evidently exercised by this company in the control of their affairs. It makes us sigh for similar exactness in all cases where self-propelled vehicles are employed in competition with other forms of transport. We cull some particulars which will serve to demonstrate how satisfactory the general result has been, and we must say at the outset how strongly we feel that an acknowledgment is due to Mr. W. Ralph Dodd the director of Messrs. Allen and Hanburys, in whose hands the management has been, for the assiduous manner in which he has adhered to a first conviction that in motors the correct solution for his requirements was to be found. It is only those who took up motor haulage some four years ago who can fully appreciate the relative comfort of the circumstances which exist to-day.
The outstanding fact is that the two wagons delivered in March, 1903, have saved halt the railway and cartage costs, and the older wagon has saved fully one-third. The vehicles run between the company's laboratories and warehouse at Bethnal Green, E., and its factory at Ware, Herts, a distance of 23 miles by read. Taken over a twelvemonth, the actual costs Lor the double journey (46 miles), inclusive of depreciation at the rate of 20 per cent, per annum On the first cost, have been For No. a 1„:;3 iSs. 9d. ; for No. 2, os. 3d. • for No, 3, is. id. The double journeys per week have averaged 2.85 per wagon, or [31 miles for each, the aggregate number of such trips being 427 in so weeks. The loads from London to Ware are pretty constant at three tons, and the costs per ton, after charging depreciation, have been 13s. Ode ins. chld., and toe. 2d. for Nos. i, 2, and 3 wagons respectively. To bring out clearly how important the factor of depreciation is, and to impress on users the necessity for taking it into account in all calculations, we give the costs exclusive of this charge. They prove to be JOS. 3d., 75. 3d., and 75. per ton, which shows the incidence of depreciation to be no less than 3s. a ton. Actually, it is taken by Messrs. Allen and Hanburys at
145. in every £to of total expense debited against their motor wagons. We look upon this course as a very safe one from the business standpoint, and as a measure of precaution to which no exception can be taken when the three
machines are able to bear it and still to show a saving to the company of more than £1,200 a year ; but it would be distinctly excessive for application to motor wagons constructed in 1905. As regards return loads from Ware to London, these average a little above three tons, and yield results proportionally better.
The repairs account throws valuable light on the improvement which a few years has brought about in maintenance charges, the records being :—For No. I, £145 15s. 8d.; for No. 2, .4;60 125. 8d.; and for No. 3, .57 55. 5d. We know, too, that this improvement has been maintained, and that Messrs. Allen and Hanburys or other users can count on L40 a year as a fair maximum, including labour. The total wages bill for the year was 4'486 I is., and the weekly average was £2 195 per wagon for driver and
attendant. The cost of carriage by rail, with cartag-es added, works out at from 175. to 225. per ton, according to the class of goods.
In our conversation with Mr. Dodd on Monday last, • we were gratified to learn that the rvagons continue to render good service and that extensions are contemplated. The first development will be the addition of a vehicle to carry about 35cwt., and this will probably be propelled by an internal combustion engine of four cylinders, but no order has yet been placed. Messrs. Allen and Hanburys have experienced practically no trouble on the driver question, and have trained men who had been in their employ before the introduction of motor vehicles. Prior to the time when they decided to try mechanical power, the work was done by animal power, when three horses were able only to take two-ton loads, and the journey occupied twice as long as it now does. One of the difficulties experienced in these circumstances was the operation of trans-shipment at Tottenham, so that the horses, carts, and men belonging to each end could return to the Ware and Bethnal Green depots respectively. The costs of haulage by this means were only slightly less than by railway, and the saving was immaterial. It may be remarked. that the motor wagons do the double trip in the day, and are all stabled at Ware. We regret that at the moment of going to press some further interesting figures which Mr. Dodd has had taken out especially for the information of our readers had not come to hand, but fhese shall be published in a tabular and comparative form in an early issue. It goes without saying that the repeated divulging of such records as Messrs. Allen and Hanburys, amongst other users, have supplied for that purpose constitutes a very potent influence to further the application of commercial moors. We can find no room for estimates at a time when practical results are available.