Meeting Milk-delivery Needs By Changing Conditions and Problems of Individual
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H. F. Smith, Businesses .May Greatly Affect Future of Transport Director, Kirby and West, Ltd: T.RE article by Mr. A. C. Morrison on "The Future of 1 Inner Zone Transport,'' published on January 2, raises many points 'of interest and calls for serious, comment. I have had the privilege of co-operating with him in the early days of electric trucks, and have 'long been a user of the6e vehicles. My company is, in fact, still running the first electric truck produced by Mr. Morrison's concern.
The present restrictions' on transport in general are bringing about situatidns which were undreamed of before
the war. Competition is restricted, and overlapping of deliveries is being cut out in order to save fuel and manpower. The question is: Shall we ever return to pre-war conditions? So far as essential supplies are concerned, I think that the Government will keep a firm hand. pa the situation, with a view to -control of costs. This may lead to nationalization, or perhaps to a mild form of it, brought about by so-called voluntary organization by the trades themselves under thinly veiled threats from the.Ministries.
The position in the milk trade is this : Collection of milk from farms is doneby creameries, dairymen (distributors),
and co-operative societies. Their routes overlap indiscriminately, and villagers often see from three to eight or more lorries from various concerns during the day. This will 'soon be put in order and collection will be done in zones to prevent overlapping.. Collection from farms' is almost always done by light lorries of the 2-3-ton type. Even if zoning takes place, no enormous savings will follow, because the same number of calls must still be made and the same number of vehicles will be required to carry the same amount of milk, the only exception being that, in some few cases, small quantities collected by odd small firms can be brought in by the larger' vehicles.
Contrary to what might be expected, experience shows that larger lorries are not beneficial in collection. For instance, we use some Bedford 2-tcainers and 3-tonners, which handle the work well.
Recently a Vulcan, plated.for'6 tons, was put into commission. It has a large top deck, and the body is made entirely of duralunain, but it is too large for work in country lanes and is not economical. TO make two journeys per day, each large enough to fill the vehicle, takes too long. This results in the driver being worked for excessive hours (seven days per week). and causes the second load to be brought in too late in the day. In any case, the electric vehicle cannot, in its present state, enter this field.
Now for the retail side. Some few years ago, the Perry Report was made on the problem of distribution Of milk This report criticized the overlapping which occurs and suggested that by zoning, rationalization, amalgamation, or nationalization an improvement could be made which would be so economical as. to reduce the retail_ price of milk.
The present difficulties of fuel and man-power are such that pressure is again-being brought on the trade to put its house in order This has already been done in many other distributive trades, 'and has been delayed in the case of milk only because of the intricate problems involved, the 4%20 principal of which is the perishable nature of milk. '
During the recent bad snowy weather some firms -tried with success delivery., on alternate days, but this offers no saving in vehicle -numbers and cannot 'generally be applied in cold weather, because i would then be impossible to revert to daily delivery on hot days when it is essential.
It therefore appears that zoning of dihricts .is the only method of saving. This means that each distributor will be given a district iii which only he may opel-ate. • Now we may assume that the days of hand harrows are past, for only women and elderly men are available. What, then, is the type of vehicle required? Mr. Morrison puts forward the electric hand barrow, carrying 9 cwt. These are of two types, one in which fitted crates are used, and all bottles must be transferred from their crates to -the barrow crates, whilst all empties must be transferred back in a similar way. This causes loss of time and temper, but increases the carrying capacity of the vehicle. The other type is made to accommodate the standard milk-bottle crates, and this type is easier to work with, but the weight of a crate full of bottles is about 65 lb., so that a 9-cwt. load will be 16 crates of 20 bottles each, which gives a total of 820 bottles. Such a load will not go far in a zoned area, even at present while we are ,-ationed. After the war the case will be worse, and at a conservative estimate we may assume that a load of at least 1 ton is required.
Further difficulties which arise in practice with these small vehicles are:— (1) That they have small tyres, which do not stand up to the load.
(2) The type baying the drive on the one steering wheel puts a further large duty on this wheel and tyre.
(3) The ground clearance is only a few inches, which is not sufficient in snow.
(4) Under present conditions these vehicles require to be fed by lorry at least once during the day.
Thus we arrive at a vehicle carrying at least I ton, of slow speed for house-to-house work, with quick, easy controls, and preferably a stand-up driving position at the front on a platform arranged for quick and easy access. For districts farther afield the vehicle must have a seat for the driver and a higher available speed. These features could be arranged to. be embodied in a standard vehicle for use when required.
For delivery of bottled milk to depots for distribution it is doubtful whether the present petrol-engined.lorries will be superseded. A medium-sized business cah use a lorry for bringing in one load of milk, or two short-period collections, and then use the same vehicle for depot work.
A method in use in America is to employ mechanical horses for this type of work, so that the lorries can be brought in and detached, thus allowing the driver to hook up an empty one and proceed out again with no delay. This could apply to both collection and depot delivery. Mr. Morrison's article is worthy of further discussion, and it is to be hoped that others will put forward their views.