Iurniture 'ound the Clock
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THE Alston group of companies, specializing in the manufacture of medium-priced household furniture, have gathered together all the ingredients required to run successfully a large C-licensed fleet. From East Anglia they carry Albro furniture to all parts of the country, using their own fleet of over 30 vehicles with the help of a very few on contract hire.
The Group consists of three sister companies—Alston's (Long Melford), Ltd., of Ipswich, a large factory manufacturing bedroom suites; AIston's (Colchester), Ltd., of Colchester, which specializes in the making of three-piece suites, and Rayleigh Cabinets, Ltd., of Rayleigh, makers of kitchen furniture and in particular kitchen cabinets. Also associated with the group is a furniture store in Sudbury known as Alston's (Sudbury).
The Ipswich factory is the group's headquarters and it is here that all the vehicles are kept, with the exception of three at Colchester and one at Rayleigh. The maintenance and servicing of all of them, however, is undertaken at Ipswich. , The group transport manager is Mr. Patrick V. Connell. He not only has overall charge of the vehicles but is responsible for ensuring that everything produced at the Ipswich factory is got out in the time promised to customers, as
well as being generally in charge of the dispatch and invoi office and the maintenance department.
Mr. Connell started off in the stores in 1949 and•worki his way through various administrative posts. When 1 joined the company they had only 12 C vehicles and few on A licences which were used for household furnitu removals. The factory, small then compared with its prese size, produced 10 suites of furniture a day—or roughly . suites a week. Since that time there has been a stea( growth until now some 170 to 200 suites of furniture a produced every day; on an average, 1,000 suites leave t1 factory each week en route for furniture stores, In con juction with the sales manager, Mr. Connell wor out a programme of production. The suites are invoic4 as they are manufactured and when the invoices arri. on his desk they are built up into various areas. In th way the loads are built up. The country is divided in some 15 delivery areas. Destinations for the vehicles a thus decided, and all available vehicle space is taken up, necessary, with loads to be dropped on the route. Naturall bulk loads to one destination are the ideal but, more oft( than not, several drops are involved and it is not uncornmc for between 20 and 30 drops to be made from one vehic on a single journey. Mr. Connell arrives at work soon after 7 a.m. and spends about half an hour in the dispatch bay sorting out the vehicles to take the various loads. He spends a similar amount of time doing the same thing in the afternoon. Without exception, vehicles leave the factory tailboardloaded—i.e.. with the load, carefully sheeted and roped, actually resting on the extended tailboard.
The drivers allocated to the various journeys—and no driver has a particular, regular route, nor does the group run regular trunk services to any particular destination— are given a set time to return to the factory. If, for any reason—be it delay through traffic congestion or for any other reason—the vehicle cannot return at the stipulated time, the driver has to report the delay by telephone, giving his expected time of arrival.
To assist in the speedy and safe delivery of the furniture (which, in any case, is specially wrapped in canvas and• hessian coverings), certain incentives have been introduced. Over and above their normal wage, which I gather is higher than the recognized rate, a " no-accident " bonus is paid to the drivers. If there is no damage to the articles and no short deliveries, he can expect to receive extra remuneration for this. Increments are paid to the drivers, and, altogether, there is a general air of goodwill and co-operation between the men and the management.
Mr. Connell said, "The only drivers who leave arc those who get the sack—and that is not often."
• With such good conditions the company is able to demand high standards and pick and choose its drivers accordingly.
At the side of the factory, adjacent to an approach road, is the bay where vehicles are loaded with furniture which has come direct from the factory. The normal practice is to have all available vehicles loaded up by lunch-time, when they invariably start their journeys. Those that do not get loaded until the afternoon leave at any time between midnight and four in the morning.
No mates are carried in the vehicles, but when the larger vans are carrying their maximum capacity the drivers are allowed to employ a runner, as he is termed, to help them with the off-loading. The driver is given an "extra allowance to cover this. Supporting this round-the-clock transport operation is the maintenance department. Without it, of course, the vehicles could not be kept working at the pace they da, and upon it depends the essential continuous cycle of loading, journeying, delivering and returning to load.
Five fitters, under the charge of a foreman of the garage, keep the vehicles in running order. Not only do they do this but they " cannibalize " spare parts from old coach chassis and bodies which are bought for this purpose, in order to keep the older vehicle in the fleet running. .
The group have specialized in three makes of vehicleA.E.C., Dennis and Bedford. All, with the exception of one (a rigid open vehicle for carrying raw materials into the factory), are furniture vans. As well as keeping up with the times in purchasing the latest model of vehicle produced (the company recently took delivery of what they claim to be the largest furniture van in the country: an A.E.C. Regal coach chassis with Mammoth Major cab, fitted with a Luton body constructed by Arlington Bodybuilders, Ltd., of Ponders End) they are unusual in operating some really old vehicles—some of them pre-war models —that are kept in tip-top condition by a very fine maintenance system. Major repairs and overhauls are carried out on the premises, which are equipped with three inspection pits, all of them under cover. There is also covered accommodation for three vehicles under repair, plus two cars. (Fifteen staff cars are maintained by the department.) Welding, panel beating and spraying are all done on the premises, and spares to the value of £5,000 are kept in stock.
Arlington's do all the coachbuilding, to the specifications of the group, who have found aluminium best for their vehicle bodies. "We had an aluminium job in 1950, and it is still going strong," Mr. Connell informed' me. Apparently, that was sufficient for a policy decision to be made that all future bodies be in aluminium.
Each vehicle is serviced according to a rigid system formulated by Mr. Connell. Every four months a vehicle is taken off the road—its driver employed elsewhere—and given an " A' dock." This consists of a complete engine check, which includes the changing of injectors, oil and fuel filters, a check on engine mountings, fuel pump and couplings, etc. Also checked are clutch, gearbox, propeller shaft, front and rear axles, chassis frame, electrical equipment and brakes. A special form has been devised which has to be carefully followed by the fitter carrying out the examination. All repairs or replacements are carried out on the premises, with the exception of coachwork, which is done by the coachbuilders. Before it is allowed out on the road again, a vehicle is cleared only upon the signature of a fitter and with the approval of Mr. Connell. (A specimen form is shown on the left.) Every month, the vehicles are brought in for normal servicing—oiling and greasing. This is done by the driver, whose work is checked carefully by a fitter. Here, again, a check form has been devised and the vehicle has to be cleared before it can start working again.
Coupled with the excellent routine that has been devised for the actual administration and operation of the fleet, and the meticulous, first-class maintenance system that is in being, a careful watch is kept on costs.
With the aid of a large, specially printed book, Mr. Connell knows exactly what each vehicle costs to run. The cost of fuel, wages, expenses, maintenance and repairs—all are carefully accounted for. The number of journeys 'a vehicle makes during its lifetime; its rate of fuel consumption; the cost of tyres, insurance, claims for damage and depreciation, are entered so that at any time the exact cost of running each and every vehicle is known.
How has Mr. Connell, who admits to no previous experience in haulage until he started the job, managed to organize and run his department? Partly by trial and error, but mainly by keeping abreast of things through reading The Commercial Motor.
The day I visited Alston's, they had taken delivery of yet another new vehicle and with the furniture trade as it is now, there is no sign of any slackening in production; indeed, supply cannot .meet the demand, and Alston's are at present catering only for the home market. So long as the careful balance between vehicles and production is maintained if the group's output expands, the transport side of the business seems assured of success.