Personnel Problems in Passenger Transport
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QUESTIONS affecting the staff of road passenger transport undertakings form the subjects of two papers read this week at the annual conference of the Municipal Passenger Transport Association, at Southend-on-Sea. Yesterday, Mr. G. Beckett, general manager of Darwen Transport Department, presented a treatise entitled "Transport and the Man: the Increasing Importance of Personnel Problems." The other paper, which was read on Wednesday by Councillor I. Gray, C.C., chairman of West Bridgford Transport Committee, dealt with "Education in Relation to Road Transport."
Whilst Mr. Beckett believed that many benefits would result from State control of road passenger transport, he affirmed that amalgamations of transport undertakings into large systems might cause such concerns to become soulless. Efficiency and economy in operating machines should not take complete precedence over the welfare and happiness of the personnel, he said.
There were many disadvantages *in passenger transport as a livelihood, but before the war these were offset by certain advantages not enjoyed by workers in other employment. These included a guaranteed working week, holidays with pay, and sickness-pay and superannuation schemes. To-day, however, such advantages no longer remained peculiar to the industry. Problems of recruiting high-class labour must, therefore, be faced with an understanding of changed labour conditions, otherwise road passenger transport would be in a position to accept only third-rate labour discarded from modern industry.
Welfare Pays Dividends
Abstract or academic considerations were not necessary to prove the need for "employee service," Mr. Beckett went on. It was plain good business. The value of welfare appointments was amply proved during the war. On the subject of recruitment, he said that the officer in charge should be a high official.
Candidates for jobs as conductors should be tested for their arithmetical knowledge and digital dexterity. From this subject the speaker passed to a request for improved methods of fare collection, and said that until a better system was adopted men would have to continue to fit the job.
Mental tests for candidates should be approved by the National Institute of Industrial Psychology, and Mr. Beckett suggested that the Area Boards to control passenger transport should become members of the Institute.
Tests for alertness would be varied and might take the form of general knowledge of a town or city, or of local or national affairs, or they might be designed to test reaction when a quick decision had to be made. Such tests, claimed the speaker, stimulated the interest of applicants and impressed successful candidates with the importance which the prospective employer attached to the position.
Transport for Transport Workers
In turning to general welfare, Mr. Beckett stressed the need for transport to take employees home after hours and to bring them to the depots from home in the morning. He said that he would like to see traffic staffs provided with lockers. To prevent abuse of such an amenity, the help of the trade unions could be invoked.
Heavy concentration of peak traffic since the end of the war had prevented platform staffs from enjoying leisurely eaten meals at regular intervals at home. Hastily eaten sandwiches and a deadly monotony in fillings were responsible for many of the digestive troubles from which transport workers suffered. Meal breaks, said Mr. Beckett, should be an accepted part of every duty and the opportunity to have a good meal in comfortable surroundings should be made a statutory obligation.
Concerning the importance of well-designed uniforms, the speaker said that nothing could lower prestige of a transport department so quickly as untidy platform staffs. The ,,14 employer's responsibility should not end with the provision of clothing, but should extend to subsequent care. Mr. Beckett thought that conductors, like drivers, should be provided with dust goats for summer wear.
Research into the value of anti-cold vaccines and inoculations seemed to be indicated, stated the speaker, to lessen the occurrence of sickness in transport staffs. The most common ailments were influenza and colds, followed by bronchitis and rheumatism. Improved ventilation of buses, he considered, would reduce the incidence of respiratory ailments, whilst ultra-violet ray treatment could help cure inflammatory conditions of nerves and muscles.
The establishment of discussion groups, choirs, football teams and hobbies -sections was advocated for passenger transport workers.
Pioneers Were Adaptable
Councillor Gray began his paper with the observation that in the early days of mechanized road passenger transport, few transport officers or managers had been " educated" specifically for the industry. In a rapidly changing world, many of the pioneers adapted themselves to their environment and rose by strength of character and sound judgment.
He went on to say that there was greater scope and variety within a passenger transport undertaking than in any other local-government department. An employee might be engaged in engineering, industrial relations, operational work or finance. An applicant for a managerial appointment might be an expert in one or more of these branches. but only rarely would he be an "all-rounder."
Turning to a consideration of assistant staff, Councillor Gray declared that this group was the most in need of additional educational facilities. In July, 1943, a committee under the presidency of Mr. R. Stuart Pilcher was formed and in March, 1945, was authorized to continue as the National Standing Joint Committee on Road Transport Education. .
The committee's first report, issued last December, stated that area committees had been set up in many districts and that in the 1946 examinations of the Royal Society of Arts, there were 462 entries and 76 per cent. of papers written gained first and second-class certificates. The least satisfactory result was in Road Transport Operation (Passenger), where the pass figure was 62 per cent. An appreciable number of submitted entries was disappointing, particularly in this section.
The speaker considered, however, that in view of the lack of suitable textbooks, and the dearth of qualified teachers, results so far obtained were encouraging. He quoted questions set in this year's examination and stated that any employee of a transport undertaking who could tackle this set of questions successfully was an asset to his employers.
Luton's Training Scheme
Councillor Gray then cited Luton's training scheme as an example of a plan ta provide potential skilled executives for the transport department. Each lad attends the local technical college three times a week to learn mathematics, economics and one modern foreign language. A trainee on the traffic side spends up to six months in general traffic routine, compilation of duty schedules, office routine, preparation of traffic statistics and ticket work. On the engineering side the boys are given stores experience and training in workshop practice and craftsmanship. At the age of 17, each trainee becomes an auxiliary conductor to gain experience of outside traffic work.
The speaker then gave an outline of schemes for further training as planned by the Ministry of Education, and stressed the necessity of such plans and the difficulties in their future establishment. in conclusion, he answered the question of whether such costly schemes could be afforded by asking: "Can the Nation afford not to have a comprehensive system of education and training throughout industry in this post-war world?"
ONE of the most interesting visits, forming part of the, centenary Celebrations of the Institution of Mechanical•.Engineers, was that to the Acton works of C.A.V., Ltd., the main purpose being to view the new laboratories, including the Research and Development Departments.
The company was founded in 1890 in North Kensington by Mr. C. A. Vandervell, for the manufacture of storage batteries for ignition and road vehicle lighting, the transfer to Acton being made in 1904, when one small building was occupied. Then came the demand for dynamos and electric starters, which was quickly met; there soon followed a complete range of associated electric equipment—much pioneer work being carried on.
Bosch Patents Used Fuel-injection equipment for oil engines imposed a big demand for British-made equipment, and its production commenced at Acton in 1932 and proved of immense value to the war effort. As Mr. -E. L. Cadwallader pointed out during a convenient opportunity, arrangements were made for the Bosch patents to be utilized, but the agreement stipulated that all research was to be conducted by the patentees and at first this placed
the all-British company under a disadvantage.
For many years past. however, it has been carrying on intensive development, and the new laboratories are equipped with a splendid range of up-to-date apparatus, whilst an entirely new research section is nearing completion.
The tool room, in particular, is a most important part of the works and is probably one of the largest and best equipped to be seen anywhere in our industry. This is because a great deal of the work requires the highest precision, parts for injection pumps and the injector nozzles themselves having to be made to extremely close limits, with lapping as the final process.
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Describing a few of the machines, etc., in the order in which we saw them, we were particularly impressed by the profile grinding of nozzles. The machine uses a sandwich-type carborundum wheel, the grit grading being 120 outside and 80 inside. The wheel is frequently reformed by a diamond and careful checks made after the production of every 100 nozzles.
Drilling the holes in these is an art in itself and special machines have been developed; some nozzles have four holes set at an angle and as small as 0.008 in. Every nozzle is tested by spraying under a phased light to give a stroboscopic effect, the length of the spray also being checked.
The latest machines give grinding accuracy to 0.5 micro. inch and to tolerances of. ±0.00004in.; such extreme accuracy is required for plug gauges. etc. Another most interesting machine is the Wickman optical profile grinder. This has a master form 50 times full size and drawn on paper, the movement of the work being controlled by a pantograph link motion. The operator follows a drawing•by means of a stylus and watches the work through a special microscope. This machine will turn out a hardened cam in.20 hours, which at the beginning of the late war took 100 hours.
In the main Diesel inspection department there is a large nozzle-spray testing machine known as the Stroborama. a C.A.V. product which enables the spray to be closely examined. The phasing of the light flash relative to the spray period can be adjusted and details of the injection read on a scale.
Studying Spray Phenomena
Then there is a highly complicated apparatus for studying spray phenomena in high-pressure air. This has windows at front and back, and sparks behind the spray enable this to' be photographed on film which is mounted on a drum running at nearly 5,000 r.p.m Air pressure is up to 500 lb. per sq. in. While in use a neat wiper automatically cleans the interior of the windows. In this machine about 2 ft. of oislinary film is taken in approximately .01 sec.
The .fuel injected must be in fine droplets. This quality is tested by employing melted paraffin wax to give properties similar to those of the fuel. This wax is sprayed from a hot pump and nozzle, the droplets cool and solidify before reaching a wet surface. from which they are washed into a collecting vessel.
Nozzle-holder bodies' are subjected to high frequency induction heating for local hardening, being quenched by a water spray. The operation is automatic and the heat
ing and cooling take 15 secs. The apparatus is a Philips of 20-kilowatt capacity.
On the more mechanical side we were interested to note that the yokes for the dynamos and starter motors are made from flat mild steel strip. In-the larger the thickness is t in. A 160-ton press first bends the strip into a U and the second operation turns the ends of the U down to form a tube with a narrow slot. In an automatic welding machine a welding rod is placed into this slot and in under two minutes a perfect weld results, the whole rod being used, Knur1in0 Armature Shafts An unusual process is employed for knurling armature shafts for the reception of the commutator segments. which are forced over the knurled portion. The machine employed is a 100-ton hydraulic press in which the shaft to be knurled is rolled between a Axed tool and a similar tool on the rim This not only saves much time but obviates the possibility of twisted knurls.
To avoid excessive machining, many parts are screwed together and brazed with copper. At each point requiring brazing is placed a copper ring; there i. no flux but the parts pass into an oxygen-free atmosphere and through a Birlec furnace. The action is apparently of a capillary nature