CHECKING COMMERCIAL VEHICLE EFFICIENCY.
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order to maintain the efficiency of a A fleet of motor vehicles, or even of an individual vehicle, it is essential to ascertain exactly what the vehicle i3 doing during the whole of the time it is away from its garage. Quite apart from the question of placing reliance upon the word of the driver, a recording apparatus shows where waste of time, owing to long stoppages at v.arions points,. occurs, and it may be possible so to arrange the route of the vehicle as to eliminate such losses of efficiency.
One of the most useful recording devices which we have seen is the What Was When, or, in its abbreviated form, the W.W.W. This gives clear records of the time of departure, the various speeds at which the vehicle is being driven, distances covered from one stop to another, total distance covered during the day's work, the hour and duration of each stop, and the time of returning home, and all this on one dial.
The device is driven in the same way as a taximeter, by way of a flexible coupling. The case, which is a turned aluminium casting, with a brass and aluminium lid and brass hinges, contains a simple and strongly constructed clock movement in a separate casing, which is wound by means of an ordinary clock key and is started by a little trigger device.
The main spindle of the clock movement. carries at its upper end a clip, which is intended for the holding of the paper registration dials. The driving portion of the mechanism operates a small needle, which punctures the paper
dial after each 11.0 yards travelled, 40 of such punctures forming a, curve equal to a distance of 21 miles, and two curves forming an angle, varying with the speed, and totalling a distance of 5 miles.
Thus the different speeds are easily distinguishable by the shape of the curves.
The only loose part of the apparatus is the interchangeable registration dial, the replacement of which takes less than one minute, and the simple puncturing device entirely does away with the need for any complicated writing mechanism. The drive from the road wheel is so arranged that the connecting sleeve cannot be removed until the case of the instrument is unlocked, and the housing for the operating wheels is sealed so that it. cannot be tampered with without attention being drawn to the fact. The mileage recorder is of the ordinary revolving disc type, reading up to 10,000 miles and then repeating. It can be examined through a small glass window in the lid of the outside case. The instrument is priced at £16 16s., and can be obtained from Pendergast Bros., 168, Regent Street, London, W. 1. The apparatus is of strong construction and is guaranteed for a period of 12 months, fair wear and tear and misuse excepted..