What the Years Have Taught Us
Page 75
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A User Who Contributed His Experiences to"TheCommercial Motor" Nearly 30 Years Ago Compares Conditions of 1909
With Those of To-day
I N the volumes of The Commercial Motor of nearly 30 years back may be found a series of letters entitled " User's gxperiences." These contributions gave a simple account of the thoughts and experiences of a haulage contractor of those days. The letters have long since ceased to appear, but the user is still operating. It is proposed to renew these letters for a period, for the purpose of comparing the experiences of 1909 with those of to-day.
Such a comparison cannot fail to emphasize the directions in which the industry has advanced and, perhaps, even more vividly, the directions in which it has failed to make satisfactory progress. It may also give evidence of how far the individual opinions of the writer of so 'ong ago have been borne out by experieuce.
In order better to appreciate the conditions under %vhich a user's experiences were written, certain comparisons should be made with the conditions prevailing to-day. In 1909, the only commercial motor vehicles available were steam wagons of practically only one carrying capacity, i.e., 5-6 tons, and with steel-shod .wheels.
To-day, the steam wagon has almost disappeared, its place having been taken by the petrol vehicle of 5-cwt. to 100-toos capacity. Whereas the steam wagons were equipped with only two. axles, the modern lorry may have as many as four.
In addition, there is the oil engine, with its improved fuel Consumption, and, hovering on the horizon, although not yet firmly established in use, are producer-gas plants, steam turbines and engines running on compressed gas.
Moreover, the old bugbear of vibration, which is so frequently referred to in " User's Experiences," has largely vanished with the introduction not only of rubber tyres but of pneumatics.
Changes in 30 Years.
These few facts relating to the vehicles alone, indicate an entirely different set of conditions from those of 30 years ago.
But it is to the roads that we must look for the most outstanding examples of changed operating conditions. " User " is constantly referring to the inadequacy of the roads of that time to carry the weights of his vehicles. The main roads were often only country lanes 20 ft. wide, of which only some 10 ft. were fit for heavy traffic, and then only in the summer.
The lanes are to-day being slowly replaced by wide main roads for four lines of traffic, and able to withstand the heaviest loads throughout their full width. Bit by bit, roads are being straightened and miles of uunecessary travel eliminated, whilst—and this is of vital importance—they are being constructed of material which is impervious to frost. When we come to consider the control of the industry by Parliament, we may have reason to ponder on the progress or lack of it, since-those early days of road transport's fight for existence.
" User's " first letter, dated January 30, 1909, refers to a ,skid on an icebound hill and adds: This was practically unavoidable in the .absence of some efficient non-skid tievice for descending hills in frosty weather, or until the local authorities feel it their duty to sand the worst hills in the district during such weather."
Have Conditions Improved?
Have matters improved materially since this sentence was written? To-day, we have the advantage of chains fitted to pneumatic tyres, but the local authorities are still slow to sand hills, or to leave heaps of sand available at the roadside. It is only after they receive information that roads are impassable that they get busy. In the meantime, collisions have occurred and damage has been sustained.
Is it not "time that the Ministry of transport took steps to have this situation improved in the interests of safety? Now that the Ministry is responsible for so great a mileage of the trunk roads of the country, it is well placed for taking action.
We are rapidly approaching a time of the year when the roads become extremely treacherous, due partly to the oil which has been deposited on the road surface during the busy motoring months of the summer, and partly to dead leaves.
" User's " letter then refers to an unwise operator who insisted upon grossly overloading, even in bad weather, and met with disaster. This question of overloading is still with us, being largely encouraged by Parliament in one way or another.
Parliament knows only one limitation of weight, that is, for the heaviest class of vehicle. I refer only to fourwheeled vehicles. The total laden weight allowed is 12 tons and the maximum axle weight, 8 tons.
These were the limits allowed when " User " wrote his experiences, and when vehicles Were shod only with steel tyres and modern construction was unknown. In those days, Parliament had only one class of commercial vehicle for which to legislate. To-day, the roads and the vehicles have altered out of all recognition; but Parliament goes on as if nothing hadhappened. The result is a direct encouragement to the operator to overload light chassis and still remain well within the legal limits,rather than to employ a sturdy chassis and approach more nearly the limits which the law prescribes.
As if still further to encourage such a practice, Parliament taxes vehicles according to unladen weight, and takes no account of the gross weight. In law, there is nothing to prevent an operator from putting a gross load of 12 tons on alight van.
The writer actually knows of a 3-tonner which has been converted into an articulated six-wheeler, and is cariying a 2,506-gallon tank loaded with petrol. With the tank, the load is at least 10 tons, The astonishiry thing is that, presumably, the engineers of the Petroleum Department of the Home Office have passed the vehicle for such a purpose !
Log Sheets of 1909.
One of the features of " User's Experiences " was the production of a " log sheet" each week, setting out the earnings, mileage, tonnage, percentage of work done, and fuel and oil used. It is not intended to repeat this information regularly in the present series, but to make such comparisons only occasionally.
This week's log reads as follows:— January 30, 1909: Earnings, £36; mileage, 600; tonnage. 163; percentage of work done, 86; coke used, 6 tons 10 cwts; oil (gearing), 10 gallons; oil (cylinders), 4 gallons. .
From this information it will be seen that " User " earned 14.4d. per mile and slightly over 7s. per ton. He used 1 cwt. of coke over 41 miles at 9s. per ten, the cost being a little over Id. a mile, and 14 gallons of oil, that is, a gallon for 43 miles.
The following is a comparison of these figures with those for the corresponding week of 1937:—
1909. 1937.
Earnings "' 436 £1,907 Mileage ... „. 600 34,823 Tonnage ... 103 4,905 Fuel Earnings per mile 147td. 13.2d. Earnings per ton ... 7s. 7s. 9d. Fuel cost per mile ... ld.•