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Profits from Sugar-beet Haulage

22nd October 1954
Page 66
Page 67
Page 66, 22nd October 1954 — Profits from Sugar-beet Haulage
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

Fair Rates Have Been Established in this Class of Work, but an Operator's Prospect of Earning a Reasonable Revenue Depends Upon the Number of Loaded Journeys He Can Make Throughout the Campaign

IT appears that the sugar-beet crop this season is likely to be round about average. Harvestirig has been delayed ..s the result of the inclement weather which, to some of us, seems to have persisted throughout the year. It has, however, commenced and is bringing the usual crop of troubles to the hauliers who take the crop to the factories.

This is one of the branches of haulage to which I have given a good deal of attention. 1 wrote my first article upon it in 1928, when conditions were bad. I have, in course of time, visited most of the factories, where I have watched proceedings, and have seen the gradual improvements in conditions brought about mainly because the factories have more and more realized that whether they like it or not, the bulk of the crop is brought to the factories by road.

The principal difficulty in the early days was that the provisions for the receipt of the crop were, in the first place, designed With the idea that the railways would be responsible for bringing the beet to the factories: the facilities for that portion of it which came by road were inadequate. Tremendous strides have been taken since then, and practically every factory has gone to great expense to make good that early deficiency.

Strict Adherence to Rates

Rates were always a problem and cutting was more rife, I think, than in any other branch of the haulage industry. Great credit is due to the Road Haulage Association for the work which has been done to stabilize rates at a reasonably economic level. I believe too that, generally speaking. operators have adhered strictly to those rates, although, as is inevitable, there have been and still are, back-sliders.

To demonstrate the fairness of the stabilized rates, which now stand at the level indicated by thp accompanying table, here is an example of the way a rate is built up and how a haulier can make good at those charges, also how foolish he would be ifhe were to work for anything less.

The haulier's prospect of earning a revenue which will show a reasonable margin after all expenses have been met depends to a large extent upon the number of loaded journeys he can make per week throughout the campaign. A quick turn-round to each journey is the key to the solution of that problem.

As, however, there have been increases in wages since the schedule was drawn up and agreed, it follows that the margin of profit will have been correspondingly diminished, The amount involved, converted into a rate per ton, is, of course, small, but is nevertheless not on that account to be ignored. Its presence makes it more incumbent on the

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operator to seek means for cutting his expenditure or, on the other hand, increasing his earning capacity.

One way to bring about that desirable end is that to which 1 have just referred, namely, a quick turn-round. The primary object of any steps to that end is to increase the number of loaded journeys per week. , There are, in sugar-beet haulage as in the haulage of most traffics, two ends to every journey. In this case the one end is at the sugar-beet clump at the roadside and the other end either at the railway station or at the factory. In this article I am concerned only with deliveries to the factory.

As regards the farmer's end of the journey, it is of interest to read the conditions set out at the foot of the rates schedule. Growers are to give all possible assistance in loading. If the haulier sends a driver and mate, as he usually does, assistance would mean that the farmer should have a couple of men available to help load the vehicle.

Farmers Give Little Help That does not always happen. In some parts of the country the aid which the farmer affords is almost negligible. In the words of one farmer who grows a large acreage of beet: "A farmer will employ only the number of men for whom work can be found all the year round and this will not provide any surplus for the lengthy task of loading beet by forking."

Only seldom is the labour provided by the small farmer of any great use in reducing the time necessary to load the beet into the lorry.

At the factory end, a good deal has been done in recent years by the British Sugar Corporation to facilitate unloading of road vehicles conveying sugar-beet to their factories. Wherever practicable, structural alterations have been made at great expense to make it possible for road vehicles to discharge their loads in the minimum of time and get away quickly.

One of the factors which tend to make it difficult for the haulier to be successful in his efforts to reduce the time needed at the factory end of his journeys is the tendency for queues of vehicles to form to be weighed, unloaded and reweighed. It is not, to far as my own personal investigation shows, because of any delay at the weighing machine. Vehicles are on and off it as quickly as can be expected and the time is rarely more than one minute per vehicle. „ The tendency for queues to form is governed to a certain extent by the method of unloading. It is, of course, known that there are three ways in which lorries discharge their loads at the factory. One is by the use of the Elfa, whereby the beet is washed by a powerful jet of water to fall into flumes which lead into the factory. The second is by hand unloading from the vehicle into one or other of the silos which are available for that purpose. The third is tipping into the silo. The third method, of course, is open only to hauliers who have tipping vehicles which they'can put on to the work.

• Where non-tipping vehicles are employed, the delays at the factory may be great, amounting as a rule to about an hour and sometimes more than that, depending on the flow of beet into the factory.

When vehieles unload at the Elea there is, as a rule, a delay of an hour in getting into, position beneath the apparatus. Only a limited number of vehicles, seldom more than four, can be unloaded, at any one time. The wait is usually an hour, and an hour and a quarter can be taken as the probable time the vehicle can be at the factory between running periods.

With hand unloading, there is not so much queueing because there is usually plenty of room for vehicles to run up to the side of the silo and unload the beet.. The time here is that needed to unload the beet by hand and it is about the same as that involved in queueing for the Elfa installation.

The third method is undoubtedly the best, especially where, as in some of the factories, provision, has been made to facilitate the use of tipping lorries., for with that method there is no queueing to unload. The vehicles run straight from the weighing machine to the'oVerbead runWay whence the load is tipped immediately and. the vehicle proceeds again on its • way to the weighing machine, for its second. weigh. (The necessity of a 'second weighing is to ascertain the net weight of the beet. At the first weigh the record is the weight of the lorryplus load, 'whilst the second is of the empty lorry. The'difference between the two is the net Weight of the beet.)The average time needed is a quarter of an hour instead of one hour to an hour and a quarter by the other methods.

There is still, I understand, at some factories a little difficulty and loss' of time because of the method 'of testing the beet. It is necessary 'to take a test to ascertain the percentage of sugar in the, beet. The farmer is paid according to the percentage: I believe that the basic figure is 15% or 15•11%. If the beet has that percentage the farmer is paid the basic price per ton. If it has more, his payment is higher, and if the percentage is lower his remuneration is accordingly decreased from the basic Trice.

I think I have written enough to indicate that the haulier who is carting beet is well advised to use tipping vehicles, ' but it may nevertheless be useful to endeavour to evaluate the gain which comes to the haulier as the result of the use of tippers as against, ordinary non-tipping vehicles. • 72 Tons a Week

Take the case, of 'the use of a petrol-engin.ed 6-tonner able to make an average of 12 journeys. per week on• a 20-mile lead. I have been told that, in usual circumstances, it should be possible to make that number of trips,, in a week of 60 hours. That means that the tonnage cartedto the factory amounts to 72 per week. The payment for that work is at the rate of •13s. 7d. per ton, so that the revenue will be £43 18s.

With a tipper, I am advised that at least three more journeys per week will be practicable, so that the, total tonnage will be 90 and the revenue '6l 2s. 6d. If I admit, as is generally agreed, that the tipper costs from 10% to . 12i% more to operate than a non-tipper of equivalent capacity, there is still a sufficient margin to pay that cost and retain a margin of profit in excess of the extra cost of the tipper.

I hope to return to this matter again. in a subsequent article where I shall endeavour to show how much profit there, can be in this business for the haulier who operates efficient vehicles and possesses a knowledge of his costs..

. S.T.R.

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Organisations: Road Haulage Association

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