SALUTE TO
Page 38
Page 39
Page 40
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
THE FLEET
With 3,400 vehicles on the road the AA operates one of the biggest fleets in Britain. CM talks to the man who ensures it runs at maximum efficiency
• One of the country's largest fleet operators pays only £100 per year to tax each of its vehicles. It does not use tachographs and it is not limited by plating restrictions. Yet far from appearing regularly in the courts, this particular operator has become the largest organisation of its type in the world.
The man responsible for this fleet is Bob Wyatt, the Automobile Association's transport manager.
"As a private member's club, all vehicles operated by the AA are taxed at 2100 a year," he explains. "The driv er's hours rules apply, but we are not required to carry tachographs or to follow plating regulations — though we are careful to comply on both counts."
In 25 years with the AA, Wyatt has seen the Association's fleet alter dramatically. When he started working for the AA in 1961 most patrols operated on 600cc BSA M21 motorcycle combinations. Now the AA operates 3,400 vehicles of which only 24 are motorcycles.
The AA is currently investing tens of millions of pounds in computer equipment which will make its vehicle fleet one of the most efficient in the country.
At the AA's transport headquarters at Norfolk House, Basingstoke, a computer system is being developed which will provide Wyatt with a detailed life history of all 3,400 vehicles in the fleet.
The system, called TIS (Transport Information System), links Norfolk House with each of the AA's five regional headquarters and all 45 of its vehicle depots around the country. Whenever any money is spent on an AA vehicle — whether in purchasing, fitting-out, servicing, or fuelling — all the details are en tered into the new TIS system.
Wyatt says TIS will provide a great deal more vehicle information than the old manual system, which was operated on the AA's behalf by an agency. With the press of a few buttons Wyatt can check the full history of any vehicle in the fleet.
TIS gives a full listing of the costs per 1,000km of every vehicle and this information is automatically printed out at regular intervals (currently monthly). A particularly useful aspect of TIS is its ability to highlight any vehicle which is performing in an unexpectedly costly fashion; Wyatt can set cost parameters for all the vehicles. Any vehicle in the fleet which exceeds the cost margin he sets (currently 207) is automatically highlighted on the print out.
This information helps Wyatt to choose which vehicles to purchase. Perhaps equally important, it helps him to predict the likely performance of his fleet as a whole. Using TIS he can schedule a ser vice for any particular vehicle which has been shown by the program to suffer from reliability problems. He can also choose when to sell a vehicle, because TIS will estimate the mileage at which any particular vehicle becomes uneconomic to run.
For example, Wyatt says the petrolengined Transit 120 needs to be replaced after 160,000 km (100,000 miles) because thereafter it becomes too costly to operate. By comparison, the diesel engined Transit 120 has a longer life, needing replacement after 200,000 km 025,00(1 miles).
Two years ago Wyatt decided that diesel-powered vehicles provided significant cost savings compared with their petrolengined counterparts. Since then he has bought only diesels. TIS is now confirming the wisdom of his decision. Not only do the diesel vehicles appear to last longer, they also incur significnatly lower fuel costs.
"On average we are saving £800 per year, per vehicle," says Wyatt. -'1'his is partly because we pay the full retail price for petrol, but purchase our dery in bulk, so there is a big variation in price."
Each year Wyatt buys around 650 operational vehicles for the AA (he also buys the association's company cars), and he expects TIS will improve his purchasing judgement in the future. Wyatt's decision to switch to diesel will affect the smallest vehicles in the AA's fleet most dramatically.
This vehicle sector, which he calls Light Towing Vehicles (LTVs), comprises 1,900 vehicles including familiar car-derived vans like the Escort, the Maestro and the Ital van, all of which have traditionally been available only in petrol-engined form.
Wyatt says he is "in cahoots" with the vehicle manufacturers to ensure they know his future vehicle requirements. This contact may well have influenced both Ford and Austin Rover in their decisions to offer diesel-engined versions of their car-derived vans.
The new Escort diesel "is a very good engine," says Wyatt. "We have had no problems with it and we never get less than 50 mpg (5.65 lit/100km). It is also heavier than the petrol version so the extra weight at the front helps provide better traction when towing."
He is also complimentary about the Maestro van (see Maestro roadtest in CM next week). "I am anxious to try the Maestro diesel," he says. "The petrol version has been a very good little van for our purposes."
A fleet of larger vans with crew cabs is used on motorways. They have better pulling power than car-derived vans and have room for the stranded motorist and his or her passengers. "You can't tow the vehicle away and leave the family on the hard shoulder," says Wyatt.
The new Transit has been performing well for the AA and Wyatt says he is committed to Transits in this vehicle sector (the AA operates just four Sherpa vans and 11 Talbot Express vans compared with more than 600 Transits).
When Ford first introduced the new Transit earlier this year, Wyatt placed a large order for the old design to ensure the AA's supply of Transits was not interrupted. "We purchased 50 of the last production batch of the old design Transits," he says.
The AA's loyalty to the Transit is reflected in its latest vehicle, a Transit 190 fitted with a crew cab, a specially designed glass fibre Apex body and towing gear, developed by Bristol-based Brimec especially for the AA.
The towing gear is a spectacle and paddle lift system which was chosen by the AA after trials with a number of alternative systems. Wyatt says the Brimec equipment provides the most versatile towing system he has encountered. The Transits and the smaller LTVs together deal with more than three million breakdown calls each year while the 320 Relay vehicles in the AA fleet deal with a further 380,000 breakdowns.
The vast majority of the Relay vehicles are Ford Cargos (0813s and 0814s), and Wyatt's purchases in this vehicle category are exclusively Cargos at present. "I am slightly worried, with the lveco-Ford tie-up, that we don't have a second string at present," he says, "it is a little dangerous."
Most of the vehicles Wyatt buys are British-badged and it is a policy to buy British where possible. This policy is reflected in the AA's fleet of specialist vehicles, including 81 Land Rovers used in mountainous areas and 20 tractor units, used for towing new AA patrol vehicles to their depots around the country. Only the motorcycle fleet is exclusively foreign.
Plans are now afoot to ensure all 3,400 vehicles in the AA's fleet are operated at maximum efficiency. This will be achieved with a new computer system which is being installed in each of the AA's five regional offices.
The first such system, called Command and Control, has just been introduced at Stanrnore in London. It handles all AA members' incoming calls from the London area.
A trained operator takes all the call details down on the computer, listing the member's problem, location and membership number.
The computer then automatically sends details of the call to the AA patrol nearest the member. The details appear in the patrol vehicles in written form, on a radio printer.
Under this system the member is always served by the nearest patrol van, ensuring an efficient service, while fuel and vehicle wear are kept to a minimum. The patrol vans will be able to receive radio messages at any time. AA drivers need not stay in their cabs to receive radio messages; the messages are simply printed out for attention when needed.
If the Command and Control centre at Stanmore is successful the AA will install similar systems at its other regional headquarters, giving it unrivalled control of its vehicle fleet.
0 by Richard Scrase