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LK IN CEMENT DELIVERY
By a Special Correspondent
0 NE of the most important developments in post-war road transport is the ever-increasing demand for bulk delivery of many commodities formerly carried in bags or other small containers. In the cement industry this trend has led to important changes in the constitution of road fleets, and a typical example is that of G. and T. Earle, Ltd., Wilmington, Hull.
Established in the reign of George III. their transport was originally by horsedrawn vehicle, supplemented, as time went on, by rail and canal. These methods continued until the end of the 1914-18 war, but in the early 1920s the demand for cement was greater than the supply and some customers, rather than wait for an order to be delivered, formed the habit of engaging lorries and sending them in to the company's works to obtain supplies earlier than by the existing methods.
Earle's first purchase was a Morris 1-ton platform vehicle in June, 1925, to supplement local deliveries by horse and cart. By 1928 eight vehicles were in B30 service, undertaking journeys of up to 60 miles. It was soon realized that the use of their own transport offered many advantages, including prompt delivery to customers, instead of transport by rail or canal, with delays in transit and the higher costs of double handling and redelivery.
As more cement works were built and for cement in bulk, delivered by either tippers or by pressurized vehicles discharging into silos. Bulk deliveries last year amounted to 614,000 tons and accounted for 35 per cent. of total sales.
This has meant a change-over from platform vehicles to types suitable for bulk delivery, and the cement fleet strength is now 316, spread over 10 works and depots. There are 161 platform lorries, 66 tippers, eight pressurized vehicles, 79 other tankers and two vans. It is expected that eventually tankers will predominate for loads of six tons and over.
vehicles cover an area bounded in rth by a line drawn from Kendal Tees, and southwards by one a Anglesey, Chester, Leicester and , In addition to the main works Hull area, vehicles are stationed )p (Derbys), Kirton Lindsey , Earnstone (Notts), Widnes and Cauldon (Staffs), serving ,wn districts under the control of al works foreman or manager. [nigh overall control is exercised Wilmington. there is flexibility of Een t from one area to another as nal transport needs arise. Each functions, as a separate unit and ues vehicle replacement policy.
the tonnage carried by road in
■ 5 per cent. was in the company's Alleles and 45 per cent, in hired. s. To obtain the benefit of overuading and the consequent saving with better service to customers,
'portion delivered by Earle's own has gradually increased, and this has varied between 84 per cent. per cent., with an average figure per cent. Direct control enables npany to accept orders for early
r the following day,
fleet is made up of Foden, Leyte] Bedford 'chides, all of which ;iven satisfactory service, The , some of which arc more than s old, are particularly suitable for lly terrain around Hope and n. Ninety per cent, of the vehicles it engines.
nigh day-to-day maintenance is out locally, Hope is the main depot for the fleet, A long-term ment is the use of glass-fibre for tins as mudguards, cab roofs and ind signboards, and other items end to slitter in the course of use. safety is one of the main con)f Mr. R. M. Peak, who is ible for the overall direction of the fleet, and a high standard of roadworthiness is maintained, The vehicles arc operated strictly within the manufacturers' recommendations regarding gross loads, payloads, tyre pressures and so on.
Drivers are treated as responsible individuals and are expected to handle vehicles as their own.
All applicants for driving jobs .^.re subjected to the company's own tests. which are based largely on those used by the East Riding police and are divided into Om sections—road work and the use of controls.
As far back as 1930 an incentive system of payment for lorry drivers was brought into operation at one of the works and more recently this idea has .been extended to cover other works in the group, with beneficial results.
The company's productive capacity has been increased by 200,400 tons a year since the opening of Cauldon works for the manufacture of cement by dry process. Here the accent is on cutting down to a minimum heavy labour, dust and lorry-waiting time. Equipment is now being ordered to double the output at this works.
The raw meal of limestone and shale passes through the granulator plant and the nodules are then baked dry and hard before entering the kiln to be clinkered before passing into the cooler. The clinker leaving the cooler is transferred to a clinker store by means of a continuous inclined-trough conveyor.
Gypsum is delivered to the site by road in tipping vehicles and elevated into the gypsum store by• means of a feed conveyor and an elevator.
Clinker and gypsum are extracted by control feeders below the store on to a belt conveyor and fed, accurately mixed, to the 1,200 h.p. ball grinding mills. The cement discharged from the ball mill via a screen is pumped pneumatically to various cement storage silos.
Cement is extracted from the storage silos by means of air slides arid screw conveyors and delivered to the 12-spout packing plant by an elevator, The bags. which are filled at the rate of approxi mately 120 tons per hour, arc delivered on to road vehicles by retractable belt conveyors. A lorry can be loaded with 15 tons within eight minutes of backing against the loading bay.
Hulk cement is conveyed by a separate elevator and conveying system to hoppers which discharge into bulk lorries. Vehicles can be filled at the rate of about a ton a minute.