HELP FOR HAULIERS.
Page 19
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. Advice to a Coal Merchant on the Use of Lorries Instead of Employing the Railway. Quotations per Ton-mile.
IT IS pleasant at any time to be able to demonstrate that the haulier is in a position directly to compete with the railway companies, and particularly so at present, when it is quite clear that trouble is going to blow up from that quarter in which railway interests are located.
I have lately been in touch with a north-country coal merchant. He is in the habit. of supplying about 70 tons of coal weekly, distributed amongst the householders of a small township which is situated some 12 miles from the colliery whence conies the coal. The railway rates for the cartage of this material amount to 8s. per ton, 228 a week, and my correspondent wondered whether the work could not be more economically and expeditiously executed with the aid of a motor lorry. The answer, as I was able to show, and which the following figures demonstrate, is distinctly in the affirmative.
He has in mind, for reasons not stated, a five-ton petrol lorry as the means of 'transport, and, although this is not, perhaps, the most economical method of doing the work, I will commence by considering the cost of transport using such a vehicle. The running costs of a machine of this capacity amount to a shilling a mile, made up as follows : —Petrol, 41d lubricants, id. ; tyres, 2d. ; and maintenance, 21d. Depreciation, which, I am•sure, must be reckoned on the mileage basis, 20. The standing charges will amount to 26 158. a week. Theretwillibe the wages of the driver, which I have --assumed, in my letter to this correspondent, to be 24 a week. The cost of a licence works out at 12s. a week, garage rent 13s., insuranee 10s., and interest on first cost of vehicle (less tyres) II.
The Economy of the Motor Lorry.
To convey 70 tons a week will involve a five-tonner in 14 journeys during the same period. The distance being 12 miles each way, 24 miles per journey, 'amounts to 336 miles per week. At a shilling a mile this is equivalent to 216 16s. a week for running costs. The total operating costs is the sum of the running cost standing charges, 216 16s. and £6 15s., total 223 us.,' so that a saving of 24 9s. a week is effected directly, as the result of the employment of a lorry instead of the railway.
In addition to the economy indicated by the above figures, there will be considerable saving, no doubt, as.the result of deliveries being effected, by the lorry, either direct to the consumer, or, at least, into the depot qf my correspondent, instead of, as is likely to be the case with rail transphrt, of his having to collect from the company's siding or to pay the cost of cartage from the siding to his depot. These are savings of actual expenditure. There are other advantages derivable from the use of road transport, such as prompt delivery, exact knowledge of the whereabout of any consignment, and control of the selection of material, the value of which it is difficult to compute on a basis of pounds, shillings and pence. As a matter of fact, I am not in possession of sufficient information to enable me to demonstrate, as fully as might be desirable, how far the change from rail to road transport might be made to be beneficial. For example, I am not informed how deliveries are, at the present time, made to consumers, Are they in large or small consignments? Is it coal taken direct from the railway siding to the purchaser, or is it first transferred to the depot to be bagged ? In London and the south it is invariably the custom for deliveries of coal for household use to be made in bags, no matter how large the order may be. Such
is not the case, in the north of England or in Scotland, where a ton or a couple of tons of goal is frequently delivered by cart, being tipped at the back gate of the house of the consignee, and shovelled into the coal shed_ by hand. If the latter practice is the rule where my correspondent carries on his business, and if the lots are usually upwards of a ton, the vehicle could be of the multi-compartment tipping variety, and delivery could-be made direct. from colliery to consumer, which would mean a further distinct economy. All this, in the absence of specific information on the points raised, is more or less speculative. The ideas put forward, however, may be useful to this and other inquirers.
It might be that a better way of doing this work would be to use a five-ton steamer and trailer. The total load which could be carried by this means would be eight tons, and it would, therefore, only be necessary to make nine journeys in order to collect the 70 tons which have to be delivered during the week. The running cost of such an outfit would be approximately as follows : —Fuel (coal), 41d. a mile ; lubricants, id. ; tyres (rubber all round), 2-14. ; main
tenance, 2d.; depreciation, ; total, is. old. Standing charges would be :—Wages (driver and small proportion of mate's wage), 25; licence, 13s. 6c1. ; rent and rates 14s. ; insurance, 10s. ; interest on first cost, 22s. od. ; total, 28. Nine journeys would be equivalent to 216 miles, costing £10 10s. 6d., so that the total operating cost would only be 218 10s. 6c1., showing a saving over the rail costs of 29 9s. 6d.
Probably the most economical proposition of all, for work of this sort-, would be a six-wheeled machine like the Searamel or Leyland-Carriemore, which, with a. trailer, can be purchased to carry, say, 10 tons on the lorry, and five tons on the trailer. This would reduce the mileage, for the 70 tons, to 120 per week, so that, even if the running costs were Is. 6d. per mile—and they should certainly not exceed this—and if the standing charges were £8 a week, the total cost would only be 217.
Quoting per Ton-mile and Why it is Not Desirable.
The question of ton-mileage, with which I dealt at length in these columns only a short time ago, crops up again in another letter whichI have received. In this case the inquirer has had, for some time, a contract for hauling stone from various quarries or sidings to various stations where the stone was actually required. Until recently the work has been paid for at a daily rate of 23 10s. for the use of a throe-ton lorry. The client now desires a 'quotation per ton-mile. I have advised my correspondent to avoid quoting on these lines if he can, as a reasonable estimate can hardly be made in all the circumstances. We may demonstrate this by two examples only, neither of which may be regarded in the least degree as being an extreme case. It is fair to assume that fairly long terminal delays will occur, at least at the loading end, so that it may well happen that only four loads can be taken a day. The distance from quarry or siding may, I am informed, be so little as one mile: The net tonmileage is therefore four times three tons carried a mile-12 ton:miles. To obtain 23 10s. the ton-mileage charge would have to be 5s. 10d, per ton mile.
Alternatively, a day's work might be three loads, carried seven miles, in which ease the ton-mileage would be 63, and the charge about Is. id. per ton mile. TEE SKOTCH.