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Northern Chief Knows All The
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Answers• TRANSPORT must keep pace with the changing pattern of living. This is the creed of Mr. Frank Roberts, cleansing superintendent of Birkenhead . and president-elect of the Institute of Public Cleansing. He speaks with authority on transport operation for, in addition to his cleansing activities, he is responsible for
control of a 'busy central transport department. . If ever local authorities could do something to save money this is the way, says Mr. Roberts, and if ever there was a time for an organization and works study for municipal haulage this is it. He is surprised at the number of districts where there are separate departments (involving duplicate and triplicate workshops and stores) for borough engineer, ambulance and education services.
Back in 1931, when Birkenhead "went" joint cleansing and transport, Mr.• Roberts was engaged with the Liverpool cleansing authority and he recalls that the Birkenhead ferries department was then running a vehicle for no more than two hours a day and paying for a driver and workshop.
Agreeing that the most efficient use of a fleet is determined by the specialist officer, Mr. Roberts urges that in municipal haulage this official should logically be drawn from public cleansing since in most councils this department makes some 70 per cent of the transport demands. Experience in Birkenhead shows that, with only one workshop being needed, fewer stores are held. Yet the organization is big enough to justify extensive metalwork to the degree of making its own containers for refuse, a fact that means the department can easily meet demands for the larger sizes.
Centralization, of course, avoids duplication of equipment of all kinds and normally no vehicles other than specialist designs stand idle while overtime is being worked on similar types. In the same way disparities in drivers' overtime are avoided. Tyre specialists are employed, among their tasks being a requirement to check covers thoroughly every six weeks. In fact, the only main job that is sent out to specialists is crankshaft regrinding.
There is a six-monthly check on all vehicles but major overhauls are becoming fewer, it having been found cheaper to shorten the scheduled life of the units because of the intense wear on many of the bodies. Specialized vehicles are changed "on merit ", the basic renewal schedule being eight years for refuse units, six years for lorries and four years for cars and vans.
Charging out to other departments is on an hourly basis and Mr. Roberts reports that, under this arrangement, a 4-ton lorry will cost the buying department 25 per cent less than on the open market. Small vans that are supplied to departments cost only 2s. 6d. an hour without driver and when the library wanted a model ship transported it was possible to save £50 on a commercial estimate.
Accounting for school meals transport is on a basis of four hours a day and they have been worked out to cost (}39d. each compared with 0-54d, by a similar corporation which does not run a central haulage department. As a guide to the costing of street cleansing it is interest r22 ing to observe that suction sweepers figure in the accounts at 27s. an hour.
For many authorities snow clearance is au expensive business but, in the pursuit of efficiency coupled with economy. Birkenhead has acquired fiVe ex-Army chassis at 150 each. These are fOur-wheel-dri,ve Bedford Ql.s which have been fitted with spreader bodies for sorting and gritting and, being high-built; they are excellent also for the attachment of snowploughs.
A further QL has been converted into a breakdown unit with crane and mobile workshop equipment. Among other unusual jobs performed by the Birkenhead department is the cleansing of the Mersey Tunnel, which collects oil and grease equivalent to a 4 in. thiekness in the course of two months. Included in the fleet are two estate cars which carry out a multiplicity'of jobs, amongst them the carriage of school meals and the transport of spastic children to school at Liverpool.
Within an annual transport budget of £125,000 a year Mr. Roberts acquires and maintains a fleet of 110 vehicles. He controls all movements of 85 of them, the remainder being allocated to departmental work which covers such services as highways and works, building, housing, health, markets, education, libraries, parks, baths, and children.
Impending purchases are shown separately in the annual estimates and the basic buying policy is to standardize wherever possible. Typical of the vehicles employed are Karrier side-loaders on refuse collection, a Johnston vacuum suction sweeper, two Lewin sweeper/collectors, two SD gully-emptiers and two corporatiou buses which have been converted for use as mobile conveniences. With the 30 haulage vehicles the trend, as with school meals vans, is towards chassis of BMC manufacture.
Altogether Birkenhead handles 70,000 tons of refuse a year, of which approximately 1,000 tons a week is of domestic origin, the balance comprising builders' spoil, hardcore and miscellaneous materials. The department handles all the scrap metal of the corporation, selling it quarterly by tender and it sorts, grades and disposes of textiles in a similar manner.
During the post-war period 12,000 new properties have been built in the borough which now has 42,000 houses. Nevertheless, the 90 men on refuse collection, who will be seen in half-dozens to a vehicle (or five in a compact area), number three fewer than in pre-war days. Rounds are revised every two years and, even before a minor change is made, the staff is consulted. Invariably, says Mr. Roberts, they grumble a little, go away for a week to contemplate—and never come back!
Refuse disposal is entirely by controlled tipping with an average haul of 21 miles from the town centre. The flat Wirral countryside offers few possibilities in the way of tipping sites and a working party is now looking into disposal methods in the region. Wallasey, Bebington and Hoylake are represented on the committee, the chairman of which is Mr. Roberts.
The disposal of abandoned cars is now being investigated by the Cheshire County Council and recommendations of the committee, of which Mr. Roberts is a member, are now due. I rather think that Mr. Roberts would like them to advise that all scrap cars be collected without charge, so eliminating the high cost of dealing with those left to the mercy of gypsies and children before the local authority is called in. Birkenhead, says Mr. Roberts, will collect old cars and charge for doing so; but in one recent week it was also necessary to remove 15 vehicles that were simply abandoned.
Industrial refuse, as distinct from domestic and standard trade refuse (which we have handled for years), presents a growing problem that must soon be faced by local authorities ", says Mr. Roberts. The increase in the number of private collectors of this material has aggravated the situation. He feels that whilst these contractors have excellent container systems they should also find their own sites for the actual disposal and so relieve the pressure on local authority tips which it is known will be full within a few years. Among other aspects of the changing pattern of life, the authorities of Birkenhead have very much in mind the vast increase in domestic packaging. At the present time, Mr. Roberts tOld me, the Wirral is switching to milk in cartons which are good for both the dairyman's transport and for hygiene. But Mr. Roberts is asking whether anyone has considered the disposal of these awkwardly shaped containers that will not easily compress nor burn in a clean air zone.
Birkenhead supplies specially designed dustbins at 5s. a year but they arc not big enough to take 28 of such cartons which would be scrapped by any household taking foolpints of milk per. day. Mr. Roberts calculates that his collection vehicles will find themselves handling 26 rn. containers a year which could even affect vehicle. design. . The existence of regular night services for street cleansing in Birkenhead forms a valuable counter to surprise by sudden snowfalls or severe icing. There is a night watchman who is able to drive and he has a list of standby men who can be called out. But, in addition to this, on six nights a week there are other members of the staff on the alert because an SD combined gully and street washing machine is on the road from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. The policy is to wash the streets on dry nights and when it rains give emphasis to gully emptying. Night operation is desirable for a multiplicity of reasons, there being the car parking that blocks gullies,,the queues of lorries at the docks which cause full streets, and the parking in the shopping areas which are never empty while the doors are open.
During, the past five years Mr. Roberts has acted as secretary to the Institute of Public Cleansing examinations board. In this time six new technical college courses have been established and the number of students under instruction has risen to 140. After so long a spell in this capacity it is a fair guess that Mr. Roberts knows the right answers.
In connection with the training of the up and coming young men, he produces a further argument in favour of centralization, saying that without it Birkenhead could not afford apprentices. As it is, they have a fitter and a smith who are in the Merseyside apprentice scheme which is showing sound dividends after only 1+ years in operation. Small organizations interchange apprentices every six weeks or so; the youngsters do their day a week at school; a training officer moves around checking on their progress and altogether the result is a more comprehensive preparation for them to take their place in industry.
In the late summer Birkenhead's cleansing superintendent is due to visit America for the first time, carrying out his side of the usual exchange visits to conventions between the British and American cleansing presidents. He knows that the British can teach the Americans plenty and that the latter are aware of this, especially in training. But he feels that Britain can learn from them, too, especially in solid waste disposal research.