Special equipment for closed delivery vehicles
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BY R. P. A. F. WILLIAMS, BA, MIMH former assistant general manager, producti, Harveys of Bristol Ltd. (since this article was writt Mr. Williams has taken a post in the Amey Group) 1ELIVERY costs form a major part of most manufacturers' headaches but I feel that many of these costs can be reduced ugh intelligent use cf the vast amount of special equipment on the market. I also believe that if the equipment is not keted. then it is still possible to interest manufacturers in going equipment for these special needs. The costs of this -ation need not be such as to make the methods uneconomic. ly experience has been gained in the wine trade through the a. necessity of having to reduce the rate of increase of rapidly ailing costs. I think the methods considered by my company Ed benefit other sections oF the community. Indeed, probably finest example of those who already have mechanized fully are supermarket trades, whose efforts during the last few years -lot but be admired by everyone as an example of efficient lling of a tricky delivery problem.
luring our investigations we have been helped immeasurably by )Ecal firm, Clares of Wells, who have been very good at hieing special designs for our needs. Unfortunately. I have tys found it difficult to use a standard design of almost thing for our particular needs, yet the costs of this specialist ice have proved little. if any. more than using a standard iuct.
ly basic philosophy has been to get the driver to a delivery a as easily, quickly and conifortably as possible, then to give sufficient mechanical aids to enable him to do the actual very quickly and effortlessly Except in dire need, through jog-hour regulations. I believe the design of vehicles and ipment should be such as to enable one man to do the job on own, yet remain fresh at the end of the day.
consider the basis for most aids to drivers to be the tail lift. ay designs arc available in this field. Some are electricallyen, some hydraulically, and others are a combination of the
two systems. Some tail lifts appear from under the back end of the vehicle and are driven by a hydraulic ram. Their main snag is that the engine has to be kept running, also that the back of the vehicle has to have a sufficient overhang to house the lift, which is often impossible in the smaller vehicle; these lifts cannot usually be lowered right down to the road because of the ram mechanism underneath.
Another sort of tail lift is a hinged board running on wire ropes in the pillar and having side chains to hold it horizontal. This type suffers one inconvenience: it is difficult to unload sideways on to a pavement because df the chains. The last type, which 1 favour, has a cantilever construction and runs up and down the side pillars, depending on its own cantilevered design to hold it horizontal, without any chains. Unfortunately, the construction has to be heavier to achieve the required strength for a 10 cwt to I ton lifting capacity. However, it does allow trolleys or cages to be wheeled straight down a detachable side ramp on to the pavement.
The purely electrical design has advantages, the principle being that the action is much more positive. There can be no slip as occurs if air gets into an hydraulic system. These lifts absorb considerable amperages, comparable to a starter motor, and some provision must be made in the vehicle for this factor. There are two possibilities, an extra battery in thearailer or van, or fitting a good alternator. 1 feel the latter to be more practical. as the work • of charging and changing batteries is avoided.
The tail lift should always be as large as possible to give a safe working area for handling cages or trolleys. If the lift is too small it is only too easy to knock a wheel over the edge, which could have tragic consequences. If the tail lift is large, then it can be very heavy to fold up. In fact, we have found that some small drivers find it almost impossible. Dando's. of Chipping Sodbury, developed a simple device which utilizes the powered raising of the tail lift to close it ready for securing. This is very worth while on the larger sizes of lift.
Possibly the best-known piece of equipment, used in vans of this type, is the cage delivery trolley. The principal users of this equipment have been supermarkets, but I believe there could be useful applications of the idea in many trades. Anyone who owns a string of retail shops will need to deliver reasonable quantities of goods at fairly regular intervals. Handling these on a sacktruck by hand can take hours of valuable time, and can extend a one-day journey into two or even three days.
We plan to use such cages for delivery to our own shops, and properties other than depots. A 10-ton Bedford tractor will tow a large Hands-Bonallack box van trailer fitted with a tail lift and with floor strengthened by checker plate. This trailer can carry 21 cages of 25 cases of wine and will regularly service our shops by delivering full cages and picking up the previous week's emptios. If storage in the shop is difficult, we will still deliver in cages but will empty them at the time of delivery. Enormous timesavings will still be shown when comparing this to sacktruck and hand unloading. Even more important, one man can comfortably handle the full cages, providing the cages and tail lift are correctly proportioned and designed.
Our' cages are designed to be easy to push, yet not so easy that they will slither around like skates on ice. They have two removable bolster ends, which are not interchangeable, and clip-in side struts. One end is fitted with a handle for pulling the loaded cage, an infinitely easier and safer method of handling than pushing from behind. They are fitted with two fixed and two mobile castors, with solid rubber tyres, and most important of all, a system of braking.
Thi latter item is absolutely vital with any reasonably heavy contents. Without brakes there is a grave danger of the trolley sliding around or even shooting off' the tail lift if the vi is parked on a camber or on a slope. Without brakes it is necessary to devise an elaborate system of stops or strai hold the cages inside the vehicle when it is travelling. The desi the wheels is also very important when considering safety. I view, the commonly fitted nylon wheel is absolutely lethal. Is moves so easily that as soon as a load is moved it gets o control because of the complete lack of friction. It bec impossible to stop. and if it hits an obstacle at an angle frequently be diverted to a new direction rather than stopping did a lot of trials on such wheels, and all of us experit considerable relief when we had changed to a rubber tyre.
There are basically two types of rubber tyre available, c cushion type and another solid rubber. The cushion type is t more difficult to push, possessing very high friction, but il absorb the shocks of bad surfaces very well. The solid rubt not so resilient, but will push more easily. The nylon whi completely non-resilient, just like cast iron, and is as noisy finally chose the solid rubber tyred castor with roller beat This gave enough friction for safety without making pushim difficult, and was sufficiently resilient for the pavements we we had to traverse.
The sacktruck is the most commonly used method of del from vehicle to customer. In many instances, it is the most sen and unlikely to be superseded. The sacktruck has the advar that it can carry a reasonable load quickly and easily over distance, and it can be pulled up steps with its load still on. load it will carry is about the same as a strong man can mana his arms for a very short distance, but in its present form is n very large load for wheeled transport. I think it is important v■ designing this item for a parcels service that it should be strong also light. I cannot see justification in buying an alumir sacktruck because of price. However, many firms have develop lightweight tubular steel truck. This is excellent for the ave user. I would never ask a man to use a heavy angle-iron tr some of them nearly need a tail lift to get them to the vehicle An interesting development is a special pallet to fit on a stant sacktruck. The main use for this seems to lie at depots hanc smalls. I think it could also be used for lightweight, bulky gc being delivered from a vehicle., The goods would be pre-lot on the small L-shaped pallets, placed in the vehicle and then loaded with a sacktruck via a tail lift. Another use could b■ load the sacktruck pallet from the vehicle by hand, and t wheel the load in by sacktruck in the normal way. The real p being that a much larger load can be carried in one journey. system will not work with high density products because centre of gravity moves so far out from the truck wheels, mal the load dangerously unstable.
A natural development, for this line of loading, is to desig four-wheeled trolley to carry goods from vehicle to customer my line of business, we have a high density product, and fin difficult to move more than three, or at most, four cases o truck, yet we often have to deliver a dozen or so cases for each
• . We have had a four-wheeled trolley built to fit our vehicles. trolley is of reasonably light tubular construction, with ter ends and a wooden floor. It has two fixed and two pred wheels with roller bearings and cushion rubber tyres. chose the latter because we had to traverse some pretty rough aces, and because the load of a dozen cases is not very heavy ush even with the extra friction of such tyres. The trolley is :nished inside the vehicle and dropped via the tail lift straight o the pavement. The idea is experimental at the moment, but -is to offer considerable advantages, both in pushing and Jading time, also, on average, meaning that we only have to up the vehicle once for each drop. This latter is particularly ortant with a valuable Product inside the vehicle.
be ultimate way to handle goods is to use a fork lift truck to I and unload. In the pure delivery vehicle I am discussing this requently, and unfortunately, not possible. The . main reason ig that the pallet sizes are so varied in this country, that there is n no point in delivering on one particular size, as it cannot be died and stacked usefully at the other end. However, if ingements can be made for a firm, and those it supplies, to use a ilar pallet and handling methods, then very useful savings can made. It is also essential to arrange prompt return of all ets. This is often the main stumbling block in the succesg of any h scheme. If pallets are not returned, and returned promptly, the whole system can become incredibly costly, often outghing the previously calculated savings. A few delays in 'ming pallets will mean that either large extra stocks of pallets st be held, or lead to a complete breakdown of the internal idling methods through lack of pallets.
slormal vehicle sizes, and modern pallet handling, do not pricile easily. In order to warehouse stack to 20 or 24 feet, it is essary to have a broad base on the pallet, and with modern Wing land costing so much, it is soon going to become essential stack to these heights. This same broad base makes it difficult Ise the space in a closed vehicle economically, as it is impossible load two big pallets alongside each other in a normal interior 1th.
f it is possible to use pallets in an operation such as this, then problems of loading and unloading must be tackled. There two basic methods available, either load through sliding doors each side, or end-load the vehicle. The first method is excellent, does involve an expensive and heavy vehicle, because so much :he basic strength of the body is lost through cutting the sides . The second method, end-loading, is much easier to apply to basic body turned out by so many builders. Possibly the bestmin way of handling is by the simple Joloda method. This olves channels let into the floor and a pair of very'small lifting ices running on their own rollers. A pallet is put on the end of vehicle and the trucks placed under it in the channels; then a St of a tommy bar will lift the pallet above floor level. The pallet be very easily pushed along on the truck rollers, and the erse process will drop the pallet on to the deck where it is, of irse, completely immobile again. This method offers a very tole solution to the problems of movement inside a vehicle. Another system, which I understand works well, uses low ssure air, supplied by a pump, to raise rollers above deck level allow movement of pallets. As soon as the air supply is cut, the lers retract and movement becomes impossible.
mplest method in theory Yet another method is the simplest of all in theory. That is to fit ) lengths of roller permanently, flush with the deck. These will )vv wooden or steel pallets, fitted with runners, to move easily ng the length of the vehicle. However, some system of stops will needed to prevent movement of the load. I am not very amoured of this method for two reasons. Firstly, that the load I always have a certain amount of movement going on the .ole time, which gives an odd feeling when driving a vehicle. ondly, that I do not like rollers in the floor of the vehicle, for it so easy for a man moving around inside to tread on them and his balance completely. The effect is exactly akin to standing \ a banana skin, and exceedingly dangerous.
In Harvey s we frequently have to carry wooden casks of wine d would prefer, in the future, to do this in a closed vehicle. We are experimenting with a system of special post pallets to do this. These pallets will be loaded by fork on to a wooden pallet on Joloda tracks, and will then be moved up the vehicle to rest securely in place; and I think could prove a simple and inexpensive way of overcoming our problems. Post pallets often prove a very worthwhile investment for delivery vehicles, providing the previously mentioned problems of return can be solved. Although these problems are less likely to occur with specialized, easily recognizable objects like these.
I mention post pallets particularly here. In my opinion, they are very valuable accessories, where pallet loading is possible. A post pallet, or one with wire mesh sides, can be used to move all sorts of assorted items. Those which come particularly to mind being mixed heavy machine parts or single awkwardly shaped parcels which are normally impossible to stack. By stacking two or three post pallets on top of each other, the full height of vehicle can be used, and a proper load carried.
Finally, under this heading of special equipment, I would like to mention driver aids. It is becoming increasingly difficult to get drivers, and like all people, they rightly expect to have as much comfort as possible while doing their job. Apart from the actual design of the vehicle and its transmission, which does not fall within the scope of this article, I believe there is a great deal we can do for them.
I place considerable emphasis on design of seats, and believe that fitting a hydraulically damped, comfortably shaped seat will produce very good results. Reducing fatigue by such means will bring a far better day's work from the driver, as well as enabling him to go home feeling fresh and fit. Noise also contributes to tiredness and lassitude, and here I believe that quite a lot can still be done, although great strides have been made in recent vehicles. Other fittings, such as heaters and windscreen washers, hardly need mentioning. Without such fittings, it is almost impossible to drive a modern vehicle.
To summarize my views, I believe that there is great scope to reduce costs in distribution, by intelligent use of materials handling within the vehicle. I also think that although existing known methods are not used sufficiently, there is great need for futher developments in this field during the next decade.