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Rhyme and Reason in Sludge Disposal
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By ASHLEY TAYLOR
Associnst.T.
WHEN somebody supplies a service v v that truly meets a long-felt need, rapid progress is the due reward. This is undoubtedly the reason why a northeastern organization, Sludge Disposals, Ltd., after starting from scratch a little over four years ago, is now operating a dozen specialist vehicles.
Some of this swift development must be attributed to originality in the cornpany's'advertising, for a modest expenditure made the service known far and wide among the agricultural community 'of the
north-east, and, indeed, very much farther 'afield. The rhyming messages that appear weekly in about. a dozen county newspapers are regular fireside reading among farming people with whom their local
• journal customarily ranks rather in the light of a personal friend. Even small advertisements_ quickly impressed the name of Sludge Disposals, Ltd., on many minds. Of course, there is something essentially matey about such lines as: " Skylarks singing Bluebells ringing Summer's coming Tanks are hunuzzing Hold your noses Sludge' disposes • Vacuum tanker Armed with hoses Sets you free to Smell your roses."
Penned by chic Mrs. Lyn Davison, wife of the managing director, Mr. R. D. Davison, they put things on a friendly basis right away. One official sends his instructions in rhyme on the council order forms.
Until the launching of the company Mr. Davison was well established as the chief representative in the north-east of a leading firm of manufacturers and his
B32 family roots were deep in the neighbourhood of Stamfordham, some 15 miles . from Newcastle Upon Tyne. Foi some years previously, however, the elderof his two brothers-in-law, Mr. J. R. Purle, had endeavoured to persuade Mr. Davison to open up a sludge• disposal organization in the north-east, where he felt there was ample scope. Finally the step was taken and now on the' board with Mr. Davison are Mr. Purle and Mr. A. C. Morgan. Through family links Sludge DispoSals, Ltd., have connections with four other companies which cover a large part of England with similar services.
They are Purle Bros. of Thundersley, Essex; M. and M. Mechanical Erriptiers, Ltd., of Newark-on-Trent; Tovey TransPort, Ltd., of Cambridge; and Purbridge, Ltd., of Maidstone. From Stamfordham,
which. has earned the title of the bestkept village in Northumberland, the area covered goes right to the south Yorkshire border, then across to the Mersey and northwards into Scotland. On the agricultural side the services .performed include the clearance of septic tanks, cesspools, cow pools, pig tanks, liquid silage, contaminated or flooded ditches, reservoirs, ornamental lakes,: arid water storage tanks, and the removal of mud from farmyards and farm roads (the mud being squeezed to a central point and then removed by suction) and the respreading of sludge on the land._ Work is. performed for county councils and many other local authorities in Cumberland, Northumberland, Durham, Wigtown, the North Riding and elsewhere.
In addition to these activities, 'the
industrial world is also served, in this case by the clearance of factory sumps. storage tanks, reservoirs and areas where flooding has taken place for one reason or another. Typical work performed has involved the clearance of Coal Board slurry ponds, oil tanks, waste chemical residues, certain waste acids, creosote tanks and industrial reservoirs. Broadly speaking, Sludge Disposals, Ltd., will tackle any job involving the removal of liquids or semi-solids.
The company's largest contract to date was for the lifting of 8.1-m. gallons of sludge from a reservoir, whilst one of the most difficult tasks was the extraction of 720,000 gallons of tar that had lain for 32 years in underground caverns 18 ft. deep. All sorts of jobs come their way and when the available water ran out at a farm fire a few miles from Stainfordham a frantic telephone message brought two tankers to run a shuttle service with supplies to enable the fire brigade to continue their fight. Over 5,000 gallons were pumped into the fire tender.
The decision to start the business was reached some five years ago, but sixmonths before the company was actually founded a tanker was obtained from one of the southern companies to test the demand. Prospects of a reasonable amount of work were immediately found to exist Even before this Mr. Davison, during his travels, had devoted some time to studying the possibilities of the situation. The outcome of these investigations was that a 1949 Thames 4D chassis was purchased from a London wholesale fruit merchant on which a vacuum tank and equipment were built to the company's own specification.
When operations started the staff consisted of one driver with one mate, and when they returned to base in the evening Mr. Davison put on working clothes in order to carry on the service into the night. For the first two years he was without office staff and, after completing his other duties, would sit up until the small hours to deal with the clerical work. For long periods he spent 17 or 18 hours a day, seven days a week, on the job. The result of these efforts is
seen in the 12 specialist vehicles now employed.
The present practice is to buy a new chassis. and cab from the Ford organization and to have technical bodywork supplied by specialist builders. Every fresh vehicle has incorporated some modification from previous designs with a view to securing progressive gains in efficiency. An important aspect is that the driver-operators are taken into the management's confidence on this matter and ideas are pooled in order to secure the best possible results. Basically, each unit consists of a mild steel tank amply reinforced to withstand the considerable vacuum pressure. Tanks vary in capacity from 1,000 to 1,500 gallons and in each case Reavell rotary compressors of appropriate size are fitted. There is an outlet valve on the underside at the rear and all machines have fully opening rear doors for the discharge of specially heavy materials which may go out of suspension during transit.. Flood lights are
fitted at the rear in order to facilitate night working. Each vehicle carries 200 ft. of -armoured hosing and an assortment of flexible hoses, plus a proportion of polythene rigid hoses which are lighter to handle..
Owing to the need for manceuvring the vehicles into many difficult situations at farms and elsewhere, it is impracticable to increase the size of the chassis by any considerable degree and the largest now in use is a Thames Trader 75 seven-tonner. There are also nine Thames Trader 60 five-tonners, the original Thames 4D, a rather elderly Bedford, and a Land-Rover utility vehicle, plus a number-of Ford staff cars.
Very great care is employed in the selection of staff, for the men chosen need to have a good approach to the customers, must have the ability to handle vehicles on soft or rough ground, as well as in all sorts of confined spaces, must have a strong sense of location and, furthermore, must possess considerable skill to achieve a thorough cleaning out of the tanks in order to save the farmer and his men an unpleasant and unpopular job. Because of the unexpected situations that may be encountered the operators require a sound knowledge of farm and domestic sewage systems so that they can readily locate sources of trouble. All this means that a new man has to be given special training over an extensive period before being allowed to assume responsibility for a vehicle on actual jobs. Normally both the driver and mate will accompany each unit on a job.
Whether on agriculture, domestic or industrial work, each man is given the appropriate personal equipment, starting with freshly laundered overalls and a fully
lined short blue jacket for winter use. In addition everyone is iisued with gum boots (and acid-resisting knee-boots where nebessary), p.v.e. trousers, p.v.c. jackets, elbow-length, reinforced rubber gloves, barrier creams for application to exposed parts of the body, acid-proof, goggles, and a safety helmet tested to withstand the force of a 10 lb. brick dropped from -50 ft. To aid men in the field in winter, each vehicle has twin electric heaters in the cab.
Lengthy distances arc covered in the course of the vehicles' activities and a representative day's work might be to drive 120 miles, to empty five or six cesspools, to put up for the night and to continue with a similar assignment the following.,day before returning to base. With the object of keeping costs as low as possible, the journeys are planned so that work is reasonably continuous, and in many cases, it is necessary for the men to stay away for one, two, three or even four nights. In these' circumstances subsistence at the rate of 30s. per man per, day is paid. So -long as the vehicles can adhere to the scheduled plans the organization is fairly straightforward, but in this type of work it is not uncommon for emergency calls to be received and tankers rapidly rerouted.
When contact can be made with the operator at some point where he is working the staff will take in their stride the necessary changes but the plotting of a revised programme is not so easy when the most conveniently, situated units are in the course of a journey. At such times it may be necessary to seek the aid of the police or A.A. patrols in locating the driver so that he can telephone back to headquarters for fresh instructions.
Typical of such calls is one that was received at Mr. Davison's office whilst I was talking there. A septic tank was reported overflowing and arrangements were immediately made to alter the routeing of one of the vehicles that had already been arranged for the following day. The initial travel to the new job would occupy approximately three hours, the emptying of the septic tank about two hours. Then the vehicle would spray the contents on the land using a special device which distributes the sludge thinly over an arc of 20 ft. The spreading of 1,000 gallons would take only a matter of minutes and after that the machine would resume its original tour.
During the drought of .1960 units of the, fleet were frequently employed to carry thousands of gallons of water to farms that had run out of supplies for their stocks, but as a rule the movement is from, rather than to, the farms. Sludge Disposals, Ltd., are on the police and fire brigade emergency, lists and are always ready to pump out ditches, cellars or other places that have been flooded. Difficulties of access are frequent, but the equipment carried enables the vacuum tankers to connect up at distances as much as 200 ft. from the installation to be cleared. They can lift from a depth of 30 ft. At the other extremity their highest job above ground level involved the desludging of a tank 158 ft. high on a steel scaffold.
Being situated in the county's bestkept village would appear to bring certain problems in its train, for during the past two or three years Mr. Davison has made every endeavour to build a depot in Stamfordham or the immediate locality. But so far, although sites are available, the necessary permission has not been forthcoming. There are, of course, possibilities of building premises elsewhere but, because a 24-hour seven-day availability is offered, each operator must live near the vehicles and a depot at any distance might mean severe disruption for the staff.
In view of ihe fact that their men have done much to assist in building up the service, says Mr. Davison, the company would disturb them only with the greatest reluctance. In the winter, however, various troubles are liable to arise. The majority of the machines have to stand out overnight, as at present there is covered accommodation for only a couple of them, so that starting difficulties are never out of mind.
In planning the working programme endeavours are made to keep the vehicles off the road on Saturday mornings in order that greasing, washing and general maintenance can be carried out. A fitterforeman carries out all but the major repairs, relying on the drivers' fault reports when they return to base and on his own observations when road testing the vehicles, a duty which he carries out
at frequent intervals. •
Major repairs and overhauls are performed by Strakers, Ltd., main Ford agents at Newcastle upon Tyne. Their staff have turned out at any hour whenever difficulties have arisen and they have worked into the night after breakdowns in order that the particular unit should be ready for essential duty the following ' morning.
A strong team spirit is apparent in the Sludge Disposals organization and customers scattered over a wide area are clearly conscious of the helpful attitude of the company's staff, particularly in times of emergency. After office hours the telephone is always through to Mr. Davison's home so that urgent calls can he dealt with at any hour of the day or night. Thus the farmer who is working out his plans in the peace of the evening can quickly ascertain whether his job can be fitted into the company's schedule during the coming few days.
This article is being written some time before the Royal Show but, knowing something of the requirements on that occasion and of the services provided by Sludge Disposals, Ltd., I shall be very surprised if the company's vehicles are not frequently in evidence in the course of that great event.