Big artics can be dangerous, say oilmen
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MAINTENANCE, DISTRIBUTION AND CONTAINERIZATION DISCUSSED AT AIM CONFERENCE, REPORTED BY PAUL BROCKINGTON
• "If, with a 4,000gal articulated fuel tanker, the distance from the kingpin to the bogie centre line is 15ft 6in. the final cut-in angle on a U-turn of 24ft radius is 5deg. In the case of a 6,000gal vehicle the kingpin /bogie distance is increased to 2411 lin. and the cut-in angle is increased to 40deg, and if the driver accelerates as he is coming out of the curve the outfit may turn over. The driver gets no warning that a dangerous condition has materialized. Accidents of this kind have happened and the exact cause is not fully understood. The roll resistance of big artics should be improved."
These comments came from Mr. J. G. Bisiker, engineer in charge of road transport, Shell-Mex and BP Ltd., and one of a number of delegates at a conference last week who emphasized the dangers of employing long semi-trailer outfits. The oneday conference on "Modern transport and distribution", was organized by Ardell Industrial Management Services Ltd., of Leamington Spa, and Mr. Bisiker was taking part in the discussion on a paper, "A critical review of modern modes of transport" presented by Mr. C. F. Klapper, chairman of the Transport Tutorial Association.
On the same theme, Mr. A. I. Baldwin-Wiseman, distribution cost analyst of Gulf Oil (GB) Ltd., referred to the instability of long artics when running unladen, because of the increased tendency of the driving wheels to break away. This speaker also claimed that some anti-jack-knifing devices could cause an accident on icy roads. He alleged that a fatal accident had been caused by such a device because it locked the tractive unit and trailer in a straight line and the vehicle skidded into another vehicle. If no device had been fitted, he said, the driver could have steered clear of the other vehicle. Mr. Baldwin-Wiseman also referred to the "shocking state" in which new equipment was delivered by the tank makers.
The importance of delegates' comments on the dangers of long artics was particularly highlighted by Mr. H. Beddard, managing director of AIM (who chaired the conference) in his summary of the four papers presented.
Referring to productivity deals in the same discussion, a spokesman of an oil company said that the high tempo of vehicle operation resulting from a productivity deal in Ireland had resulted in an increase of maintenance costs of 45 per cent and a substantial increase in accidents.
In his paper, Mr. Klapper said that road haulage offered the greatest possible flexibility in penetration and the coming of the motorways in the last 10 years had streng
thened the position of the road vehicle. It would remain the universal transport maid-of-all-Work. The hover pallet offered far-reaching possibilities for use in transfers between road and rail vehicles, warehouse decks and so on. Containerization was grist to the forwarding agent's mill because he could make miscellaneous cargoes into container loads. For the user it had the advantage of less costly packing. Freightliner trains did a good job.
In the second paper, Mr. J. A. C. Williams, principal of the College of Aeronautical and Automobile Engineerings, Chelsea, dealt with "Applying effective.incentives and obtaining improvements via work study in vehicle maintenance". In a detailed review of his subject, Mr. Williams said that the application of method study to work frequency resulted in considerable improvements in production. The six essential steps included: (1) selection of the work and its definition; (2) recording the existing method of carrying out work; (3) critical examination of the record obtained; (4) developing and defining a new and better method of doing the work that would involve a shorter, less arduous work cycle; (5) application of new methods, which could involve providing new tools and equipment, organizing a new work layout and training workers; (6) maintaining the new method in face of a tendency on the part of workers and management to change it.
New methods that could be introduced include re-positioning of tools, the reduction of walking to a minimum, the avoidance of heavy-weight lifting and body bending, the use of gravity-type handling devices and of special holding locks and the eradication of "non-contributory" work. If these measures were applied to vehicle maintenance, it could provide for the introduction of standard (written) work procedures for stated work. Appropriate tools in suitable holders and replacement parts would be available at the work place, and efficient mechanicalhandling devices would be provided.
Memotion photography and activity sampling could be employed in the method study for record purpose. A memotion camera was of• the eine type that took pictures of the work place at predetermined intervals. Activity sampling comprised a series of momentary visual observations of the workers, taken at random. Such sampling would enable work measurement to be applied as a means of estimating the time a job should take.
Following factory techniques time study could profitably be applied to work that was not subject to much variation. Monetary incentives could take the form of straight piecework or the high-wage plan. If the latter were introduced the worker was paid a high wage for an agreed period irrespective of what he was called upon to do, in general overtime being avoided. Quantity and quality would depend on efficient man-management, whereas piecework enabled supervision to be minimized.
If a vehicle delivers goods from a warehouse to 10 destination points, how many routes can the driver take? Mr. G. A. W. France, industrial operations unit, Ministry of Technology, posed this question in his opening observations when he presented a paper on "Savings in distribution through a scientific approach". The answer is 3,628,800.
Mr. France gave this simple example of the basic problem in a distribution exercise to illustrate the complexities involved before dealing with a case in which he acted as a consultant. This related to a wholesaler operating 14 7-ton vehicles for deliveries to 550 customers, which involved 700 drops. By applying the computer print-out tech nique (with manual adjustments) to the problem, a one-week schedule reduced the mileage from 5,856 to 4,532 (22.6 per cent) and enabled 11 vehicles to be used in place of 14 (a saving of 20 per cent). In a one-day schedule—Thursday was selected because it was the early closing day in a number of cases—the mileage was reduced from 1,295 to 1,000 (22.7 per cent) and the number of vehicles from 14 to 12 (15 per cent).
During the discussion Mr. A. Wollaston, transport and distribution manager, Carlsberg Distributors Ltd., said that in his work variation was regularly as much as 80/90 per cent. Pre-scheduling would "go up the wall".
In a talk (with film) on "Efficiently utilizing containerization services", Mr. T. R. V. Bolland, traffic manager, British Railways Freightliner division, said that 40 per cent of Freightliner traffic was derived from hauliers (including the BRS) and C licence operators. The high capital cost of handling equipment was acceptable at the main centres as utilization was high. On transport services between centres other than the main routes, it was improbable that BR could "fill the gap". In his opinion, they should not attempt to do so. In reply to Mr. D. F. Clark, transport manager, International Synthetic Rubber Co. Ltd., Southampton, Mr. Bolland said that it was not practical to have a private siding that catered for fewer than five wagons. The cost of shunting small numbers of wagons was very high. It was preferable to use road vehicles.