Oilers Can Pay on Low Mileages
Page 51
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THE idea dies hard that a vehicle must cover a large I yearly mileage if the savings in expenditure on fuel are to be sufficient to justify the extra initial cost of an oil engine, compared with a petrol vehicle. Its demise will, however, be accelerated after a brief study of the figures relating to vehicles employed on refuse collection given here.
The annual mileage run by such vehicles is low. . Experts in that class of operation state that 5,000-6,000 miles per annum, about 100 miles per week, is a fair average. From that it might seem that the prospects of profitable employment of the oiler would be out of the question. Actually, nothing could be farther from the truth.
Experience of 12 Councils
A census of 12 local authorities was recently taken, all of which operated both petrol-engined vehicles and oilers. They were asked to supply figures for the fuel consumption of their vehicles. The _information acquired was as follows (figures given first relate to petrol vehicles, those second to others): 4 m.p.g., 9 m.p.g.; 3.5 m.p.g., 9 m.p.g.; 4 m.p.g., 9.5 m.p.g.; 5.5 m.p.g., 12 m.p.g.; 4.3 m.p.g., 9.5 m.p.g.; 4.5 m.p.g., 11.8 m.p.g.; 6 m.p.g., 9 m.p.g.; 4.5 m.p.g., 9.5 m.p.g.; 3 m.p.g., 6 m.p.g.; 4.5 m.p.g., 10.5 m.p.g.; 4 m.p.g.,
9 m.p.g.; 6 m.p.g., 11.5 m.p.g. The averages were 4.48 m.p.g. for petrol vehicles and 9.7 m.p.g. for oilers.
Assuming that the fuels are purchased in bulk and that petrol costs 3s 11Id. per gallon and oil fuel 3s. 91d. per gallon, the cost per mile of the petrol-engined vehicles at 4.48 m.p.g. is 10.61., and that of the oilers, at 9.691 m.p.g., 4.708d., showing a saving of 5.892d.