a Can the Mainstem system described in
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your issue of June 11 be applied to small fleets? Would you say whether the savings which the system is said to produce show a clear profit over the cost of installing and operating the service?
AAccording to Mainstem's managing direc
tor, speaking in London recently, the system will for the time being be restricted to fleets running at least 40 or 50 vehicles, but a scheme to suit smaller fleets is being developed in the USA and will doubtless become available here in due course.
Comparisons of COST and savings are naturally based largely on American experience at present, though the British company has made some estimates applicable to operation over here. As a guide, it is suggested that a truck earning £15,000 a year would normally require £1,500 to be spent on maintenance; for a Mainstem charge of perhaps £16 to £18 a year, the system could reasonably be expected to save £100—say, a net saving of £80, or about 5 per cent of the maintenance bill.
Obviously the extent of any saving will also depend upon the efficiency of maintenance control in a particular fleet before Mainstem is introduced; the American parent company has found, perhaps predictably, that the biggest and most immediate savings have accrued in fleets which were regarded as "pretty rough" to begin with.
One or two readers have also asked us how quickly the system can be installed. The Mainstem answer is that the fundamental data handling facility has already been set up at Kingston upon Thames and is ready to start work. It may take up to six weeks from signing up to complete implementation, but this period is likely to be considerably reduced as UK staff become familiar with installation routines. It is claimed that in a recent American example, a fleet of 6000 vehicles operating out of 81 depots and using 121 fuelling points was brought into the system in three weeks, this feat including the training of 400 of the operator's staff.