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CENTRALIZED El ENTRALIZATION

30th August 1957, Page 46
30th August 1957
Page 46
Page 47
Page 48
Page 46, 30th August 1957 — CENTRALIZED El ENTRALIZATION
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

How the L.C.C. Achieve Transport Economy Though Having to Provide a Large Variety of Vehicles for a Diversity of Tasks

By

Alan Smith,

F.R.S.A.

ALTHOUGH an almost fantastic variety of traffic is carried daily by London County Council's fleet and -oPeratiOn is under departmental (as distinct from central) direction, vehicles are standardized and common maintenance programme is: ; observed..Furthermore, the value of novel techniques to improve .economy is 'exploited. Examples are the introduction of Multigrade oils to cut -.fuel bills and extend engine life, and the pidneering of all-plastics ambulance bodywork.

Responsibility for -providing vehicles of suitable design for each :job. and imposing the reqUirenientsiof (he maintenance system_ is that, of the supplies dePartment, who also operate 143 vehicles for themselves and certain other departments. Some of these, notably the education' officer's department with 171 vehicles, and the ambulance service with 335, • '' own" and operate their transport, directly. employing their drivers.

All, vehicles.., however, are registered and licensed annually. in the name of lvIr.--T. J. Jones, chief officer of. supplies of the L.C.C. ' His duties further extend to hiring supplementary transport when demands outstrip the capacity of the council's fleet, testing and training drivers, and Co-ordinating departmental fleet operations so far as this can be done.

When an operating department acquire a new vehicle, the . advice .ofMr. .1. . D. Burton, transport officer of the supplies department, concerning its specification is usually sought . and accepted. The purchase of non-standard vehicles is. avoided as far as possible, arid although it is impracticable to attain complete standardization throughout the fleet, • its composition can be restricted to the products Of a few manufacturers,

The supplies department's fleet comprises: 30 3-5 tonners, 12 of which are Dennis Stork models, three Austin oilers, and the remainder Thames and Bedford petrol-engined types; 17 Bedford and Austin LD 30-cwt. vans; a Bedford 10-12-cwt. and two Thames 5-cwt. vans.

4 There are also five breakdown tenders, including two heavy American models; a 5-ton Bedford and trailer; two Bedford 30-cwt, vans, and eight Bedford 10-cwt. and Austin LD mobile service units. These vehicles are operated in conjunction with a repair organization responsible for the'maintenance of the council's mechanical and

horticultural appliances, of , which there are over 1,000 including 100 tractors_ There is also a central pool of 50 cars.

Fifty vehicles distribute, from seven stores, stocks of some 20,000 different lines required by other departments, and the annual value of the goods they carry is about £4m. One of the Stork vehicles is fitted ou1 as a mobile tailor's shop and .visits fire stations at regular intervals so that firemen can be fitted for their uniforms.

Two new Austin 5-ton vans have bodywork built by Wood and Lambert, Ltd., to the department's own design and are suitable for carrying hardware supplies, domestic appliances and builders' materials. Except for the glasspol roofs, bodies are of aluminium, having half-hard material for interior and exterior panelling.

The supplies department provide the architect's department with three Bedford 3-tonners, two Bedford 20-25-cwt. pick-ups and 12 Bedford 10-12-cwt. vans for use in connection with the maintenance of residential buildings, including schools, old folks' homes and houses and flats. Eight Bedford 10-12-cwt. vans are also provided for the public health department. .

The transport needs of the school-meals service are met by 50 Morris, 11 Austin and 34 Bedford 30-e, t. vans to distribute meals to 394 schools from 290 kitchens. Each day some 66,000 meals are carried. Twenty-two of the supplies department's vans are employed for collecting meat, fruit and vegetables from markets and delivering to kitchens. Early every Monday morning, eight of these vans shift about 25 tons of greenstuffs from Covent Garden.

Apart from the fire service, which has about 300 vehicles, the biggest departmental fleet is that of the general and accident ambulance service. At present there are 219 Daimler ambulances, five prototypes based on Austin LD chassis with glasspol bodies, 11 Bedford 30-cwt. models and 57 Bedford single-stretcher ambulances based on 10-12-cwt. chassis.

For sitting-case work there are 18 Austin hire cars and 13 other cars. Ten Bedford ORtype ambulance coaches are employed for carrying parties of patients to convalescent homes. Two Bedford 30-cwt. vans are on call to take oxygen equipment and other supplies to the scenes of emergencies, such as railway accidents.

It is probable that the Daimler fleet will be

replaced by the Austin vehicles with plastics bodywork. [These vehicles were described in The Commercial Motor on March 22, and a road-test report was published on June 14.] Because London is a compact area and ambulances do not need to travel far from base, the value of twoway radio is not as great as in a lightly populated district. Nevertheless about 10 vehicles have been equipped with two-way radio as an experiment.

The accident section of the ambulance service receives about 100,000 emergency calls a year. In 1956, the average time taken to reach the scene of an accident from the time an emergency call was received was 6.7 minutes. The general section carries about 900,000 patients a year and its vehicles make nearly 500,000 journeys. Aggregate mileage of all ambulances is 4-1-tn. a year.

Lower Consumption

Engine life of the Daimler ambulances is approxiinately 100,000 miles. As an experiment, 61 of these vehicles were operated for a year on an S.A.E. 10/30 oil containing detergent and corrosion-resistant additives and showed 5 per cent. reduction in petrol consumption. Other benefits were the marked diminution in battery and starter troubles in cold weather.

A group 43' pool cars was operated on an S.A.E. 5 oil and their rate of petrol consumption was 16 per cent. better than that of cars using the manufacturers' recommended grade. A fully detergent oil proved successful in overcoming a marked tendency to sludge formation. The education officer's department have the• next

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largest transport section, with a school-bus fleet comprising: 72 Dennis Triton 22-seaters; 11 Bedford MLtype 22-seaters; 20 Dennis Stork 31-seaters; 22 Bedford 0B-type 31-seaters; two Morris 12-seaters; also 10 Bedford-Utilecons shortly to be replaced by Morris Minibuses. In the mornings and late afternoons these vehicles collect handicapped children from their homes and return them, and between these times are engaged upon such work as carrying active children to playing fields and swimming baths.

There ar,e few playing fields in the centre of the council's area, so that the distances between schools in the inner districts of London and outlying playing fields are sometimes fairly long. When handicapped children are transported, the driver is accompanied by an alien-, dant, as some children have to be carried by an adult: These vehicles are compact, as the entrances to many schools are narrow. The latest type is represented by the Dennis Stork models, which have Dennis bodywork built to L.C.C. design and specification.

The education officer's department also run eight Bedford 3-ton vans, and four Bedford 30-40-cwt., five Bedford 10-12-cwt. and three Thames 5-cwt. vans for the distribution of school equipment. The 3-tonners are designed fot; the transport of furniture and have a low loading well at the rear.

Outside Schools' Needs

Loads carried by the other vehicles include film projection apparatus, library books,, and a boxing ring. Vehicles meeting the requirements of residential schools outside Lohdon, including establishments for the education of physically handicapped children and teacher's training colleges, are eight Bedford Utilecons, a Bedford 30-cwt. van, a Bedford 10-12-cwt. van and two Morris I2-seaters.

Another sizeable departmental fleet is that employed by the chief engineer. Twenty-six Bedford 3-tonners are fitted out as mobile units for sewer maintenance gangs. Inside are installed solid fuel ranges for cooking and heating water, and at the rear are winches for hauling scrapers. Some of these vehicles tow compressors.

A Bedford 5-ton tipper with Homalloy bodywork is used at the southern sewage outfall works at Erith. A Bedford 3-tormer, three Bedford 30-cwt. and 11 Bedford 10-cwt. vans carry plant equipment and pipes, and the general inspection foremen have Thames 5-cwt. vans. In addition, there is an Austin 12-seat personnel carrier.


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