CHARTERED FLEET
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THE operation of the Chartered Fleet of vehicles by the Ministry of War Transport is doing one good thing for the industry, and one only. It is pro: viding facts which will serve as a basis for an absolutely unanswerable argument against nationalization of the industry.
I have discussed this matter with operators throughout the length and breadth of this country and they are in unanimous agreement. Their view was emphatically put into words by one of their number, who said that the operation of the Chartered Fleet was a shocking example of the inefficiency of bureaucratic -control as applied to road transport. The Ministry officials, in his opinion, were learning how to run road transport, and they were learning it in the most expensive way.
Unfortunately, however, the expense was falling upon the industry and, of course, upon the general public.
"But," he added, "the most alarming feature of the whole business is the enormous waste of transport, the shocking misuse of expensive and useful vehicles at a time when the country needs to make the most of its transport facilities and to expedite, the turn-round of vehicles."
I could quote story after story indicative of the inefficiency of this operation. One or two will suffice before I turn to discuss the figures which accompany this article—authentic figures relating to a chartered vehicle and figures which, believe me, are only too typical of dozens of others which I have seen but have not been at liberty to-publish.
Earnings 25 per cent. Less than in Commercial Operation Those figures which I have not been able to publish are almost precisely the same as the ones supplied to me by this less timorous operator. They show that the unloaded mileage. of vehicles • is approximately onequarter rising to one-third of the total, that the average loading of the vehicles on the loaded mileage is from one-half to two-thirds of the vehicle capacity, and that the earnings of the vehicles are approximately threequarters of that which is normal under. commercial operation. Many operators are following the example of the one quoted in this article and are withdrawing
their vehicles from the fleet.
Nor is this decision peculiar to only the owners of the vehicles. It is shared equally, and in some cases to a greater extent, by the drivers, who are utterly dissatis fied with the treatment they'are receiving. I know personally of one case where a good and efficient driver, who had been in employment with the same concern for 10 years without a break, handed in his notice, subject to the condition that he would withdraw' it if he were taken off the chartered vehicle and put on ordinary conuhercial service. .
In another case, an operator friend of mine, seeing a chartered vehicle, a 12-ton articulated ,petrol-engined machine, standing by a coffee stall on the Great North Road, decided, in view of the fact that he was about to put one of his own vehicles into the fleet, to have a word with the driver to learn what sort of conditions prevailed.
The driver was willing to talk: He said : "I don't know who youfaxe, guv'nor. I don't know whether you are an operator or whether you may be a Ministry official, but I will tell you this. If this job doesn't
• alter I'm going into the Army. I'm absolutely dis gusted at the way the vehicle islaaded; I have-not seen my wife for a mon.th; I have been wearing the same shirt for three weeks and haven't had an opportunity to get it washed.
"Last week, on Monday morning, I went with this vehicle to the manager of a Midland depot. • He had nothing for me to do so he said I could run him around, and from Monday morning until .Tuesday afternoon the depot manager was using this,12-tonner as a taxi."
An authentic case is quoted of a 15-tonner, sent 25 miles for a load which had to be transported no farther than three miles. The people were amazed when they learned whence the vehicle had come. They had been making preparations to dispatch the material by horsedrawn lorry. The vehicle did the three-mile journey' and went back 25 miles to its original starting point. A total of 53 miles empty for three miles loaded!
Now to turn to the tabulated figures. Schedule A is a summary of the work done by a Foden 12-ton oiler, 'during the period commencing in the middle of April and ending on July 10. Schedule B is a detailed story of the journeys made by the same vehicle in that period.
Like' the majority, the operator put the vehicle' into the Chartered Fleet because he considered it his duty to do so. He tells me quite candidly that' he was prejudiced against the rates for this heavy type of vehicle, considering them to be insufficient, but he was determined, he says,' to see only the best points of the scheme
and to give the Ministry a chance. He filled in the prescribed form an which he stated, as was requested, that he had branches in London, Liverpool and Birmingham, with a head office and maintenance shop in Hull. At all these depots there is a manager, and loading, unloading and shunting staff available to facilitate a quick turn-round of vehicles. His first misgivings .rose when he discovered that when the vehicle entered one of the towns in which he had a depot, the driver was nevertheless compelled to see to the loading and unloading of his vehicle himself; none of the depot staff was allowed to assist, whilst no attempt was made to take advantage of the facilities thus available for a quick turn-round. This, in itself, Made him decide that it would be improbable that he could put further vehicles into the Chartered Fleet, with these staffs on pay and the branches in operation, because neither staffs nor branches would be in employment to a worth-while extent.
Towards the end of the period he compiled the figures which are embodied in Schedules A and B. These figures have been examined and checked by an independent authority. There can be no possible doubt as to their accuracy and duthenticity. As a result of his experience as exemplified in those figures he has refused to renew the contract for this one vehicle and, of course, is not prepared even to consider putting any others into the Chartered Fleet.
He points out that these figures show, a's no one can deny :— (1) That the mileage per week for a vehicle of this type is trivial. (2) That the loads carried are paltry for this class of vehicle and, taken -into consideration with (1), are neither efficient nor economical. (3) That the figures for fuel consumption may be regarded as satisfactory only if the sole object of the operation of the fleet were to keep the quantity of fuel used to a minimum. (4) That the earnings are sufficiently low to ensure bankruptcy on the assumption that additional vehicles -are put on charter and the several depOts operated are maintained in working order.
Even in Favourable Comparison Inferiority Heavily Marked
The following summaries of the results for this three months' working of this one vehicle are a striking commentary on the efficiency of opeiation of the Chartered Fleet:—
Total mileage, 5,665. Total_ cost to the Ministry, £602 2s. 8d. Total net earnings by the operator, £548 15s. 7d. Cost per mile run, 2s. lid. Total loaded' miles, 4,339. Cost per loaded mile, 2s. 9.3d. These figutis are from Schedule A.
Cost of 4,267 loaded miles, £592 10s. Cost of 302
tons carried, £592 10s. Cost per ton carried, £2, approximately. Cost of .40 loaded journeys, £592 10s, Cost per loaded journey, £14 16s. 3d. Average load per journey (on a 12-ton vehicle), 71 tons. Averagelength per loaded journey, loq miles. Average rate per
ton per 1061 miles, £2. These figures are , from Schedule B.
Average number of Miles run per week, approximately, 470. Average number loaded miles run per week, approximately, 360. Average percentage of loaded miles to total mileage, 76.5. Average number of tons carried per week, '33.
Compare the above figures with the following, relating to ihe operation, in ordinary commercial service, of a IO-tonner. These are taken direct from the books of a well-knowe operator running regular services between London and depots such as are owned by the operator of this particular vehicle. Note that they apply to 10-tonners and not 12-tonners
Average number of miles run per week, 800, approxi
mately. Average number of loaded miles per week, 760. Average percentage of loaded miles to total mileage, 95. Average number of tons carried per week, 42.
There seems to be little' doubt but that the fault lies at the doors of the local managers. Those in charge of the depots are far below the standard of competency which is expected of those in similar position in commercial life. That this should be so is only to be expected. The competent men are still holding their positions.
Does Less Work But Earns More
I know of one snob manager. Di a depot, discharged after prolonged, but disappointing trial, proudly informing his one-time employer that he is earning half as much money again as he was receiving when he was in his peace-time job. . He is loading less tonnage per week than he did in that job, when he was working by himself, so thatin effect, as he put it, he now has practically nothing to do and six people to help him to do it.
The figure t for tonnage posted weekly by the Ministry seem to he imposing. Admittedly the average per vehicle is-better than that shown in the authentic figures quoted in this article : it approximates to 40 tons per week per vehicle, but we have no means for knowing
what proportion of that tonnage carried by longdistance vehicles and what proportion is merely shunt work
It is comparatively easy to pile up big figures for a weekly tonnage when half of it may be merely that of conveying traffic from one side of a town to the other. What operators would like to know, what the industry would like to 'know, and ,what the public at large is entitled to know, is how much this tonnage is costing the country.
If the 22 per ton per 106-mile haul, exemplified above, be an example, then something should be done about it. In fact,it is no exaggeration and it is an expression of the opinion of the majority of operators, that something should be done about this chartered Fleet; and that something is, to abolish it: Goes Fewer Miles and Carries Less
There is every justification for that plea, not merely in the interest of the industry, or those tif the individual operators who have put their vehicles into the Fleet, but in the-interests of the Nation at large, At a time when the cry is all for a quicker turn-round of vehicles and for the maximum use of all available transport, when the insistent demand is for the utmost economy of fuel and tyres, this fleet of nearly 3,500 vehicles is operating at an inefficiency denoted by the following figures:
Commertial usage : per Vehicle, 800 miles per week, carrying 12 tons per loadat a loading efficiency of 95 per cent. Chartered Fleet : 470 miles per week,' tons per load, and 76 per cent. loading; an inefficiency
of 30 per cent. S.T.R.