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Road Transport's Bread and Butter
Page 97
Page 98
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ADVICE ON TRANSPORT PROBLEMS by S. BUCKLEY, ASSOC. INST. T.
IN terms of news value it is perhaps unfortunate but inevitable that our staple industries, and much that they do, should be largely taken for granted whilst recent but comparatively small industries hit the headlines. Two such staple industries are agriculture and road transport. There are significant similarities between the two. Each constitutes a major portion of the nation's economy and both are substantial employers of labour. But despite their size the individual units are small and, on average, remain so despite some merging in both industries.
By the very nature of agriculture, the whole of a farmer's requirements and subsequent production has initially to be moved by road and because the United Kingdom's compactness means that maximum journey mileages are relatively short, road transport is in an advantageous position to complete deliveries throughout.
Because of the need for greater self-sufficiency in food production in the U.K., the quantity of agricultural products requiring to be moved has regularly increased. But due to the natural cycle in agriculture there is often an interval between cause and effect and the exceptionally harsh winter of 1962/3 brought some check to this continuing upward trend in agricultural output. Basically, however, the quantity to be moved remains high indeed compared with the amount of freight offered by other industries.
Thus the total crop production in respect of wheat, rye, barley, oats, mixed corn, potatoes and sugar beet is forecast as over 23m. tons for 1963/4. The corresponding forecast for beef and veal is 921,000 tons and mutton and lamb 250,000, both being increases on the previous year.
But, as with many transport statistics, these forecasts of basic production do not represent the whole picture of transport requirements. There is a large amount of movement within the farm and local journeys in connection with meeting intermediate requirements in production, such as seed dressing and delivery of other material and equipment.
Impressive though these figures of tonnages are, they do not, of course, give the full implication of the transport requirements of agriculture. Unlike other basic industries, there are no centres of production. Agriculture is spread throughout the entire country, necessitating a nationwide transport servicealbeit made up of small units. Whilst, admittedly, ultimate delivery is to some extent concentrated on traditional markets, local contact between haulier and farmer at the point of dispatch is of vital importance to transport efficiency. Whilst close liaison between haulier and customer is always necessary the many last-minute adjustments-weatherwise or for other reasons—make such liaison essential in agriculture. Moreover, the product to be moved cannot he dealt with as a normal run of general freight. In many instances, such as livestock movement, the haulier must know almost as much as the farmer himself about the habits of the animals he moves.
As with other types of freight, agricultural products are available to be moved in either A, B or C-licensed vehicles. Many farmers do in fact operate their own vehicles for convenience and the number running under F licence is around 58,000. hut a substantial proportion of these are of 2 tons unladen weight or less and could include special types. Consequently a large proportion of the available traffic remains to he moved by the professional haulier.
Whilst agriculture is inherently seasonal, there has been a trend towards levelling out of seasonal peaks by the adoption of a variety of crops—to the advantage of both farmer and haulier. But in any event, because food production is a stable industry the amount of traffic available to the haulier is correspondingly reliable.
But the advantages of quantity and overall reliability of traffic are offset to some extent, at least to the newcomer in haulage, by the exacting demands as regards timetabling and the detailed knowledge which the haulier must have of the agricultural traffic which he moves.
-Before the final stage of production is reached there are substantial transport requirements on and around the farm. Large quantities of artificial fertilizer are fed to the land. Such movement often involves several journeys, first from the factory to depots or corn merchants, whether by rail or road, with ultimate deliveries to the customer by road. Then around 1m. tons of seeds are required annually by
farmers. Whilst part of this requirement may be supplied by the farmer himself, a great deal will come from corn merchants, or from the local factory in the special case of sugar beet.
Both as regards tonnage produced and area covered the demand of agriculture on road transport has increased during the post-War years. An artificial increase in road transport requirements in this respect has resulted from the closing down of rail goods stations in sparsely populated areas which, of course, are invariably agricultural areas, with a resulting transfer of agricultural traffic from rail to road, Now, with the implementation of the Beeching plan, this trend is already being accelerated with the closure of complete branch lines. More recently still, as regards livestock traffic, it would appear that the railways' prime remaining interest in this respect concerns full-train-load traffic from the Irish ports to chosen centres.
As mentioned previously, farmers do in fact move some of their produce in their own vehicles, including short journeys to the local railhead. if, however, a farmer subsequently finds that he can no longer deliver to the local station but must go to the nearest main-line junction some miles away, he may no longer wish to do this work for himself, Under the previous arrangement, with his lorry back at the farm every hour or so, he was in a position to switch it to other more important work which might have temporarily arisen possibly due to weather conditions. But, in future, with a longer journey to the railhead possibly involving half a day or more, these convenient switches of duty become impossible. The farmer might then decide that his vehicle was more use in and around the farm and that movement to the railhead has now become a professional haulier's lob. Similarly the recent liaison between the railways and hauliers in connection with movement of agricultural traffic in rural areas underlies the increasing potential in this field for road transport.
Stemming from agriculture being an industry of relatively small units is the fact that although the principles of.bulk delivery vehicles are being applied in an increasing number of cases this development has not been as rapid as was at one time anticipated. The versatility of the standard platform vehicle, allied to its low initial cost, makes it still the universal vehicle for agricultural purposes, with or without the addition of specialized containers. Even on the criterion of optimum size this cannot unfortunately be determined on simple economics because such practical matters as limited access and turning circle have often to be given prior consideration. Accordingly, as examples of the likely cost of operating platform vehicles suitable for agricultural use the following estimates are given relative to a 4-tonner fitted with petrol engine and 7-tonner fitted with oil engine. Both estimates are based on the new Cost Tables published last week.
Dealing first with the 4-tonner, it will be assumed that the unladen weight is 2 tons 8 cwt. so incurring an annual licence duty of £36 or the equivalent of 15s. 3d. a week inclusive of a proportion of the carrier's licence fee. Incidentally, as with the other four items of standing costs, this weekly amount is obtained by dividing the yearly figure by 50, and not 52, so as to allow for two weeks per annum when the vehicle may be off the road for major overhaul or driver's holiday.
The cost of wages to the employer is reckoned at £11 2s. 6d. for a basic 42-hour week; this figure includes insurance contributions and an adjustment for holidays with pay. Rent and rates in respect of garaging the vehicle are reckoned at £1 a week whilst comprehensive vehicle insurance adds £1 18s. 11d, a week based on an estimated 1340 annual premium of £97 4s. for cover in a medium risk area.
Interest charged at a nominal rate of 5 per cent on the initial outlay of £1,027 adds £1 Os. 7d. a week, so giving a total of £15 I7s. 3d. a week for these five items of standing costs. Where a 42-hour week applies the corresponding standing costs per hour. would be 90-464.
. As with all estimates of the cost of operating commercial vehicles, it is necessary to know the likely average weekly mileage. In this instance this will be assumed to be 400, or around 60/70 miles a day. With petrol purchased at 4s. Id. a gallon and assuming an average rate of consumption of 14 m.p.g. is maintained the fuel cost per mile becomes 3.50d. Lubricants add 0.24d. and tyres 0.95d. when the average life is 30,000 miles. Maintenance is reckoned to cost 2-46d. a mile and depreciation I-29d. This latter calculation is made by first deducting the equivalent cost of the original set of tyres from the initial cost of the vehicle, with a further reduction in respect of the residual value, assuming a vehicle life of 150,000 miles.
The total for the five items of running costs is therefore 8-44d. and adding the standing costs gives a total operating cost of 17.96d. a mile or £29 19s. a week-still assuming that 400 miles a week are averaged.
Applying a similar procedure to calculating the cost of operating the 7-ton oil-engined vehicle, the unladen weight of 3 tons 4 cwt. results in an annual licence duty of £46 10s. or 19s. 5d. a week. With the carrying capacity now in the next higher wage category the cost of this item to the employer is £11 1 1 s. 6d. Rent and rates are £1 2s. 9d., and insurance becomes £2 12s. a week because of the increased capacity and initial cost of the vehicle, namely
£1,409. Similarly interest charges are adjusted to 8s. 2d. a week. Total standing, costs thus become £17 13s. 10d. a week or 101-09d. per hour.
Appropriate to this larger size of vehicle, the average weekly mileage will now be assumed to be 600. The costs per mile of the five items of running costs are estimated to be: Fuel 3-35d., lubricants 0-28d., tyres 1.48d., maintenance 2-71d, and depreciation 1-73/1.; total 9-55d. With the addition of the standing casts the total operating cost, when averaging 600 miles a week with this 7-tonner, becomes 16-63d, a mile or £41 1 Is. a week.