DUNLOP'S TRANSPORT ORGANIZATION.
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Over. 100 Commercial Vehicles Used at the Birmingham Depot for Delivery, Passenger-service and Tyre-testing Purposes.
E do not claim that the following descrip
tion is complete, although it is certainly
an unvarnished story, of the methods by which the Dunlop Rubber Co.'s raw materials and finished goods are carried from station to factory and from factory to store or depot. The outstanding features only, of a diversified and large organization, are dwelt upon. At the moment both the transport department and the huge organization it serves are in the transition period, the latter from a state of war to one of peace-time working, the former is preparing, for removal to new and commodious headquarters.
The magnitude of this transport derfartment may be gathered from the fact that the Birmingham depot comprises over 100 vehicles of all sorts and sizes, and although it is the headquarters it is, notwithstanding, only one of fourteen such depots disposed in. the principal cities of the kingdom, Its diversity is principally demonstrated by the variety of types of vehicle employed, from the fourton Petrol and the fourton electric lorries down to light cars ; that it 'comprises a practically continuously operated bus service employing 32 buses, goods carrying vehicles of like number, and of various capacities, the balance being made up of touring cars the principal occupation of which is that of continuously testing Dunlop tyres. Incidentally, it should be mentioned that 15 per cent. of the total of 100 odd vehicles at Birmingham are maintained merely as stand-by or spare chassis in case of breakdown of any of the regular services. The passenger-carrying side of the department appears naturally to demand priority of attention. The company's principal factory now is that named Fort Dunlop, which is situated east of Gravelly Hill and north of Stecbford, its distance from New Street as the craw flies being four miles. To it there is no reasonable service either of buses, trams or trains. This factory and the lack of public-service connections between it and the city and its environments is. then, the raison (rare of Dunlop's passenger service. Thirty-two vehicles arc employed upon this work, mainly old London General -Omnibus Co.'s. vehicles of Straker-Squire make. There are included also ten buses hired from the Birmingham Corporation and four from the Walsall Corporation.
As may be expected, the highest degree of perfected organization on lines of economical running is not attainable in connection with this section of the department by reason of its irregularity. The works staff" proper is employed on three shifts of eight hours each, from seven in the morning to three in the afternoon, 3 p.m. to 11 p.m., and 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. again. Effective provision has to be made, then, on three separate occasions during each 24 hours, for conveying, the workpeople between their homes and the factory. This naturally involves the compan'Y in the expense of providing a large number of vehicles sufficient to accommodate at each shift one-third of its staff of workpeople, and these times provide what may be described as the " peak " loads
of the service. Furthermore, however, owing to the fact that the works is still largely in process of construction, and that there are builders and contractors' staffs employed about the place who do not cease or start work at any of the times named, additional demands upori the passenger service, although not individually so large as those frdm Dunlop's own staff, are made at various times during the day. Many suggestions have been put forward with a view to eliminating' the uneconomical effect of these peak loads, and short of keeping employed a number of chassis with interchangeable bodies, the best expedient seems to be that which is employed to he extent of four units—of using as passenger vehicles goods lorries into which seats are quickly, although, of course, securely, dropped, merely for the rush hours.
An interesting detail of the service is the provhion of a special enclosed bus, on an Austin chassis, forthe use of officials who from time to time during the day may wish to run from one of the company's factories to another. This bus runs to time-table, ei,d the service is so frequent that no inconvenielce would be caused by anyone wishing to travel, say, from Fort Dunlop to Aston Cross by his having to wait for the next service rather than call upon a car for immediate use. Fares are charged to the workpeople in connection with this service. These, how
ever, are very low indeed, and work out at rather less than id. a mile. In one instance, a 54-mile journey costs the-passenger only lid.
The goods department is mainly devoted to bringing raw materials from stations and docks to the principal factories, conveying partly-finished goods from one factory to another, and finished tyres from stores and depots into the town. In several instances successful endeavours to cope with the bogey of empty running have been made. Journeys are planned to follow triangular routes, picking up and unloading at each of three important places or call. For example, one triangular circuit of a length of three miles is continuously operated by wagons which are always loaded. It runs between Para or Aston Mills, Manor Mills and Fort Dunlop Raw material, as it arrives in Birmingham, is generally diverted to Fort Dunlop. It is collected there by wagons engaged upon this triangular circuit, and taken either to Manor Mills or Aston Cross, and is there delivered, the lorry taking on a load of partlyfinished tyres of some kind from one of the two minor factories, conveying it to the other, where a bulk load of raw material after it has been mixed (a preliminary stage of rubber making) is taken on and conveyed back to Fort Dunlop.
Another triangular route is in connection with the steel for the foundation bands of solid tyres. Raw
material for these, as in the ease of rubber, is taken direct to Fort Dunlop, where it is cut to length. The company's own motors collect these cut lengths here and take them in complete lorry loads to the works in Smethwick, where they are bent and welded. The second limb of the triangle is between this sinithy and a works in town where the bands are machined, and the third journey is from the machine shop back to Fort Dunlop, conveying finished steel bands upon which, at Fort Dunlop, the tyres are finally built up and vulcanized. To give some idea of the extent of the operatioas at Fort Dunlop, it is pointed out that this service is continuously run throughout each day by two four-ton yell-Ides. One of them when finishing for the evening puts up at the garage with its load of whatever it may at the moment be carrying : the other one fishes its goods circuit at Fort Dunlop, is there fitted with forms, and is temporarily incorporated in the passenger-carrying fleet.
Yet another vehicle does the transport service for the Coventry tvorks, running to that town each morning-with a load of tyres for dispatch from the Government Overseas Stores, which is situated in