AT THE HEART OF THE ROAD TRANSPORT INDUSTRY.

Call our Sales Team on 0208 912 2120

Tip-top transport

3rd June 1977, Page 33
3rd June 1977
Page 33
Page 34
Page 35
Page 33, 3rd June 1977 — Tip-top transport
Close
Noticed an error?
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.

Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

rHE National Coal Board's Road Transport Service has been in existence for ten years now. It's been a decade of reorganisation and rationalisation. The fleet has been trimmed from 4,250 to 2,875 vehicles.

But it remains a fleet unrivalled in the variety of tasks facing it; and without parallel in the variety of vehicles — all British — which are organised to carry out these tasks.

recently visited the rebuilt Carcroft garage, near Doncaster, and then went to see the Western Area's fleet both in action at Woolstanton colliery and being serviced at Berry Hill maintenance and operational centre, Stoke-on-Trent.

Carcroft has 11 garage staff. They deal with 30 tippers; 10 platform lorries, eight of which are equipped with cranes; four specialised delivery vehicles; two road sweepers; and 33

vans. They also service ambulances, mines rescue vehicles, Land-Rovers, computer centre vans, Solid Fuel Advisory Service vehicles and so on.

At Carcroft I met Douglas Brown, area road transport manager, and Jim McLoughlin, assistant road transport manager, who provided the design for an NCB architect to rebuild the garage. There I learned what a sought-after job that of an NCB hgv driver is. "We have 41 hgv drivers here," said Mr Brown, "and in seven years we've only had two leave."

Four or five drivers apply unsuccessfully every week. The advantages of the jobs? Security; good rates of pay; not too many nights away from home; concessionary coal, clothing; boots; and good workIng conditions. Applicants are given a half-hour driving test by the foreman. Average age of drivers works out at precisely 45. The management is clearly satisfied. So what of the vehicles?

"We have some eight wheelers with Rolls-Royce engines," I was told, "though some of the men prefer Gardners." Some snags had occurred with Ford Transits fitted with the York engine.

Mr Brown and Mr

McLoughlin and their men are proud of their new garage. "The two-post vehicle lifts are marvellous," one of the engineers told me.

The NCB is a member of the FTA and an Association officer went to Carcroft as a consultant but did not alter the basic garage plans. The equipment includes auto lube; brake tester — formerly in a lean-to too low for high tipper vehicles; load simulator; dynamometer; under-floor exhaust extraction; Drum Clene to take care of asbestos dust; illuminated inspection pit and so on.

This is the year when good vehicle maintenance has been needed more than ever. It's been the worst winter for pot-holes on sites, caused by the wet weather, that they can remember, Rear-spring breakages have averaged two a week. However, the policy of area director J. Wood of improving colliery surfaces has greatly reduced tyre damage.

Some of the very rough work on the sites is contracted out to local hauliers.

All their Leylands which load under coal hoppers and as such are subjected to being splashed with washery drainage, are sent for anti-rust treatment for their cabs. The Fodens, of course, have fibre glass cabs and the Bedfords don't go under hoppers and so don't face the same corrosion dangers, Mr Brown reckons there has been a vast improvement in recent years in the standard of hgv; and that the Ford Transit, although there have been some snags with the York diesel, is one of the best vehicles in its class.

No vehicle has ever had a GV9. "The test centre told us our vehicles are the best maintained," he said.

One of the maintenance engineers told me: —Engine oil changing was previously a one-man job, true, but you had to mess about with oil cans, go to the oil store in the old

garage, fill the can, etc now you just pull the oil hoses out. The 10-15 minute job has been cut to two minutes.

"The gearbox was a twoman job because when you wound out the oil from the dispenser one man had to hold the pipe into the gearbox to stop it falling out. Now you plug the power hose in, and press the trigger. After you have drained out the oil into the oil disposal unit, it's just emptied into the storage tank automatically by plugging the air line in. We used to have to drain it into a tray and carry it to the storage tank.

"The ramp posts are the best thing in the shop. They move forward and back to take any size of vehicle from an hgv to a Mini. You need only raise the front of a vehicle if, for instance, you're just changing the front wheel."

Whereas Doncaster has a small fleet, Western Area has the largest -550 vehicles. When I called at Berry Hill maintenance and operational centre at Stoke-on-Trent, the Western Area road transport manager, Mr E. Granger, told me: "We don't consider it economically viable to have less than 100 vehicles at a garage. In 1971 there were 11 repair garages in what is now the Western Area.

We were joined by Mr W. Sargeant, pool supervisor; Mr J. D. Sexton, deputy road transport manager; Mr R. Morris, assistant road transport manager; and Mr J. Clark, fleet engineer. They pointed out that during peak demand in winter they used about 200 contractors' vehicles; the number was decided on economy grounds — by tender. The Area Road Transport Service is run by a management team of eight with a -clerical cover of 11."So you see we are not overburdened with bureaucracy, said Mr Granger.

There was the same pride in their work as at Doncaster. "We find the drivers will undertake any job if you explain first," I was told. And there was a similar story to that related in Doncaster of problems caused by wet weather. Slurry penetrating the brake drums has meant that in many cases brakes have had to be stripped every six weeks.

And they, too, were proud of their workshops. The operations and the maintenance foreman are able to talk to each other on the intercom, and also can converse with the men. "This system's worth its weight in gold,'" they said.

They've had fume extraction since June 1976. Their flowline maintenance system was put into operation in 1969. Four years ago they introduced a system of dispensing antifreeze mixture by hose reel. Every tyre's record can be traced in detail simply and quickly.

Transport is a big job in every Coal Board Area. particularly so in the Western Area, which has 24 collieries in Staffordshire, Lancashire, Shropshire, North Wales and Cumbria. Output from the 25,000 mineworkers amounts to about 12m tons a year. The Western Area fleet clocks up some 9m miles a year.

Its 32-tanners are mostly ERFs with some Fodens. What they look upon as their breadand-butter tipper and platform lorries are Chryslers and Fords. This year vehicle replacement costs will amount to £600,000, for one hundred and seven units. The maintenance staff numbers 42. Preparation time for MoT tests on heavy goods vehicles averages three days.

In the past couple of years they have trained a large number of drivers. Training of class 2 and three to class 1 standard is done during the summer. It's found more economical to train their own drivers than to send them for out-company instruction.

What about hired-in transport? "Unless hauliers' rates are keen they don't stand much chance." Their quality? "Some give first-class service — those that work for us regularly. We use run-of-themill operators from time to time; and some are damnably poor.

"If the standard of hired-in haulage were to deteriorate the Coal Board would increase its own fleet. But we always like to have a balance between our fleet and those of hauliers." They believe that more legislation is certain to come on *smoke emission and that fuel injection will become sophisticated in a couple of years' time. Back at the Coal Board's headquarters in Hobart House, London, Mr E. V. Molyneaux, the NCB's director of Road Transport Service, put me in the picture nationally. The size of the Transport Service's job is daunting. Virtually one million miles a week are covered by Board vehicles hauling 30m tons a year, anc remember this is mostly in rum of less than 25 miles.

The Board's fleet include; 950 tippers, 738 flats, 79( vans and personnel carriers and 282 specialised vehicles and 109 miscellaneous vehi cles.

Although it's a State-ownec service, it is organised or commercial lines.

For the first four years of thi Service, the Coal Board carrie( large stocks of vehicle spares This was stopped and span parts holdings has beer reduced by 80 per cent. Con tracting to local distributor means little capital tied up ir spare parts.

All costings have been corn puterised; by the end of thi year budgeting will also 13, done by computer.

Purchasing has been ration alised. So workshop staff neei to specialise only on certail models. "We owe a lot t, Motec whom we use to a higl degree," said Mr Molyneux.

The NCB is organised int. 12 Areas; so too therefore mut be road transport.

Makes of vehicles used b Areas is decided by NationE Headquarters as part of . rationalisation policy and t, spread the business generally ti the British vehicle manu facturers.

Coal is used somewhere ii the manufacture of Britisl vehicles; and the NCB return "the compliment by buying a makes.

But keeping certain model to certain Areas has proved substantially useful. Training requirements are eased and the manufacturers know where they are.

While the fleet size has been reduced, redundancy of drivers has been kept to a minimum. Reduced manpower levels have, in the main, been achieved through natural wastage.

Normally, vans and personnel carriers are changed every three years; production line trucks /Ford, Chryslers, etc) every five years; and the machines like Fodens every eight years.

Every year vehicles coming within these age categories are reviewed by Mr Molyneux in conjunction with officials of the Board's finance department. They decide whether each vehicle's life could be extended another year without undue cost.

Mileage is only one factor in determining replacement because many vehicles do few miles, but because of the arduous nature of their operation have more wear than One with 150,000 on the clock.

Effective preventive maintenance results in good resale prices being attained at auction.

Till five years ago the Board disposed of its old vehicles by competitive tender; now selling is mainly through auction firms. But a reserve price is put on vehicles.

Auctions cut out costly administrative work; sending

out tenders, visits by buyers; ileaving vehicles standing about; and the risk of canniba

lisation.

The Transport Service operates on a profit basis within the Board, All the vehicles are hired out to users; such as collieries, stores and work shops, etc.

In the financial year ended March '77 £111/2m was spent on hiring contractors' vehicles -about 90 per cent of that for tippers. In the current year £11m is being budgeted

Four hundred and fifty to 570 vehicles are sold annually. This year 461 new vehicles are being bought, at an estimated cost of £31/2m, and 491 will be sold under the auctioneer's hammer.

During these 10 years less than one per cent of all vehicles submitted for D of T testing have had to be re-submitted, and these for very minor features.

An interesting point is that fitters only are allowed to take vehicles to the test stations -generally the men who have prepared the vehicle for test. Preventive maintenance servicing is carried out on the following basis: Vehicles engaged on heavy, arduous work /mainly on sites): Every fortnight or 1,500 miles whichever is the sooner. Road vehicles: Every six weeks or 3,000 miles.

Inspection is based almost entirely on the Goods Vehicle Tester's Manual. Said Mr Mo

lyneux: ''My only comment on our low test failure is this - does our rate indicate we are maintaining to too high a standard compatible with 'Costs? That is if it's really possible to say that a vehicle can be maintained to too high a standard.

"Could we save by relaxing slightly?

-In many cases only the area fleet engineer can decide. Say a vehicle's brakes are not really up to the highest standard. Possibly he decides to reline before it would be needed under normal circumstances. If he were to leave the brakes because of cost considerations then the vehicle could fail the next test; we then have to rebook and we lose a fortnight's earnings and standing costs.

"This is a difficult area from a cost-control point of view. This is a field we are continuing to explore. Our watchwords are 'Compliance with the law in every respect' .

Each of the Board's Areas has a manager, assistant manager and a fleet engineer. Workshops staff work out at around one craftsman to 12 vehicles.

There are 37 workshops or servicing centres for all 12 NCB areas, and 46 garages, usually located with workshops.

Servicing is aided by good driving. These days, says Mr Molyneux, drivers take more care of their vehicles than ever before. Pride in their work was helped by the introduction of a new, bright livery about five years ago.

Mr Molyneux likes the new comfortable cabs on the vehicles now being turned out by. British manufacturers; he thinks, howeVer, that they should not go too far in this direction.

Automatic washing facilities, available virtually everywhere, do the job in minutes per day and means that there is no longer the need for drivers to be paid overtime for this task.

Absentee rate in the transport department -including holidays -averages • about eight per cent. • John Durant


comments powered by Disqus