PROBLEMS OF THE HAULIER AND CARRIER.
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What Road Contractors Can Earn. An Article which is a Preliminary to the Discussion of the Problem of the Use of the Trailer.
AQUESTION which is worrying a good many hauliers just now is: should I be able to make more profit out of this job if I had a trailer, or even two trailers at work, instead of just one lorry?
It is a problem which comes right home to those whose principal work is cartage in connection with road construction, building work, excavation, or anything which involves comparatively short hauls of gravel, stones, earth, or similar loads. In the majority of cases, those who are doing this work are men who have one or two lorries of their own, usually of four tons capacity and petrol driven. Generally, the work is let out at stipulated rates per ton, and these rates vary considerably according to the district, having, however, one peculiarity in common: there is "not much fat about them."
It is because of the last-named feature of the work that so many of those who are engaged upon it are inclined to wonder whether adding a trailer or two to their equipment might not have the effect of cheapening the working, and so bring in a little more in the way of returns.
What the average haulier Is up against in a problem of this kind is the difficulty of finding out, for certain, what gain, if I any, is going to be secured by i the change, and he wants that information—and accurately, too—before he sets about buyI ing the additional equipment and engages the extra help— for he will want that as well. .1
As a matter of fact, it is very nearly a chartered accountant's job reckoning the matter up at all, and it is true to say that the vast majority of men who are doing these jobs on their own have not the least idea how they stand, financially. None of them can say exactly what he is making out of the contract. They all know that they are taking a certain amount of money home each week, and that they are spending a certain amount each week on petrol and sundries, but how much of the surplus is profit and how much of it will eventually be lost in paying for overhauls, new tyres, licences, insurances and such-like charges is matter for the vaguest of conjectures only.
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Reckonings which will Help.
Since that is so, it is certain that the following cakutions—which are made as simple as is possible—will be of great assistance to a large number of readers, helping them to understand the basic principles of the matter, which knowledge is essential if a decision on the matter of the trailers is to be reached with satisfaction.
Take a very simple case first—the cartage of roadmaking material from the place where it is mixed to the actual scene of road-making operations. I call this a simple case, because the element of loading and unloading is to a certain extent eliminated. The wagon is usually filled direct from the mixing machine, from which it is discharged by means of a chute. Tipping lorries are invariably used, and they shoot the load on to the road at a predetermined point.. It is necesary to allow from twenty minutes to half an hour for loading, and from ten minutes to a quarter of an bony for discharging. These seemingly long periods are needed because, at the one end, there may be a little waiting to get under the chute, following another wagon, and, at the other end, some manceuvring for position, avoiding partly-made road on one hand and heaps of material on the other, as well as waiting for the convenience of traffic which is passing over the other half of the road which is all that is available to it.
Delays No Novelty to the Experienced.
These are little snags of which the inexperienced amongst my readers may be unaware, or may, in ignorance, disregard. The older hands could tell some bitter tales, if they would. The raw hand at the job, the tenderfoot haulier, might think that, since only five minutes is needed to load a wagon from the chute; and a couple more for tipping the same load at the other end of the journey, he need only allow ten minutes of each trip for these purposes. His calculations, thus based, would be wrong, and his balance sheet be thrown out of balance. -1
The old hands will be inclined to agree with me to the. uttermost minute of the above estimate, and allow threequarters of an hour to each journey for loading and unloading.
The distance to be travelled, in the case under review, is five miles each way, or 10 miles in all. Another threequarters of an hour should suffice for travelling time.
The total time needed for a complete round trip, including loading and unloading, is thus 11 hours, which falls very awkwardly into an eight-hour day. It makes room for five complete journeys and one loaded one to the road. She loads in five and a half jour. neys. InadditiOfl, there is the run, if any, from home to the starting point at the beginning of the day and the return home at night. Alternatively, there is the final run back to headquarters after the last of the six loads has been tipped. As a general rule, the latter procedure will be followed and the lorry garaged at headquarters each night.
The total mileage each full working day will be 60, and the total loae], carried, six times four tons, or 24 toes. What we want to know is : what does it cost the haulier to deliver this material?
The running cost of a four-ton lorry, according to The C ommeretal Motor tables of operating costs, is 6.23d. per mile. That, as is explained so frequently in the tables, is an average. It does not strictly apply to an example such as this, because this is not an average case.
This lorry will he travelling all day for its 60 miles— and that is an important factor. Its engine will be running all the time the vehicle is being loaded, while the wagon is waiting its turn, backing into position under the chute, and draWing out again. The engine will still be running all the time the lorry is being un
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loaded or waiting its turn in the traffic, or nianceuvring into position to unload.
Five miles per gallon, on the mileage actually travelled, instead of the seven given in the tables, is the figure experienced in work of this description. The oil costs will go up in proportion, and so, most empha tically, must that of the tyres, which are cut about and torn in a most heartbreaking fashion in the sort of travelling involved in these jobs. One of the very things the tyre manufacturers inveigh against most strongly, the bumping of the tyres against kerbs and kerb-high obstructions, is done at least twice every journey, as a rule, on a road-making job. On the whole, therefore, whilst the average figure for cost of tyres per mile is given as .90d., the cost, on this sort of work, will be nearer 1.20d.
Depreciation and maintenance can be taken as standard. They may be more, but on the other hand, can be less if the owner takes care.
At a shilling per gallon the petrol will cost 2.40d. per mile. Oil will be 0.65d., and the total, taking tyres
as given above, at 1.20d., and maintenance and depre1.ation as in the tables, at 1.57d. and 1.17d. respectively, is 6.99d.—say 7d. per mile.
If, now, the week be five and a half working days, the total mileage will be 330, costing 19 12s. 6d. Th standing charges according to the tables are £6 5s. Dd., the total cost per week being thus £15 18s. 3d.
A man whose sole concern is carting of this nature will have very little in the way of establishment expenses. Ten shillings 'a week will about cover them, and if we reckon that the total cost is £16 10s. a week we shall not be far out. This is the cost of carting 132 tons, and at three shillings a ton the return is £19 16s., leaving a profit of £3 6s. a week, which is not bad, having in mind that in the standing charges given above there is included £3 12s. a week as driver's wages and 16s. 3d. for interest on the first cost of the lorry. At half-a-crown a ton there would be no net profit.
Now, we want to know if those figures can be bettered with a trailer, and that is a matter with which wo shall deal next week. S.T.R.