THE HAULIERS INQUIRE WITHIN.
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Further Consideration of the Problem Put Before Us by a Brick-maker, Showing that, With No Limit to the Day's Output, the Largest Vehicle is the Cheapest.
REFERRING again to the query which we were considering last week, where a brick-maker has to convey his products to a place seven miles from his works, it can easily be shown that, so long as we do not know how many tons are to be carried a week, we are justified in stating that the bigger the capacity of the vehicle, the cheaper is going to he the cost of carriage. The possibility of adding a trailer to the, steam wagon, the cost of which we discussed last week, svill have occurred to practically every reader who has any experience of steam wagons at all, as well as to many of those who are finding that some of the latest types of petrol wagon can safely be used with trailers. Now, if we add a trailer to the 6-ton Wagon we increase its capacity by another four tons, so that it becomes, to all intents and purposes, a 10-ton vehicle. There are, however, several ways of using trailers, and I want to show, in this case, •how advantageous it is to use more than one trailer—not '1G have more than one travelling at a time, but to have more than one in use, so that one is travelling and the others are loading and unloading. In this instance, as the load can conveniently be tipped, it will only be necessary to consider the employment of two trailers, of which one is being loaded at the factory, while the other is on the road. I shall consider this case first, and then show how much better it is to work in that fashion than to have but one trailer.
Two Trailers for Use with the One Wagon.
With two trailers there will be no increase in loading-time, for „there is ample time for one trailer to be loaded while the, other is going to and from the place where the bricks are to be delivered. The standaig time at that end of the journey will still be the same as it was in the ease of the 6-ton steam wagon acting alone, namely, three-quarters of an hour. There may be a little loss of time, owing to the necessity for changing trailers, but I am going to assume that this seller of bricks appreciates the need for so arranging matters that this time is reduced to such an extent as to be negligible, as it can be if a little thought be devoted to it. At the delivery end it is not so likely that things can be arranged to afford this convenient economy of time. It is probable that, there, the time required to tip two loads will be discovered to be almost exactly twice that which has been found to be needed for one. The standing time at the delivery end of the journey will thus be half an hour instead of only a quarter.
It is not to be expected, of course, that a wagon and trailer will be able to travel so fast as the wagon on its own.. Even if the roads were perfectly level, and the surfaces beyond reproach, there would still be the extra time needed to manceuvre in and out of the yards at each end, and that alone, on such a short trip, would make a considerable difference, in proportion to the total. I am sure that no one will disagree with me if I take it that, for the seven-mile trip, three-quarters of an hour each way is a fair estimate of the travelling time. The total time for the round trip, including loading and unloading time, will be, therefore, .2i hours. ,
This allows of no more than 17 round trips per week, giving a mileage of 23S. The total cost, at Is. 6d. per mile, is seventeen guineas. Each journey sees 10 tons carried seven miles-, so that the number
of ton-miles of capacity pee journey is 70, and per week •1,190. The cost per ton-mile of capacity is 3.60d., the cost of cartage of 170 tons per week being 2s. id. per ton.
Now, if only one trailer be used, one of two things must happen. Eitiber extra loaders must be engaged to load the trailer while the wagon is being loaded, so as to lose-no time, or there will have to be extra time allowed for loading, which will naturally take longer, with two vehicles to fill, than with only one, if the loading staff be the same in each case. Actually it will only be possible, in these circumstances, to load the trailer after the job of loading file steam wagon has been completed.
The Merits and Demerits of the Use of One Trailer.
In the first case, where extra hands are engaged for the loading, they will all of them be idle during the time the wagon is travelling. They will have nothing to do for two hours out of each two-andthree-quarter hours, which is equivalent to saying that, out of a week of 48 hours, they will be idle for 35. If there be four of them, and their wages are 48s. a week, they will really be paid at the rate of 48s. for 13 hours' work, which is practically 3s. 81d. an hour—not at all a poor wage for a labourer. In the second case, supposing that no extra hands be engaged, then we may take it that an extra half-hour will be required to load up the trailer, and the journey time will be increased to three-and-a-quarter hours.
The second of the other methods reduces our weekly number of journeys to 14, and the mileage for the same period to 196, putting the .cost per mile up to is. Sd., even if the total cost per week be reduced to £16 as.. ad. The number of ton-miles of capacity will, in these circumstances, be 980, the cost of each of thoSe ton-miles being just 4d., and the
cartage cost per ton will have increased to 2s. 4d., 140 tour only being carried per week.
I expect a good many readers are wondering if I am going to consider the possibilities of the sixwheeler in connection with a job of this sort. The answer follows.
A six-wheeler, with a steam power unit, will not be quite so good as a 6-ton steam wagon and two trailers, unless the six-wheeler, too, be equipped with two bodies and the necessary Apparatus to enable one to be left for loading while the other is travelling. I am of opinion that an ordinary sixwheeler will not be so good as a 6-tonner and two trailers, because, with the six-wheeler, we revert to the conditions which are present when we have a f;-tonner and only one trailer, in that ten tons have to be loaded while the wagon is waiting, and the loaders of the ten tons have to wait while the wagon goes and comes before they can get to work again. There will be no saving on the road, and only a little saving at the unloading end.
The cost of running a six-wheeler and that of a 6-tonner and trailer are practically the same. When I say " practically " I do not mean that I would not, in this calculation, take account of some slight difference in costs, so lone as that difference were definite and reliable. There is, however, no such definite difference. In one example, the figures are in favour of the six-wheeler and in the other in favour of the separate units, and, for this particular
job, I do not think there is any advantage in the plain sig-wheeler.
Even a six-wheeler with interchangeable bodies does not improve on the figures of the steam wagon and trailer ; on the, other hand, its weekly tonnage is much greater. If we allow a quarter of an hour at the loading end, or perhaps slightly less, for dropping one body on to its jacks and picking up the other, and if we take it that the time per journey be still three-quarters of an hour each way, then th8etotal time per journey will be slightly under two hours, and the number of complete journeys per week, 24. The cost per mile of an outfit of this kind, working in the manner outlined, will approximate to Is. 6d., so that the total cost •per week will be £25 4s. Each journey accounts for 70 of our friend's and " One Hears' ' ton-miles of capacity," and the totalof these units per week is 1,680. The cost of each is 3.6d. and the cost per ton for cartage of 249 tons per week is 2s. Id.
With a six-wheeler and two 6-ton trailers operated on the same lines as the steam wagon and trailer, the figures. calculated by the same method, and making no allowances for the extra wages of loaders who may have to be employed, are as follow :—Journeys per week, 14; miles. per week, 196; total cost, £187s. 6d. ; total ton-miles, 1,568, and cost of each, 2.81d. ; cost of cartage per ton, is. 70. I have added these results to the table which was given last week, and the data are set out above. THE SKOTCH.