More Loads More Profit
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Further Comparisons Between -Normal Sided and Tipping Vehicles on Sugarbeet Haulage :' Quicker Turn-round Enables More Loads To be Carried, Thus Increasing the Operator's Earning Capacity
IWROTE last week about the haulage,. of sugar-beet, taking as examples two lead distances, 10 miles and 20 miles. My principal purpose was to draw attention to the savings which could be made by using tippers instead of sided lorries. Over the 20-mile lead I assumed that the sided lorry would be able to complete 12 journeys per week, but that if a tipper were to be employed the number of round trips would be increased to 15. Over the 10-mile lead the sided lorry would make 17 journeys and the tipper 22.
It is in respect of those estimates of the number of loads which can be delivered per week that criticism is likely to arise. In this article I am going to attack the problem In another way, using actual data for some weeks' work with a 6-tonner, in one case a sided lorry and in another a tipper. Tables 1 and II give authentic time-tables of work as quoted to me by a haulier friend of mine.
The cost figures for the vehicles I shall bring forward from the previous article. Standing charges and establishment charges, for the sided lorry 4s. an hour; for the tipper, 4s. 6d. Running costs for the lorry, 7Id. per mile; for the tipper, 8d. These figures are irrespective of wages.
According to Table I, this operator shows that he can convey three loads of beet to the factory in 11 hours. It is clear that the farm, or the heap of beet from which he draws, is some little distance from his own premises. He allows only 1-hour for the journey from garage to farm or heap. That is a reasonable period.
Average Speed of Trip
For the lead distance of 10 miles he estimates 1-hour, which means that he must travel at an average speed of 20 m.p.h. His average load is 51 tons.
The next thing to be noted is that he allows 11 hours for loading the beet at the farm and one hour for unloading at the factory end of the journey. The fairly obvious inference is that he is not getting much assistance from the farmer and that he is off-loading by hand at the factory. He tells me that he has a driver and mate on each vehicle and is paying Grade I wages.
He carries three loads each day from Monday to Friday inclusive, and on Saturday the men work eight hours and carry a further two loads. Altogether, therefore, he carries 17 loads of 51 tons each, which is 931 tons, and the men work 63 hours per week.
The mileage covered per week is approximately 400, made up of 340 net, being 17 journeys of 20 miles each, plus an allowance of 60 miles for the empty running between farm or factory and thc garage. The total cost is thus the expense of running 400 miles at 7I-d. per mile, which is £12 ls. 8d.; 63 hours at 4s, per hour, £12 12s.; and wages for driver and mate, £21 3s. 7d.; making £45 17s, 3d. The revenue at 10s. per ton, carrying 51 tons on each of 17 journeys, 931 tons in all, is £46 15s. Not much profit there.
The data for a 20-mile lead, set out in detail in Table II, shows that during the week 14 loads are carried. The total time per week is given as 64 hours and the total mileage 620, made up of the net figure 40 times 14, which is 560, plus an allowance of 60 miles forempty running.
Make-up of Cost
The cost is made up of the following: 64 hours at 4s, per hour, £12 16s.; 620 miles at 714, £18 14s. 7d.; wages for driver and mate, £21 1 ls. 10d. The total is £53 2s. 5d. The payment for that work, the delivery of 14 loads of 51 tons each, 731 tons at 13s. 7d. per ton, is £49 18s. 4d. There is not much profit in that either.
It may be of interest to calculate what should be the rate per ton, based on the above figures for cost and making no other assumptions. For the 10-mile lead the cost was shown to be £45 17s.' 3d. I would add 20 per cent, to that for profit, which is £9 3s. 5d. approximately. The total revenue per week on that 10-mile lead should therefore be £55 Os. 8d_, and that, spread over 931 tons, is equal to 1 Is. 9d. per ton and not 10s. as quoted.
Similarly, with the 20-mile lead, if I add 20 per cent. to £53 2s. 5d. I get £63 14s. 11d., for which 731 tons have been carried, and that is equivalent to 17s, 4d. per ton to the nearest penny, instead of 13s. 7d. It seems is though these standard rates are insufficient, having in mind present-day costs.
• In my previous article, I ref errerd to the argument, often put forward in this connection, that operators are able to obtain return loads of pulp from the factory. I pointed out that this does not improve matters or add to the revenue to
any appreciable extent. There is usually some waiting time if a load of pulp is to be picked up and that may quite easily have the effect of reducing the number of loads of sugar-beet carried per week, whereas, as I shall show, the only satisfactory way of making sure of a profit is to increase the 'number of loads carried per week.
In any case, the loads of pulp are not load for load with those of beet but only one in three or four, so that even if they could be carried profitably, the ability to pick them up would not solve the immediate problem of making the work entirely profitable.
However, the burden of this and my previous two articles is to demonstrate the advantages to be gained by the use of tippers instead of sided lorries, to which the above figures refer. The primary object is to discover means whereby the number of loads per week can be increased, to find conditions which will speed up loading and/or unloading.
The way to speed up loading is by the use of machines, and it is true to state that there has been an increase in the popularity of such appliances, an increase which is proceed ing. It is stated, however, that such methods are not economical unless they can be used in conjunction with not fewer than six lorries. That possibility, too, turns on another factor, the size of the heap of beet from which loads are drawn. One haulier I know gives the farmer a rebate on the standard rate if the heap of beet is sufficiently large to permit the use of mechanical loaders.
At the unloading end of the journey work can be speeded up greatly if tippers are used, especially if the modern practice of providing an overhead runway has been followed. That device permits vehicles to be driven straight to a place on the runway from which the load can be tipped direct into the silo with no loss of time. Under those conditions the tippers are enabled to run straight in from the road, over the weighbridge, on to the overhead runway, tip the beet, and go out again. Experience has shown that the reduction in average time for unloading 51 tons of beet was approximately one hour per load, bringing the period down from 11 hours to 1-hour only. To show what can be the value of that method in the way of enabling the haulier to Make a profit or to increase that which he is already making, I have drawn up Tables IA and IIA, which correspond to Tables I and H except that, instead of taking an hour to unload I have assumed that tippers are used, and the average time talen to unload the vehicles is 1-hour only.
In Table HA it will be noticed that the daily loads and hours are: Monday, four loads, Ill hours; Tuesday, 34 loads (that is to say, three loads delivered and one taken on for tipping the next morning), 101 hours. Subsequently on Wednesday, 31 loads, 101 hours; Thursday, four loads, 11/ hours; Friday, 3/ loads, 101 hours; Saturday, 2/ loads, seven hours.
Now to work out the. cost. The net mileage for the 21 journeys is 420, to which must be added 60 miles for running to and fro between garage and farm or garage and factory, making 480 miles in all. At 8d. per mile that is £16. For time, 621 hours at 4s, 6d. per hour, £14 Os. 2d., and wages £20 15s. 7d. The total is £50 15s. 9d.
The revenue from the conveyance of 21 loads of 54 tons each (1151 tons) at 10s, per ton, the standard rate, is £57 15s. to the nearest shilling. The profit is thus about £7 per week which, whilst short of the full 20 per cent., is _not too bad. Turning now to Table HA, which shows a corresponding revision of Table I but assumes that tippers are used, it is seen to be possible to do three round journeys per 111-hour day. If, as before, I make the assumption that that 4-hour can be cut so that the day is only 11 hours, I can reasonably assume that, from Monday to Friday inclusive, three loads are carried per day and that on Saturday a further two are carried in seven hours. That means 934 tons in 62 hours.
The cost is: for 740 miles at 8d. per mile, £24 13s. 4d.; for time, 62 hours at 4s. 6d., £13 19s.; wages, £20 13s. 3d. Total, £59 5s. 7d. The revenue from 934 tons at the scheduled rate of 13s. 7d. per ton is £63 10s. Not sufficient, but much
better than that with a sided lorry. S.T.R.