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AS ORE DOOR STICKS $1110THER ORE OPEN
Page 42
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by Johnny Johnson
THE ADOPTION of modern mechanical handling methods to speed up loading and unloading of distribution vehicles can bring acceptable savings in staff costs and vehicle uses. It can, however, also bring problems such as those of vehicle suitability and construction which might take a little time to solve.
Some 18 months ago, Stowells of Chelsea Ltd, the wines and spirits division of Whitbread and Co Ltd, decided that the advantages to be gained from palletization and the use of fork-lift trucks to load its distribution fleet were sufficient to justify the expenditure involved.
At that time, the majority of the vehicles being used were of the order of 5 tons gross. These were too small to enable the company fully to exploit the advantages to be gained from mechanically loading them and a different type of vehicle was necessary.
Working on the basis of using 43in.square pallets, the company decided that the most appropriate vehicle would be a boxvan measuring internally 16ft long by 7ft 6in. wide by 6ft 9in. high.
These dimensions involved a vehicle of about 10 tons gross weight and a capacity of 6 tons taking eight pallets of the required size with space remaining around the load and between it and the sides of the vehicle to permit ease of handling. Naturally, sliding doors were an essential part of the specification.
Three vehicles of this type on Bedford KEL chassis were acquired and brought into operation; two at Worksop in Nottinghamshire and the other at Salford, Lancs.
Worksop is a large and busy warehousing and distribution depot with its own bonded warehouse. From there, wines and spirits are delivered direct to a number of retail outlets in the country areas and large cities east and north of the Pennines.
Fast-moving product
With a fast-moving product such as this, speed of delivery at each drop is important otherwise delays are caused to other customers both on the same round and on succeeding journeys.
It is perhaps somewhat trite to state that, in these circumstances, accessibility to the load is the essence of efficient distribution but it was in this department that the major problems were encountered.
Displacement of the load during transit led to difficulty in opening the sliding doors and this was exacerbated by material which found its way into the bottom channels of the doors.
The use of a load-restraining device went some way towards solving the problem of load displacement but this partially nullified the advantages. The cost of provision dissipated part of the financial savings and the time spent on installing it wasted some of the time saved.
Moreover, presence of the load restraint inhibited the freedom of the driver to select easily particular packages and this, by increasing the time spent on making each drop, affected the availability of the vehicle.
It became obvious, therefore, that the complete success of the operation hinged on the efficiency of the sliding doors and 'alternative makes were examined.
The ultimate choice fell eventually on a sliding door of Swiss origin manufactured in the United Kingdom under licence by Booker Motor Bodies Ltd of Newton Abbot and marketed under the name of Euro-Wall.
This door was attractive because it has no bottom channel and the lower edge can be freed from the side of the vehicle and swung outwards. Movement of the load during transit, therefore, does not prevent the doors being opened. Stowells were able to dispense with load restraints after fitting Euro-Wall doors to their new vehicles.
The 8ft-wide doors on each side of the vehicle are of sandwich construction with a steel box-section frame. The core is of polyester foam and the inner and outer skins are of colour impregnated fibreglass. There is a rubber seal on all four edges.
Operation of a handle set into the centre of the lower edge frees the bottom of the door and lowers the two steel lugs, by which the door is suspended from the roof of the vehicle, into the top running channel. The driver can lift the bottom of the door away from the wall of the vehicle and slide the whole door in the direction required. Complete sealing Depressing the lever, once the door is closed, lifts the door thus disengaging the suspension lugs and raising them into a channel situated above the running channel. At the same time the door is pressed flush to the vehicle side and locked into position by a cam lock. Complete sealing is achieved by the rubber strip which runs around the door.
To prevent the door sliding shut if the driver has to park on a slope to make his delivery, a buckle is provided on the side rave which engages on the opening-lever mechanism.
With two of these sliding doors on each side of the vehicle, accessibility for fork-lift loading and deliveries by the driver is assured along the whole length of the body.
With a load as vulnerable as that carried by Stowells' vehicles, security becomes of paramount importance. The company is convinced that the doors provide a high degree of security but the confidence is increased by fitting an AFA alarm system.
This is connected to all the doors of the vehicle including the driver's cab doors and the hatch which covers the battery compartment. Any interference with the access to any part of the vehicle actuates the alarm system which cannot be silenced until the proper procedure is followed.
Further protection is provided by the addition of weld-mesh protection to the translucent fibreglass roof panel.
Palletization Mr Jim Barrett. in charge of transport at the company's Worksop depot, told me that the drivers were very satisfied with the vehicles and found that the Euro-Wall doors were a distinct advantage in making deliveries. In addition, palletization had shown remarkable results in time saved in preparing the vehicles for deliveries in the depot.
The larger vehicles have now been in regular operation since last August and have proved themselves compatible with the company's plans for mechanized handling. As a result, the smaller vehicles will be phased out and the fleet standardized on the 10-ton-gross unit.
Stowells have five more similar large vehicles on order.