Demounts score double tops in two ways
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)NE of the measures that could yell be included in next week's kidget is a switch from unladen o gross weight as the basis for igv taxation.
While most see this as a good nove, one group of operators vill not be so keen. These are he companies who operate rehicles with demountable bolies. Because one of the advanages of demount bodies is that provided the body is ocasionally removed from the hassis with the load inside it, hen the body's weight is not ounted in the vehicle's weight or taxation purposes.
At the moment this is a small put worthwhile saving; a typical .3m (24ft) box body for a 16on-gvw vehicle weighs about a on, which adds roughly £150 to he annual excise duty payable in the bare 16-ton chassis.
Unfortunately, this saving is oughly halved owing to the .xtra weight added to the chasis by the demount lift packs and o on.
But if this tax saving is effectiely removed in next week's ludget, will demounts still be a worthwhile proposition?
I visited two operators who use the system to find out some of the pros and cons. To make my visits as representative as possible, I chose one operator who is a general haulier while the other is an own-account operator, and with one using a clear lift demount system while the other employs a guide rail
system. .
William Hargreaves Transport was formed in 1970 and now runs 22 vehicles, 14 based at its main depot near Bolton and a further eight at a depot in Northampton, so it rates as a fairly typical small/medium-size haulier.
The managing director, Chris Healey, told me that around 1974 the company bought a secondhand Leyland Clydesdale rigid and with it, three 7.3m (24ft) demountable box bodies.
"We liked the idea of the demount system and after making some inquiries found out that this particular system was a fairly early example made by Abel," he said.
Hargreaves Transport went down to Abel (its factory is near Chesterfield and the head office is in Redbourn) to examine the company's current demount system, Uni-Swop. At the same time he looked at most of the other leading types of demountable equipment on the market including those that use the guide rail method of aligning body and chassis.
Chris Healey said he chose the clear lift system for several reasons but mainly because he felt the guide rail system was too restrictive when it came to future chassis choice — because the guide rails on the chassis must be at the same width as the rollers on the base of the body, this limited chassis interchangeability.
Another advantage he cited for the clear lift method is that he felt it imposes less stress on the body because the body is lifted completely clear when the chassis is being driven in or out.
Having decided on the clear lift principle, Chris Healey opted for Abel (the market leader for this type of demount system) largely because he felt that Abel's use of pneumatic power rather than hydraulic power to operate the lift packs is simpler and makes sense.
Abel's system uses the vehicle's existing air power with air piped from the original compressor through an additional tank to inflate the Neoprene bellows in the lift packs, which are situated at the front and rear of the chassis. Of the 22 vehicles in the William Hargreaves fleet, 15 are equipped with demount equipment, including five 32-ton-gtw drawbars. The other demount vehicles are 16-ton-gvw rigids.
The choice to operate drawbars was a logical extension to the demount decision but not a compulsory one. Chris Healey explained: "We could have used 6.1m (20ft) demount bodies and 12.2m (40ft) artic trailers to carry two bodies for trunking. But we really wanted more space on the rigids and so needed 7.3m (24ft) bodies on the rigids."
This therefore excluded artics for the trunking whereas two 24ft bodies fitted nicely within the 18m drawbar length limit.
While the desire for volume is normally regarded as the prerogative of the own-account operator with his own highvolume product to move, Chris. Healey has found that it can also pay a general haulier to major on volume at the expense of weight capacity. "Sure, there is a weight penalty with the demounts (they add about 1/2-3/4 ton to a 16-tonner) so this does exclude us from some types of traffic. But there are still plenty of people who have light loads and for whom 24ft dernount bodies and drawbars are very attractive."
So Hargreaves Transport has concentrated on this highvolume, general haulage market and Chris Healey is convinced that the demount/drawbar combination has helped him win business by enabling him to operate more efficiently and so tender for contracts at a lower price.
A case in point is the company's main contract to deliver silencers to garages throughout England, Scotland and Wales from the manufacturer in Wigan. The silencers are a classic highvolume load and Hargreaves is able to service the contract using a total of nine vehicles whereas the previous carriers who had the contract used 17.
Hargreaves uses a ratio of two demount bodies to one chassis and works the system so that the spare bodies act as a movable temporary warehouse — an advantage that Chris Healey "sold" to the customer.
In the case of silencers bound for the South and Midlands, two loaded bodies are picked up from the Wigan factory by Hargreaves's drawbar and trunked down to the Northampton depot where the 16-tonners (Leyland Freighters and Clydesdales) do the multi-drop distribution. Silencers for addresses in the North are delivered by the 16tonners picking up the loaded demount bodies direct from the Wigan factory.
I wondered if Chris Healey had considered standardising on just one type of "compromise" chassis that can be used in drawbar form for trunking and in 16-ton rigid form for distribution. Chris liked the advantages of standardisation and flexibility that this would give him but said the compromise vehicle would inevitably prove more expensive for distribution.
For example, he said, his new 16-ton Leyland Freighters are averaging 23.5 lit/1 0 Okm (12mpg) while his drawbar Leyland Cruisers which occasionally work solo achieve 26.9 lit/100km (10.5mpg) in rigid form.
With the Abel system, all similarly-sized bodies with the same equipment are interchangeable — the mounting points are standardised ISO twistlocks. The advantage of this is that operators can borrow demount bodies from one another irrespective of what chassis they use and Chris Healey said that he does occasionally borrow or lend bodies to another local operator.
So far, the demount equipment has been totally reliable with no failures whatsoever, Despite regular demounting, the bodies are wearing well; the substantial base-frame used undoubtedly helps. Hargreaves has had some of the earlier demount equipment (now seven years old) taken off the original chassis and transferred to new vehicles. Abel reports that some operators have transferred the equipment up to three times.
The three main drawbacks normally associated with demounts are the extra weight, the extra height and the extra cost.
With its high-volume traffic, Hargreaves does not worry too much about the weight. But -what about the height aspect? Chris Healey said Hargreaves have fitted an intermediate step at the rear of the chassis, which helps. One of the drivers said he does notice the extra height because of the increased body roll.
Chris Healey admitted that the initial price of the demount system may deter operators. However, he is certain that the investment has been wort while for him.
Although the company al; runs a few conventional arti( and some non-demount 71/2-to ners for normal groupage/hal lage work, Chris reckons that competitiveness that demoun have given William Hargreav( Transport in the high-volurr sector is a major plank in tt•
yripany's success.
The second company I looked ; that uses demounts is Waring Gillow, the well-known carpet id furniture retail chain. I sited the company's carpet stribution centre beside the 11 at Sheffield where I spoke to ansport and distribution direct!. Malcolm Dungworth.
Carpets from this warehouse 43 delivered to the 125 Waring Gillow and Maples branches ound the country; all stores It a delivery once a week at ast, the majority get two. Warg & Gillow has found that )eed of delivery is important in e carpet business — people oking for a carpet are usually en to have it delivered and ted this week, not next month. Most of the carpet ranges are A stored in the High Street tops. Instead, the customer's der is passed onto the Shef)Id warehouse where the reaired length is cut from the ap-op ri ate roll, packed and aded onto the vehicle along ith other orders for that shop ad other branches in the area. Waring & Gillow originally ;ed an outside contractor to poly the transport. A couple of 'ars ago it decided that it could !prove both the service and the )sts by running its own hides.
Malcolm Dungworth started
looking at the warehouse/insport systems of other corrittitors in the carpet business. 'he thing they all had in cornon was a large packing or 3ding area. After cutting the trpets from the roll they 'eded an intermediate storage ea for them before loading am — the vehicles were still It on the road. They could 'ord to have these extra stoge areas because they were
using old, large warehouses."
However, Waring & Gillow's carpet distribution centre is a new development and as such built in an age where free space is no longer a cheap commodity. And that's where the demounts came in. Malcolm Dungworth saw the benefits of using the spare demount bodies to fulfil this short-term storage role and so specified demounts for the new Waring & Gillow fleet.
There are eight Bedford TK 7.5-tonne-gvw rigids based at Sheffield, matched with roughly twice as many 4.9m (16ft) demountable box bodies (built by local bodybuilder Sheflex).
The spare bodies are left on the loading banks at Sheffield during the day and as the carpets are cut and packed they are loaded directly into the appropriate body. When the load is complete the yard shunter picks up the demount body and moves it to another part of the yard where it is demounted and stood ready to be picked up by the inconning vehicles. Their empty bodies can go straight onto the loading banks ready for the next day.
This system not only eliminates the need for that intermediate storage area referred to by Malcolm Dungworth, but also allows continuous loading throughout the day and avoids the usual frantic 5pm bottleneck as the majority of vehicles return.
A spin-off from this is that warehousemen do not have to work late (at overtime rates) and that a vehicle returning early for a second trip can get a swift turnround.
Looking at the various types of demount systems on the market, Malcolm Dungworth told me that he came to the conclusion that there is little to choose between them on the basis of price when costed over the life of the vehicle. He opted for the guide rail system made by Ray Smith Demountables of Peterborough because it seemed "simple and very strong". And ideally suited to Waring & Gillow's 7-5-tonne Bedfords is Ray Smith's SevenFive demount system which is purpose designed for this size vehicle. It uses a single, hydraulic ram at the rear of the chassis powered by an electric motor, and Malcolm Dungworth reasoned that one ram and a pair of guide rails should be more reliable and troublefree than any other system using two liftpacks.
In practice, there has been one faulty ram seal and one electric motor failure.
Because Waring & Gillow planned its new transport system at Sheffield with demounts in mind right from the start, the extra weight of the demount ram, hydraulics, electric motor and body base frame was considered as part of the standard specification rather than being viewed as an additional weight penalty. Thus, with the 16ft body fully loaded (40-50 carpets) the Bedford TK750 is still within the 7.5-tonne-gvw limit.
The extra few inches added to the platform height by the demount chassis rails and body base frame are not so crucial since the Bedford 7.5-tanners run on small (16in) wheels and so already offer a low platform height.
Regarding the point that the width of the guide rails ties an operator to a particular choice of chassis, Ray Smith has in fact standardised the widths as far as possible so that similar length bodies are interchangeable with a fair selection of chassis. (Malcolm Dungworth commented that he was fairly happy with his long-term choice of 7.5-tonne Bedfords, anyway.) Although Waring & Gillow primarily chose demounts to tackle their warehousing/storage problem, the company has also recently begun to exploit their transport capabilities. A few months ago Waring & Gillow's first drawbar outfit was de livered to Sheffield, and very smart it looks too.
It is still based around a 7.5tonne Bedford, but this time it is a TL rather than TK. In drawbar form with two 16ft demount bodies it is rated at 15 tonnes gtw. Waring & Gillow uses it to trunk two loaded bodies down to a satellite depot at Acton, West London, where an out-based vehicle picks up the bodies and delivers to the Waring & Gillow and Maples branches in the London area.
Having seen William Hargreaves Transport and Waring & Gillow, it is apparent that demount systems, be they of the clear lift type or the guide rail type, can offer some very worthwhile advantages to both own-account and general hauliers. And while drawbars do lend themselves to demountable bodies it is by no means a compulsory match.
In fact it is interesting to note that both William Hargreayes Transport and Waring & Gillow have found that a substantial proportion of the demount benefits occur in the warehousing/loading side of the operation. So if you are considering switching to demountable bodies, perhaps the transport manager could make out a strong Case for charging it to the warehouse manager's budget?