COLLECTING FIVE MILLION LLONS OF MILK A YEAR.
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ATTENTION has recently been concentrated on the use of milk as a food, first by the experiments carried out in a London school of giving selected scholars an extra ration of milk per day and, secondly, by the holding in this country this year of the World's Dairy Congress. It is, therefore, opportune to give some particulars of the milk transport arrangements of Cadbury Brothers, Ltd., and some details of the way in which this concern collects and handles the milk for use in the prepdration of milk chocolate.
By way of 'preface, we may say that, some years ago, owing to increasing trade and in order to obtain a fresher product, the directors of the company decided to erect two milk-condensing stations in dairy districts. Accordingly, one was put up at Knighton on the borders of Staffordshire and Shropshire, and one at Frampton-on-Severn in Gloucestershire. It is the milk-collecting arrangements at the latter factory with which primarily we propose to deal. In passing, we may say we understand that all this concern's milk chocolate is claimed to be manufactured with fresh milk from British cows and is thus of very great assistance to British agriculture. Milk is bought all the year round. In the winter, and during other times of shortage, milk is released for use in the towns and, conversely, when there is a surplus the factory can take milk up to the full capacity of the plant. Thus it will be seen that factories such as these have a very useful function in establishing a balance between supply and demand, but the resulting
fluctuation in supply necessarily increases transport difficulties.
The Intermediate Cooling Stations.
At the Frampton factory during last year nearly five million gallons of milk were bought from 550 farmers. In view of these large quantities and to ensure that all the milk Shall be delivered to the main factory in a fresh state, collecting and cooling stations have been erected at suitable strategic points—one at Cbarfield, which is about 14 Miles to 15 miles south of Frampton, and one at Newent, approximately the same distance to the north of the factory. The accompanying map will show the position of the cooling stations in relation to the factory, the main roads and the canal.
Methods of Collecting the Milk.
The farmers in the immediate vicinities of Frampton, Newent and Charfield deliver their milk direct in their own vehicles. The remaining gallonage 'is collected from the farms by 14 outside contractors, who use motor and horse vehicles and deliver tbeir'milk to stages erected on the main road. These stages are cleared by Cadbury's own fleet. This fleet consists of six 3-ton Leylands, each to carry 50 10-gallon churns, and one 8-ton Leyland-Carrimore, the carrying capacity of which is 100 10-gallon churns. In addi, tion, there are two 6-ton Sentinel lorries, which are kept as reserves and are mainly used for haulage between the main factory and sub-stations and the L.M.S. railway station at Stonehouse, five miles away, this being the nearest railway station to the factory.
It will be seen from the map that the collection radius is restricted on the west by the Forest of Dean and the River Severn and on the east by the Cotswold Hills. Generally speaking, the Leyland fleet collects and delivers direct into the Frampton factory from a 12-mile radius. The collection form Newent takes place over an eight-mile radius and from Charfield over a five-mile radius. A glance at the map shows that the milk is collected over a stretch of country about 40 miles long by approximately 10 miles wide. It is estimated that about 30 vehicles are used each day to bring the milk from the farms along the many by-lanes to the main collecting stages.
The small vehicles mentioned above run probably 120,000 miles per year, whilst the Leyland vehicles owned by Cadbury's cover approximately 80,000 miles per year actually on milk haulage. Casual and general haulage calls for about another 10,000 miles per year from the fleet, making a total of 90,000 miles per year for the Leyland vehicles.
In order to assist in transport arrangements, a 10gallon churn has been standardized. This has been designed by the company's staff to give the best possible results in transport, and, at the same time, to be most suitable from the point of view of cleanliness.
The Roadside Milk Stages. •
One of the photographs accompanying this article shows a typical milk stage. The farmer has just arrived with his load of churns which he has transferred to the stage, and he is taking away his empties.
The Leyland vehicles are seen loading up ready to take the milk to the main factory. It may be men1 tioned that the peculiar marks on the churns are not intended to advertise any form of meat extract, but are signs employed in a census of churns that has been carried out. The stages are built upon suitable sites alongside the main road and are constructed under agreement with, and to the specification of, the county surveyor.
Another photograph shows an erection which is probably a novelty so far as this country is concerned. It represents a churn tower just erected at the
Knighton factory. The churns, after being washed in the automatic washer, come down the gravity roller \ conveyor shown on the right-hand side of the picture and are taken up by the automatic lift to the top of the tower, where they are deposited upon a spiral roller conveyor track. The churns slowly gravitate to the bottom. The tower has a capacity for 500 churns and was installed to expedite the transport arrangements. Under this system the lorry, with its full load of churns, delivers the milk to the milk deck, and after discharging the churns on to a conveyor which leads to the tipping tank, it is immediately driven to the foot of the churn tower. Here the clean churns already in waiting are released from the tower and roiled on to the lorry.
The advantage of having in a compact area a stock of clean churns always in readiness to load up the outgoing lorries has proved a very great boon. This method of storing eliminates rolling and unnecessary handling and has proved very satisfactory in practice.
Distance and Load per Journey.
The average distances covered by the two types of vehicle differ in that the 3-ton Leyland lorries cover 10.3 miles per journey, whilst the 8-ton Leyland-Carrimore lorries cover 23.5 miles on each journey undertaken. The carrying capacity of the two types of vehicle can perhaps better be expressed in quantities. Thus, the records for a lengthy period show that the 3-ton Leylands have averaged 406.1 gallons per journey, whilst the 8-ton Leyland-Carrimores have averaged 987.7 gallons per journey.
The Rest of the Fleet.
The repairs to the vehicles are carried out at Frampton. An ample supply of spares is kept and attention is concentrated on maintaining the fleet In an efficient condition. It will be realized that in the collection of milk slight breakdowns or delays might entail the spoiling of many gallons of a valuable commodity.
In addition to the above fleet, Cadbury Brothers, Ltd., has its main fleet at the Bourneville works, with which it is hoped to deal at some future date in the columns of The Commercial Motor. This fleet and the subsidiary fleets elsewhere are used for a great variety of purposes in the tralksport of the raw materials, the factory supplies and the finished goods,
and a very high degree of efficiency in every detail of their management, upkeep and maintenance is the aim of the department which is responsible for the company's transport. As in the case of many big businesses, the ramifications of the transport arrangements are extremely wide. In the particular province with which we have dealt, namely, the collection of the milk employed in one of the products, enough has perhaps been said to show that this self-contained fleet has points of interest to users of commercial motors for transport in almost all classes of business operation.