Round the clock to order
Page 68
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
By G. A. Pearson.
Compressors with bespoke power take-off units, mounted on 30 cwt. vans, make for a speedy 24-hour tyre service.
THE conversion of BMC 30 cwt. diesel vans 1into mobile tyre-fitting workshops has enabled Tyre Services (Carlisle) Ltd. to cut by twothirds the average time for changing a pair of wheels. What formerly took 45 min. now requires on average only 15 mm. and the outlook is that any job can be tackled anywhere, speedily, and with confidence.
By making itself more efficient the company can now offer a 24-hour service. This should attract the commercial vehicle operator who must keep the wheels turning throughout the day in order to achieve maximum utilization of vehicles, as these around-the-clock facilities are available to order as well as on an emergency basis.
Thus routine tyre changes and servicing for customers can be carried out by appointment on the operator's premises at any time. The advantages, especially when several vehicles are owned, will be apparent.
The company. centred on Carlisle, has 16 branches in an area that extends to Northallerton, Kendal. Greenock and Kirkcaldy. Most of the depots are already equipped with the new mobile fitting vehicles that were introduced nine months ago.
In sole use before then were 15 cwt. vans fitted with portable compressors, for inflation only. powered by a two-stroke petrol engine that was vulnerable to low temperatures encountered during the night. It was often difficult to start and was, in any case, falling behind the times in that it could not easily meet the modern demand for 110 p.s.i. pressure in some radial-ply tyres.
Apart from tyre inflation the remainder of the job had to be done manually, which meant anything up to an hour getting the nuts loose after the usual display of gymnastics in hanging on to the side of the vehicle and jumping on the brace.
The mobile workshop eliminates most of this because it has an Ingersoll Rand compressor with safe working pressure of 200 p.s.i. driven off a built-to-order p.t.o. unit operating at 660 r.p.m. and fitted with Ceinsolidated Pneumatic impact tools. A gun will remove a wheel nut in seconds; to date, so far as the Carlisle depot is concerned, no nut yet encountered has resisted the power tool.
There are two lines for tyre inflation, one at each end of the vehicle. Two men can use the compressor at the same time, one inflating and the other tackling the wheel nuts.
The p.t.o., which has a hand-throttle control, is engaged on the way to a job so that the maximum working pressure is available on arrival. This is enough to deal with two wheels, the usual minimum requirement to achieve balanced running. Any other wheels that need consequential moving around can also be tackled speedily with this powerful aid.
The nuts are replaced by a compression tool but the final stage of refitting the wheel remains a manual operation; the powered tool is removed once resistance is felt, so that the final tightening may be done by hand as an insurance that subsequent removal may, if necessary, be tackled by the driver.
The company states that its star fitter, timed when making a change of eight wheels and tyres, 9.00-20, was away from the site within an hour.
An emergency call was received during the visit of COMMERCIAL MOTOR. The driver, as most of them somehow do, had managed to get to an "oasis"—the Rosebank Cafe—a wellknown trunk change-over point on A74 just on the Scottish side of the border, nine miles from Carlisle.
The mobile workshop was available immediately and was soon on the spot, where it was quickly ascertained that although only one tyre had been requested a pair were, in fact, needed. They were Michelin Metallic 10.00-20, each inflated to 96 p.s.i. by compressor in about 4 min. The vehicle was on its way within the hour, which included time for taking the photographs accompanying this story.
The superiority of the new vehicle, the body of which is reinforced to cope with the heavy equipment, is completed by the fact that the extra space permits a workshop bench to be fitted in addition to the standard stock of tubes and lockrings. A 13-tyre job can be tackled by one vehicle (one man, in fact) whereas when the fleet consisted of only 15 cwt. vans two vehicles. were needed. The one advantage of the smaller vehicle is that it is slightly faster in getting to the scene of action.
The Carlisle big haulage concern, Robson's Border Transport Ltd., has compiled an interesting illustration assuming that two 16-ton vehicles (loaded for Manchester on a regular basis) were based in West Cumberland an hour from the tyre service.
Under the old system the vehicle would be taken to the tyre depot and a week would pass as follows: *
MONDAY Leave haulier's premises 7 a.m.
Arrive tyre depot 8 a.m.
Leave tyre depot 10 a.m.
Arrive delivery point 4 p.m.
Unload, but too late to reload 6 p.m.
TUESDAY Commence loading 8 a.m.
Leave Manchester 10 a.m.
Arrive delivery point 4 p.m.
Unload, but too late to reload 6 p.m.
This schedule would have to be continued for the remainder of the week but the five-day loading week would restrict this vehicle to five loads in six days, it having to be returned empty on Saturday.
The estimated loss (standing charge, wages and fuel): £13 10s., plus loss of profit on load. With Tyre Services moving in to do the job on the spot the schedule would be:
MONDAY Commence tyre changes at haulier's premises . 7 a.m.
Leave haulier's premises 8 Arrive delivery point 2 p.m.
Unload and reload 6 p.m. Park up vehicle ready to leave following morning.
TUESDAY Leave Manchester 7 a.m.
Arrive delivery point 1 p.m.
Unload and reload 5 p.m.
Vehicle able to continue same cycle for remainder of week.
• The charges for this specialized tyre service will vary in so far as ordered service on premises is costed on its merits, but the maximum cost operative could not bemore than the NTDA scale which is applied in the case of breakdowns.
The cost of a fully-equipped 30 cwt. service vehicle is in the region of £1,750. Some 15 cwt. service vehicles remain in use but will in time be replaced throughout the fleet so that Carlisle, for example, now using one 30 cwt. and two smaller vans, will have three complete mobile workshops.
Emergency calls on that one depot amount to about 2,000 a year, a new tyre being required in probably, 75 per cent of the cases. In the remainder a new tube is. often the answer, this being a better proposition at around £2 10s. than a cold patch repair in what may in any case be an ageing tube.