TRANSPORTING A MASS ICED ARTICLE BY ROAD.
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How Crittall Steel Windows are Can A Fleet of 120 Vehicles Including 50 ilding Sites All Over the Kingdom. fravellers and a Number of Buses.
ONE of the largest mixed fleets of;transpori.vehicles owned by a single manufacturing coEcern is that which has been rapidly built up for the delivery of a post-war product by the Crittall Manufacturing Co., Ltd. Braintree, Essex, and 210, High Holborn, London, W.C.1. This company has actually been manufacturing windows for sometning like 50 years, but it was only as a result of the great activity in house building, which commenced shertlyafter the war, that the company reached its present dimensions, for the Crittall steel window frame was picked out as an article which would meet the requirements of the building trade and could be made on mass-production lines. This is particularly interesting in view of the fact that before the war the iron-framed window was considered to be a luxury and was made as a speciality
. by blacksmiths; Now, the steel window is cheaper and, of course, far more lasting than the window with wood • framing.
So rapid has been the growth in' the various activities of the company that the position to-day is that the transport fleet has Outgrown all accommodation and new garages and repair works are being erected as quickly as possible to deal with it. Even now all the raw material, mostly in the forM of angle steel, is brought into the works in railway trucks to the amount of some 200 tons per day, and although the transport manager, Mr. C. Plummer, is convinced that money could be saved by transporting most of this material by road, yet the additional vehicles required for this work and the provision of accommodation for them would involve such a large capital outlay that it cannot at present be considered. However, a tremendous number of the window frames travel by road; in fact, deliveries are made by this means to building sites all over the country, the actual proportion being 50 per cent, by road, and the railway is chiefly used for the large export trade, which accounts for most of the remainder.
032 The total feet in:use at the Moment (we say this advisedly, because other units will soon be put into service) is approximately 120, although it numbered only 35 two years ago. The largest vehicles are three Scarnmell tractor-trailer 12-tanners, each having one trailer, although a fourth is provided which can be loaded while the engine units are away. These vehicles run long distances to Liverpool, Manchester, Bristol and Foot's Cray, where are situated distributing depots—and the time the tractor units are away enables a trailer always to be ready for the unit which first returns, thus avoiding waste of time in the loading bays.
The direct deliveries to housing sites are made by nine 4i-ton Panhard and Levassor vehicles on pneumatic tyres—singles at the front and twins at the rear. These vehicles average 700 miles a week. For lighter loads there are six 25-cwt. Panhards with demountable bodies, eight 30-cwt. Dennis and four Morris chassis to carry 25-30 cwt., all these being equipped with demountable bodies, as in the ease of the Panhards. Three Morris 1-ton vans are provided for window serFlee. Each has a fitting staff of two men and goes to various jobs to assist in the installation of windows and the making of any adjustments. Ordinary fitting is, of course,. charged for, but special service is provided free. Eight Overland 25-cwt. lorries, with tipDing bodies, are used exclusively on building work for
the company. In and around the. works three Itansome's Orwell electric vehicles with lifting platforms are employed, and each of thesehas 24 stillages.—
Passenger vehicles include 45 Morris-Cowley saloons and four Essex saloons for the company's travellers. There are also two Morris-Oxfords for the same purpose, these being employed in Scotland, where the extra engine power is desirable. There are six Essex works cars, whilst 23 privately owned cars are maintained at their owners' expense.
The company even owns a bus service which runs between its garden city, Silver End, and the various works at Witham, Braintree and Mahlon. At present three Panhard 20-seaters of the one-man-operated type are employed, but these will probably. soon have to he increased, as the service is not only run for the benefit of the company's eropIoYees, who number 3,000, but can be made use of by the public. .
Also employed in the works and building operations are seven Fordson tractors, one of these serving as a light locomotive for hauling railway trueks into and out crf the loading and unloading bays, whilst others have side-. tipping trailers.
Finally, this remarkable fleet is completed by .three Simplex locomotives for running on Decauville track, of which the company owns four miles. These locomotives draw trucks up ramps at two gravel pits; they then run to further ramps, on to a platform, from which their contents are tipped into the Overland lorries.. These locomotives were supplied by the Motor Rail and Tramcar Co„ Ltd:, and they can push three yards of gravel up a gradient of 1 in 12. It is interesting to note that in the ease of the Fordsons one man
can keep four trailers working; that is to say, while three are being loaded or unloaded, as the case may be, he is dealing with the other.
A huge factory at Witham is devoted to the standard windows, but non-standard types are made exclusively at the Braintree works, and sets of bars for each of there are kept in compartments of a truck divided to carry ft:number of sets, and from the time these bars leave the cutting mill they are never separated until built into a complete window.
Many of the vehicles in the fleet are almost new, for until compara tively recently the company was using a num ber of Pierce-Arrows on solid tyres. With these, however, it was found necessary to em ploy a night staff for loading, as, although they left at 5 a.m., often they could not return until 8 p.m. The pneumatic-tyred lorries, however, can leave at 5 am., say, for London and be back at the works at 3 p.m., and so can be loaded in the afternoon of the same day. This is a striking example of what may be termed incidental benefits conferred by the employment of highspeed vehicles on pneumatic tyres. The average load on • these vehicles is about 4 tons, although the full 4i tons is sometimes carried on shipping jobs Reference to our illustrations will give an idea of the light metal bodies which act as stillages for some of the delivery vehicles. When they , are off the vehicle they are usually, however, carried about on special four-wheeled trollies. When in position they are held at four, points on channel steel cross members by means of four chained cotter pins, each with a locking pin. These light vehicles are distributed around the depots, each of which has three of them with two bodies per vehicle, thus the loading time is cut down to the minimum, as the spare bodies are merely lifted on to and off the chassis by means of a crane.
The drivers are all paid on the principle of a fiat rate and a bonus per mile, and, therefore, it is advantageous to them if the loading be .performed rapidly. The bonus, however, is only earned when a vehicle runs 35 miles away from the /depot.. The Scarnmell drivers, for instance, receive 80s. per week flat rate and 1d. per mile bonus, The other heavy-vehicle drivers have a flat rate of 64s., with the same bonus, whilst the bonus for the drivers of the light vehicle is id. per mile.
• Exactly 12 tons of standard windows can be carried in the Scammell trailers, which
• are specially built for the purpose and have steel-framed and panelled bodies. The load for a single Scammell is sufficient for approximately 50 houses.
There are two drivers on each Scammell, so that they can relieve each other.
Two of the Essex saloons are employed on welfare work, such as to enable the nurses to visit their patients.
In purchasing Morris vehicles for the travellers, the transport manager has taken into consideration the fact that, whilst being expected to take an interest in his vehicle, the traveller is not to be looked upon as a motor engineer ; his job is to sell windows, not to attend to the car. Consequently, a simple type of vehicle and an excellent service organization throughout the country , are essential.
With works which have grown at the speed of those belonging to this company, the question of obtaining labour and housing it is a problem of the utmost importance. This is one of the reasons for the building of Silver End. Then there was the problem of transporting the workpeople, not only between their work and homes but to neigh.bourin-, towns. This fact was responsible for the inauguration of the bus service, for which weekly seasons at slightly reduced rates are issuedto the employees. The vehicles work to a. regular time schedule and are in use on Saturdays and Sundays. . An incidental advantage of the service is that it is now possible to leave London by a train at about 9 p.m. instead of 6.39 p.m., as the buses make much better connection with the main line.
The garden village has been purposely situated between the Witham and Braintree works and is off the main road. At its entrance is a large factory, in which disabled ex-Service men exclusively are employed. They make all the small fittings, such as hinges and brackets for the windows.
The company has even organized the Silver End Trading Society, Ltd., which is a kind of co-operative society and supplies the residents and the various canteens with goods from the company's own poultry farm, a Morris 12-cwt. vehicle being used for this work.
A public g.arage, with Bowser underground tanks, and a cinema are in course of construction.
The new garage and works at Braintree will accommodate between 40 and 50 lorries and has two entrances or exits with roller shutter 'doors." The building Is 144 ft. long and 106 ft. deep, and here it is intended to concentrate all repairs and overhauls. The present garage staff includes 15 mechanics, in addition to night washers and cleaners. The drivers are considered to have quite enough to do with driving only. A new night fitting staff is just being started, so that as much of the fleet as possible can be kept on the road during the day.
The only vehicles now on solid tyres are the Scammells, and the company is now discussing with the makers the possibility of utilizing 9-ton Scamrnells on pneumatic tyres. The solids are of Dunlop make, whilst the majority of the pneumatics are Michelins, which are stated to have proved most satisfactory. So far, the giant tyres on the Panhards have averaged 15,000 miles and not one has yet been worn out or scrapped. The only trouble has been with cuts, which have been vulcanized by the company's own plant. The Morris-Cowley saloons are averaging 10,000 miles per tyre.
A few notes on the running costs of the fleet may be of interest. These costs are inclusive, depreciation,
maintenance, allowance for repairs and overhead charges all being taken into consideration. The lorries are depreciated at 20 per cent. per annum and the cars at 33i per cent. The ,Scarnmells average is. 4id. per mile, the heavy Panhards ltd. per mile, the Dennis 30-cwt. 575d. per mile, and the 25 30-cwt. Morris 4.55d. per mile. As regards the travellers' cars, the MorrisCowley saloons average 3.67d. per mile.
The various factories are practically self-contained, each having its own power house, with Ruston and Hornsby oil engines and Crompton dynamos.
As regards the vehicles, the company does its own overhauling and repairing. The _travellers' cars are stripped to the frame, but this is only done to lorries when considered necessary, particularly as most of them are comparatively new. Incidentally, all the lorry and bus .bodies, with the exception of those on the Scan:Intel] vehicles, have been built by Ttansomes, Sims and Jefferies, Ltd.