A QUIVER OF TRANSITS
Page 60
Page 61
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
White Arrow delivers 60 million parcels a year mainly using diesel engined Transits. David Wilcox reports on how this volume buyer and the manufacturer of Britain's most popular panel van have developed a vehicle matched to a specialised operation
GUS Transport is one of
Ford's top 10 Transit customers. The company is the transport and distribution subsidiary in the immense Great Universal Stores retail group and it has 1,300 Transit vans in the colours of White Arrow, its home delivery arm.
This means that they deliver 60 million parcels a year right to the householder's door, working for the GUS mail order companies like Kays, Trafford, John England and Great Universal. This volume of business puts the White Arrow operation second only to the Post Office in the field of home delivery.
The Ford Transit celebrates its 20th birthday this September and White Arrow's experience with the model goes back to the time when you could get a Tranist with a Perkins diesel engine before it was replaced by the York diesel in 1972.
White Arrow has standardised its fleet on the diesel Transit 100 LWB and GUS Transport managing director John Abberley recalled that it was partly at his company's instigation that Ford introduced this particular Transit variant in the early Seventies. He explained that White Arrow needed the loadspace volume of the long wheelbase (3m) Transit, but did not want the twin rear wheels that previously came with all the long-wheelbase models — White Arrow did not need the extra weight capacity.
With its single rear wheels the one-ton payload 1001,WB gives White Arrow the volume it needs (270cuft), but with an unladen weight of just under 1,525kg (30cwt) to avoid the heavy goods vehicle plating and testing requirements. It also eliminates the need for the twinwheel Tranist wheelarch extensions that used to get so battered in the early days when, to get the longer wheelbase, White Arrow was forced to run twinwheel Transit 130 models.
A van's weight capacity is of little importance at White Arrow. When these 2.45 tonne gvw Transits leave the depot in the morning they are normally fullyladen — which can mean parcels right to the roof — but the load normally weighs only 250-350kg (5-7cwt).
Development director Pat Davis said that the company has experimented with different sized vans, but found larger ones too cumbersome to negotiate many of the compact housing estates in which the White Arrow vans have to work. Productivity with 3.5 tonne gvw vans was actually less.
As it is, the size of the Transit 100LWB nicely matches the drivers' productivity and, as John Abberlcy commented, "Productivity is the name of the game." Although he would not reveal the exact number of deliveries per day carried out by a typical driver, it is clear that a White Arrow driver must have a tremendous workrate, without resorting to American paperboy methods. Small, light parcels help: none are more than 25kg and many are items of clothing.
One of the problems of delivering to homes is catching people in to accept the parcel. For this reason the White Arrow drivers will make their first delivery around 7.30am and the company is experimenting with a "twilight shift" between 2pm and 9pm. Saturdays are also worked.
With its years of experience with the Transit, White Arrow has developed its optimum specification. The passenger seat is omitted and there is corresponding gap in the bulkhead so that there is access from the load space to the space beside the driver.
Having arranged the parcels in drop order the driver can therefore work from his cab rather than having to open the rear doors for each delivery. The rarely used passenger door is the conventional hinged type, whereas the driver's door is sliding for safety reasons.
Although petrol is the choice of fuel for 80 per cent of van buyers in this country, GUS Transport is a firm believer in diesel. The company has its vehicle costs closely monitored on computer and can justify its choice.
The Transits do 25,000 miles a year of rigorous stop-start work. Fleet management director Graham Sinclair said that the diesel Transit's performance is perfectly adequate for the job. The 2.36-litre York diesel does not enjoy the best of reputations, particularly for cold starting, but Graham Sinclair has few grouses.
We did have some cold start problems with the early York engines, but we've got them beaten now." Ile explained that there are in-house maintenance facilities and duty fitters at every one of the 37 White Arrow depots. This level of on-the-spot service can be justified because there are 40-50 vans at the average depot.
Describing the refinement of the Transit over the years, Graham Sinclair said there had been a few problems such as a batch of rusty S-registered ones, a bout of gear-stick breakages and some propshaft bearing failures. But the evolutionary process has ironed out these faults and he believes that the Transits bought in the past couple of years are really very good.
The stop-start lifestyle is understandably hard on items like brakes, steering and driver's seats. The White Arrow maintenance programme is based on a 4,000-mile/13-week service cycle, with a major overhaul at 6070,000 miles. The Transits will be kept for four years or 100,000 miles, although this is not a rigid figure.
Considering its size, GUS Transport takes a commendably flexible attitude to vehicle disposal. Each van is assessed individually, with the best ones running up to 120-130,000 miles.
Nor are the vehicles sold en masse by auction. Each is sold individually —sonic to the trade, some via the auctions and some even to private buyers. Managing director John Abberley maintains that this is the most cost-effective method. He feels that the management time devoted to this is worthwhile and that those who advocate block disposal do so mainly for convenience.
Graham Sinclair said that the good residual value of the Transit is another reason for keeping faith with the model, and that it is a point worth considering when looking at the growing competition from imported panel vans.
White Arrow tries virtually every suitable panel van that comes on to the market. Acknowledging that these rivals are more modern in their design, and that some give the driver more comfort and a higher level of trim, Pat Davis said that this is not what White Arrow wants. Its mega-multi-drop work gives the drivers little time to appreciate their environment. And Pat Davis said that the company has yet to find any comparable van, British or imported, that can better Transit's whole life costs.
Across the fleet, the diesel Transits are averaging 13.1 lit/100km (21.5mpg). Tins is with the standard four-speed gearbox (no overdrive) and 4.11 backaxle ratio. That may seem quite a poor return for a one-ton van carrying little weight, but the stop-start work exacts a heavy toll.
There arc 200 vehicles in the fleet which arc achieving no better than 22.6 lit/100km (12.5inpg) — but they are running on liquified petroleum gas (lpg). They were bought a couple of years ago when diesel supplies seemed threatened and White Arrow wanted to experiment with an alternative fuel.
The company carried out the lpg conversion itself buying petrol engined Transits and using Landi Hartog lpg equipment. Pat Davis said that when the costs of the company's own lpg bulk storage facilities are taken into account, the running costs of the lpg Transits are virtually identical to the diesel engined vans.
There is also a batch of 50 Bedford CF vans in the fleet, bought a few years ago when Transit production was hit by a Ford industrial dispute.
At the beginning of this year Ford replaced the 2.36-litre York diesel in the Transit with the new 2.5-litre directinjection (di) diesel engine. As a major customer GUS Transport enjoys a close relationship with Ford and was running 2.5di engined Transits before the UK launch. There are now 70 in the fleet, all based at the Farnworth (near Bolton) and Newton Abbott depots. More are on order.
Compared with the York engine, the di unit should be better all round. Power is up from 43kW (58hp) at 3,60Orpm (net installed) to 50kW (67hp) at 4,000rpm, while torque is up from 125Nm (92 lbft) at 2,300rpin to 143Nrn (105 lbft) at 2,700rpin.
Ford says the di engine alone should give 13 per cent better fuel consumption, while new, closer ratios used in the revised gearbox matched to the engine will further enhance economy so that operators can expect a 20 per cent improvement.
This, of course, assumes that the extra efficiency is not used in extra performance. According to Graham Sinclair the White Arrow Transit 2.5di vans are so far averaging about 11.8 lit/100km (24mpg) — "but it's early days yet.
GUS Transport has also made an operator's input into the new Transit, expected at the end of this year. Although it is not automatic that the White Arrow fleet will continue to be based on the new model, John Abberley confirmed that his company will be buying quite a number from day one to assess this long awaited replacement.
It coincides with a period of growth for White Arrow too. Last year GUS Transport decided to look beyond its own in-house traffic to capitalise on its enormous home delivery potential. As a result, last September it announced its co-operation with Lex Wilkinson in the Homeline service aimed at direct mail companies which need doorstep delivery.
Direct mail shopping is being widely tipped as a growth industry, helped by the advent of telephone credit card ordering in addition to the traditional mail order catalogue business.
Ideally placed to respond to this, GUS Transport is planning to add in the next two years a further 10-15 depots to the existing 37 in the White Arrow network. Therefore, its current vehicle purchase plan has a substantial element of fleet growth as well as fleet replacement. John Abberley predicts that there will be 2,000 White Arrow vans in two years' time, moving the company even further up the league of major van fleets.