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Interview 39
Impressions of a Director of a Large North London Laundry.
Although we have in the course of this series of articles been successful in obtaining the views of the officials of many large wholesale and retail establishments as to the value of motorvan delivery in the various trades with which they are associated, it was not until quite recently that we decided to secure the impressions of a responsible member of a large laundry organization. It is, of course, necessary, if this series is to be representative, to investigate a diversity of trades, and therefore differing opinions, for obtaining useful information.
With this end in view, we recently requested an interview with an official of the Great Northern Laundry, Finsbury Park, London, N. Mr. T. Taylor, who is a director of this concern, was readily pleased to meet our wishes, and he willingly granted us the necessary facilities for securing his views. We found Mr. Taylor busily engaged in preparing for our benefit a useful list of the running costs of one of his vehicles.
" What induced me to start running commercial vehicles ? Well, it was simply a matter of being up with the times that brought about our .first purchase. We had noticed the undoubted success with which many large business houses were dispensing with their horses and employing commercial vehicles, so we decided, after careful investigation, some V,years ago, to depart from our established, but fast-growing obsolete, methods.
Our first difficulty was in deciding as to the best class of vehicle to use for our particular work. We wanted a light vehicle as pus.' goods are not heavy. But we also required a chassis on which we could have fitted a goad-sized body. You see, our goods are not weighty, but they are certainly bulky." "Why did you purchase the make of vehicle which you now employ ?" was our next question.
In reply we were informed that, at the outset of the reorganizing of the company's delivery department, they had numerous chassis specifications submitted, and that, after careful inquiries, they decided to purchase a C.P.T. crne-tonner_ "It was the simplicity of control and gearing of this make which particularly appealed to us."
The first C.P.T. van was purchased in January, 1913, and we were informed that since that date two more vehicles of the same make
B50 and capacity have been put into service.
Asked as to why this make of machine was purchased a second time, Mr. Taylor replied, "Simply because we had obtained such excellent service from our first vehicle, and we were quite convinced that commercial vehicles were a paying proposition. We purchased our last two vehicles in January of this year." "Have you any horses sti?.l in service?" we asked.
"No, none at ; our three C.P.T. vans have replaced five horses, and I can tell you definitely that we shall not return to them
e'We queried as to whether all the vans were called upon to make the same class of deliveries.
" Yes ; they are all engaged upon door-to-door delivery of laundry goods, and, of course, have many stoppages to make ; in fact, the respective number of stoppages for the three vans per week is 650, 484 and 460. This includes collections and deliveries."
Bearing these numbers in mind, we queried as to whether it had been found advisable to fit selfstarters to any of the vans, to which Mr. Taylor replied in the negative, and he continued, "When making. deliveries the driver stops the engine, makes the call, or, for that matter, he sometimes makes four or five calls if the houses at which he
has to deliver are separated by short distances, and then he restarts the engine. We have no difficulty whatever in starting-up under any weather conditions. Of course, this procedure means a considerable saving in the amount of spirit consumed."
"Do you use petrol or benzoic for your vans ? " we queried.
"Well, as a matter of fact, we use the two combined, about half of each, as we consider we get a much better mixture like this. Some months ago we tried benzole alone, but we found that the explosive charge produced by using this spirit quickly burnt the valve heads, so we tried petrol and benzole combined, and we were very soon able to obtain the correct admixture. We are getting very good results by using this mixture, and we average about 15 miles to the gallon on the three machines. It is a rather remarkable fact, but whether the vans are fully loaded, partially loaded or running light, we get about the smile m.p.g.
"You ask me if we have had any difficulty in obtaining our necessary supplies of spirit ? None whatever ; in fact, we are getting petrol, at the present time, for is. ad. a gallon, and we have contracted for our supplies, at this price, until the end of next year, and, of course, we shall not pay snore unless a further Government tax is imposed upon it."
"In which districts do your vans operate ? " we next queried.
"In most of the London districts north of the river Thames, and when I tell you that we collect and deliver in South Kensington, Finchley, Shepherd's Bush and Clapton, it will give you a good idea of the wide area in which we operate.
" -We follow our customers when they move if it is possible, or, I should say, if it pays us to. If a large customer should remove to the other side of the river, we follow him, and have the goods to be washed sent by rail, and then we return them by this means of transit, or sometimes by carrier."
" Have you any special fittings in the bodies of the three vehicles?"
"Well, we have several loose shelves placed across the rear end of each body, but, apart from these, we have no fittings of any kind. We generally use the shelves for carrying parcel deliveries, whilst the baskets containing linen are put on the floorboards. Of course, these shelves can easily be removed if they are not needed.
"To save the driver from having to go to the back of the van each time he makes a delivery, we have had fitted on one of the vans a roller shutter just behind the driver's seat, so that it is quite an easy matter to get at the goods from this end of the body. On the other vans a space is provided alongside the driver's seat, so that be can get in and out of the interior of the van quite easily. So you will see that the back doors are used but very little : we thus save time in delivering."
We asked Mr. Taylor if the machines were loaded to their rated capacities, to which he replied in the negative, and continued, "We seldom carry more than 10 cwt. at any one time. You see, as I have already said, our goods are light and bulky, and although we have fair-size bodies fitted, we cannot satisfactorily accommodate more than this.
It may surprise you, but although our vans are only one-tonne-re and we never carry as much as one ton of goods, they are shod with solid tires. Let me tell you why. When we first decided to operate commercial vehicles, one of the most difficult points to settle was that of tires. We considered the question very thoroughly, weighing the various advantages in favour of both pneumatics and solids, and eventually came to the conclusion that solid tires would be more economical."
"Although punctures and other not infrequent troubles with pneumatic tires might be remote, we could not afford to take the risk. You see the vans must be kept going all the time, if they are to be a paying proposition. Losing time, to us means losing business. Then
there was this point to be considered, . we were getting rid of our trouble m the shape of horses, and naturally did not want to buy further trouble; for this reason we did not purchase pneumatic tires for our vans."
"What make or makes of tires do you use" was the question we raised, following up this interesting point. "We have tried several makes, but we find that we get quite good results from De Nevers, in fact the tires of this make which I use more often than not outlive their guarantees. At the present time we have several De Nevers which have run well over 10,000 miles and they appear to be good for 15,000 each. We were out for reliability in the first place, and we appear to be getting it. Don't you think so ? '
We agreed that the mileage obtained was ample testimony to substantiate Mr. Taylor's " Oh, I forgot to tell you of a simple little device we have adopted to enable us to know how quickly any particular tire may be wearing. It consists of a piece of wood which has an arched-shaped cutting made in it, the width of which agrees with the width of the tire, whilst the height corresponds with the depth of the tire when fitted to the vehicle.
We mark on this piece of wood the date the tire was fitted, so that we can at any time find out exactly what amount of wear is taking place over any period. Of course, should it he excessive we do our best to satisfy ourselves why it is so."
Quite an ingenious gauge which might with advantage be adopted by other commercialvehicle users," we replied.'
"What class of driver do you employ 'I" was our following question. All our drivers are ex-horse drivers whom we have trained to drive and generally look after the vans, and I might say that in part we owe the excellent running of our three vehicles to the care and attention displayed by the men. " The drivers usually spend Thursday afternoon, which is generally a slack time for the vans, in cleaning up. We think it is absolutely necessary to set apart some time every week to do this, in order to obtain reliable and efficient service.
"All the machines are chaindriven, and we take the precaution of soaking the chains in goodquality oil after they have run for a fortnight. A spare set of chains is always carried on each van."
We asked Mr. Taylor if he attached any advertising value to the machines, to which he replied :
"There is certainly an advertising value to some extent, but, of course, it is growing much less, now that conirne”cial-vehicle delivery is recognized by all classes as an es
sential and indispensable factor in the industrial world."
"Have you any actual working costs for any of the vans? '' was our next question. Mr. Taylor then handed us a sheet of costs, which he had specially prepared, for the C.F.T. van he possessed in 1914. We reproduce this in tabulated form for the benefit of our readers. He continued by saying "This cost sheet includes everything, and you will see from it that the cost per customer for two calls per week works out at 40., which is, considering all things, we think, very good."
Actual working cost of one oneton C.P.T. van during 1914. Mileage covered 11,376. Average 219 miles per week.
NOTE,—The charge of id. per mile for tires is based upon the cost supposing the tires only complete their guaranteed mileage of 10,000. One tire which has run 11,700 miles is good for several thousand more. Four hundred and eighty-four calls are made a week, so that 'the cost per customer for two calls per week is about 41c1.
We were invited to take a short run on one of the vehicles, and we were greatly impressed with the power and pulling abilities of the engine, which on this type of van is situated under the driver's seat. The machine was easy to handle, and it undoubtedly possesses good manceuvring capabilities. We were particularly impressed with the simple epicyclic gearing which is employed. There are only two forward speeds and a reverse fitted. The van is started on the slow speed, and is then changed over with ease to the top speed, on which the driver can accelerate to close upon 20 m.p.h. Whilst taking this run Mr. Taylor firmly impressed upon us his opinion as to the all-round utility of the vehicles, and concluded by saying : "It is absolutely essential for a laundry business of our size to keep collections and deliveries to time and can tell you definitely that, with the amount of business which we now carry on, it would be impossible for us to maintain our regular and efficient service without the aid of the O.P.T.s. Our collections and deliveries, as a matter of fact, are like the Royal Mails —they must be kept going."