Beet Rates Put in Perspective
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SET out in Table I ate the current suggested rates for the haulage of sugar beet. The farmers believe that these rates are high, as also do the officials of the British Sugar Corporation, Ltd. Hauliers in general are not so sure, and quite a number simply, does not know.
I have been looking into the figures myself and have taken as a basis for calculation some data as to times needed to convey loads of sugar beat over 10-and 20-mile hauls.
Tables III and IV give timetables of work as quoted to me by a haulage contractor whose figures 1 have usually found to be most reliable. Table 11 .gives some of the figures for the operating cost of a 5-6 tonner engaged in this traffic. I have omitted the wages from that schedule of costs because in this particular case it _is more convenient to deal with it separately.
The essential information which is derived from Table H is that. the cost per hour, exclusive of wages, is 4s, 71d., and the cost per mile is 5.7d.
Now, turning to Table Ill, this operator shows that in 11 hours he can convey three loads of beet to the factory. It is clear that the farm or the heap of beet from which. he is leading is some little distance from his own premises,. since he allows half an hour for the journey from the garage to farm. At any rate, that is a reasonable period. For the lead distance of 10 miles he estimates a period of half an hour, which means that he must travel, at an average speed of 20 m.p.h.
The next thing to be noted is that he allows 14 hours for loading the beet at the farm end and one hour for unloading at the factory end. The fairly obvious inference is that he is not getting much assistance from the farmer and that he is off-loading by hand at the factory. He tells me that he has a driver and mate on each vehicle and is paying Grade II wages.
He carries three loads each day from`Monday to Friday inclusive, according to the Table, and on Saturday the men work eight hours and carry a further two loads. Altogether, therefore, he carries 17 loads of 54 tons each, which is 934 tons. and the men work 63 hours per week It is now necessary to find out how much is spent in wages.
'First, the driver. The basic tate is £4 14s, per week, that is, for 44 hours. For the. next eight hours the rate is time and a quarter, which is 2s. 8115d. 'per hour, and for eight hours that is £1 Is. 5d. The remaining 11 hours must be paid for at-time and a half, which is 3s. 2,76d, per hour, and, for 11 hours that is £1 15s 3d. The total wage paid
to the driver is,-therefore £7 10s. 8d. •
The basic wage for the mate is £4 5s. per week. That is for 44 hours and for the next eight hours he must be paid at time and a quarter, which is 2s. 5d., a total of 19s. 4d. For the remaining 11 hours he is paid at time and a half, which is 2s. '10-1d., a total of £11 Is. 11.1 His wage for the 63 hours is thus £6 16s. 3d. and the total wage bill for the operation of that vehicle is £14 6s. 11d., which, incidentally, is equivalent to 4s. 61-d. per hour.
Fixed Charges-a Pitfall
Now, there might be a tendency for the reader, hurriedly going through these figures, to add that 4s. 64d. for wages to the 4s, 74d. for the standing charges of the •vehicle, thus arriving at the conclusion that he is justified in costing his vehicle at a total of 9s. 2d. per hour. That is quite wrong.
That 4s. 71d. per hour carries all the fixed charges of the vehicle for a whole week, no matter whether the vehicle is operated for 44 hours'or 60 hours.
It must be noted that 'the vehicle covers 17 return journeys, a total mileage of 340, and that at 5.7d. per mile the actual running cost is £8 Is. 6d. To that we add, for 44 hours at 4s. 74d., £10 3s. 6d., and for 63 hours, wages at 4s. 64c1., which is the actual figure of £14 6s. 11d, already quoted. The total cost is thus £32 us, lid.
Now, the scheduled rate per tat for a .10-mile lead is 7s. 4d., and the revenue from the carriage of 934 tons at 7s. 4d. per ton is £34 5s. 8d., so that the net profit shown on this week's work is no more than' £1 13s. 9d., which, I think, everyone-farmers and beet:factory officials included -will agree is insufficient.
Before going into this, however, let us turn to Table IV, which gives a similar timetable from the same operator when he is working on a 20-mile lead.
Working this out as before, we have, first ,of all, the cost of running 560 miles at 5.7d. ,per mile, which is £13 6d. To that, again, we add the cost of operating the vehicle A33
(less wages) for 44 hours at 4s. 71d., which is £10 3s. 6d., as before.
The driver and mate have worked an extra hour eachone at 3s. 2d. for that hour and the other at 2s. 103,4d. That increases the total wage bill to £14 13s. for the week. The total cost, the sum of the above three items, is £38
2s. 6d. •
Now, during the week, 14 loads of Si tons have been carried; that is 77 tons. The Tate for a 20-mile lead is 10s. 44., from which the revenue is i39 -15s. 8d. The net profit is even less than before, being 1 13s. 2d., as against £1 13s. 9d.
It may be of interest to calculate what should be the rate per ton, based on the above figures for cost and mak
ing no other assumptions. .
For the 10-mile lead the net cost was £32 11 S. lid. I would add 20 per cent, to that for profit, which is 16 10s. Id. approximately. The total revenue for the week on that 10-mile lead, therefore, should be £39 2s., and that spread over 931 tons is equal to 8s. 4d. per ton and not 7s. 4d. per ton, as quoted.
Similarly over the 20-mile lead. If I add 20 per cent. to £38 2s. 6d., I get £45 15s., lot which 77 tons have been carried, and that is equivalent to 12s. per ton instead of 10s. 4d.
On the above basis, therefore, it seems as though ..these standardized rates are insufficient, having in mind presentday costs.
The argument is sometimes put forward that operators are able to obtain return loads of pulp from the factory. This, however, does not, as a matter of fact, improve matters or add to the revenue to any appreciable degree. There is usually some waiting time if a load of pulp is to be picked up, and that may quite easily have the effect of reducing the number of loads of sugar beet carried per week, whereas, as 1 shall show, the only satisfactory way of making sure of a profit is to increase the number of loads.
In any case, the return loads are not load for load, but only one in three or one in four, so that even if they could be carried profitably, the ability to pick up these loads would not solve the immediate problem of making the work entirely profitable.
Now, as I have hinted, one way in which the conditions may be improved is to speed up loading and/or unloading. To speed up loading involves, as I see it, the use of mechanical loading appliances, of which there are one or two already in use in some parts of the country. These, how a.34 ever, according to my experience, are not economical unless they can be used in conjunction with not fewer than six vehicles.
An alternative is to make use of tippers. This, as I have shown in articles I have written from time to time, has been made practicable at these and other factories by the erection of overhead roadways, which enable tippers to run straight in from the road, over the weighbridge, on to the roadway, tip the beet, and go out again. In the case of Bardney, for which I had precise figures, it was shown that the reduction in average time for unloading 51 tons of beet was approximately an hour per load, bringing it down from 11 hours to a quarter of an hour.
To show what can be the net value of that method in the way of increased profits, I have drawn up Tables IIIA and 1VA, which correspond to Tables III and IV, except that instead of taking an hour to unload, I have assumed that tippers are used and the average time is a quarter of an hour only. In Table IllA it will be noticed that the daily loads and hours are: Monday, four Imds, 111 hours; Tuesday, 31 loads (that is to say,. three loads conveyed and one taken on for tipping the next morning), 10-1 hours; Wednesday, 31 loads, 101 hours; Thursday, 4 loads, 111 hours; Friday, 31 loads, 101 hours; Saturday, 21 loads, 7 hours. Now to work out the cost. Four hundred and twenty miles are covered at 5,7d. per mile, which is £9 19s. 6d. The other two items remaining the same, namely, for the vehicle £10 3s. 6d. and for wages £14 6s. 11d. The total cost is, therefore, £34 9s. 11d. The revenue from the conveyance of 21 loads of 51 tons, which is 1151 tons, at 7s. 4d., the scheduled rate, is £42 6s, 6d., showing a profit during the week of £7 16s. 7d., which is more than the 20 per cent, minimum which I suggest is desirable. Turning now to Table IVA which shows a corresponding revision of Table IV, and assumes that a tipping vehicle is used, it is seen to be possible to do three round journeys
per Ili-hour day. If, as before, I make the assumption that that quarter of an hour can be cut so that the day is only 11 hours, then I can reasonably assume that, from Monday to Friday inclusive, three loads are carried per day and that on Saturday a further two are carried in seven hours. That means 931 tons in 62 hours, • The cost is: For 680 miles at 5.7d. per mile, £16 3s.; for the vehicle, as before, £10 3s. 6d.; for wages (62 hours), £14 Os. 10d. The total is £40 7s. 441.
The revenue from 931 tons at this scheduled rate of 10s, 4d. per ton is £48 6s. 2d., so that there is a profit of very nearly £8, which is to say very nearly 20 per cent. on the £40 7s. 44.. That is certainly sufficiently near to make it worth while. Incidentally, my figures do not allow for the increase in fuel cost S.T.R