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INDER THE SOUTHERN :ROSS

Vhere fleet flexibility ; essential

Jack Maddock, Editor, Truck and s Transportation, Australia.

AUSTRALIA Bedfords are confined, by and large, to ;al and medium-distance work. In these areas they are pular because they are keenly priced and, generally eaking, spare parts and service back-up are reliable. In e haul and other mediumto heavy-duty operations, '7ere very few operators will consider a vehicle with ;s than double the brake horsepower available from 9 highest-rated Bedford engine, other makes score the les.

The National Bureau of Census and Statistics, based on State registrations of vehicles, uses RAC horsepower ratings (no longer used in the UK). Disregarding the lower end of the horsepower groupings (covering panel vans, utilities, etc.) Bedford's strength lies in the 27 to 50 RAC horsepower bracket, where it outsells every other make.

In the bus field, it is a very popular choice with private enterprise operators. In the medium-capacity range it easily outsells all other makes, although big purchases of heavier units by Government operators tend to show domination of the bus market by BLMC products.

Bedfords have been available in Australia since well before World War II. They have put many an operator on his feet; ironically, these people • have mostly turned to other makes as their fleet requirements have dictated heavier and/or more powerful units. Many pictures in old albums show Bedfords carrying colossal loads in the Thirties. Later, in the early post-war years, Bedfords were a common sight on the interstate highways, earning for their owners money which was subsequently put into more sophisticated equipment, leading to the point where today the big, glamorous lines haul rigs with 300 bhp (and more) engines, air-conditioned sleeper cabs, multi-speed transmissions and the mod cons that come with this round-the-clock type of operation. This has largely confined Bedfords to the relatively shorthaul sphere. But, in this area, as mentioned before, they are big sellers. Tippers, table tops (flats), vans, small semi-trailers, pantechnicons—you name it in the local cartage scene—and Bedford is in there, more than holding its own.

A firm which reversed the progression from light to heavy units is the Sydney company, H. and D. McRae Carriers Pty. Ltd. Founded in 1910, it converted from horses to motor trucks 20 years later. Its first motorized units were heavies like Dennis and Leyland. Then Bedford made its entry into Australia, and today McRae's fleet of 108 vehicles includes 89 Sec/fords. If the vehicles of a small subsidiary, R. S. Ferns and Son, are included, the Bedford figure reaches 98 in a grand total of 121 vehicles.

McRae is a flexible and versatile operation. Its services range from inter-office courier runs to crane hire, and encompass such diverse activities as general cartage, storage, delivery and installation of household electrical goods, carrying motor bodies and cased components to body plants, services to and from wharves and rail, city and suburban parcels services, handling newsprint into one of Sydney's big daily newspapers and then delivering the printed papers throughout the metropolitan area. The newspaper distribution operation means that McRae trucks are available 24 hours a day.

There is other work, too, such as transhipment of cargoes (from overseas vessels to those serving island ports) either direct from boat to boat or into store and from store to wharf, as well as handling wool, machinery, empty pallets, periodicals, batteries, TV tubes, and all the run-of-the-mill stuff that comes under the heading of "general cargo". The company has six stores strategically located in the inner metropolitan area, and these plus other features of the McRae operation require the use of 11 fork-lift trucks.

Forty of the company's fleet vehicles are on two-way radio.

The courier service is, as its name implies, a messenger-type operation carrying inter-office documents. It is a sort of "instant transport" deal, separate from the usual parcel delivery service. The company numbers among its courier customers the TV stations, who require small props to be moved around from studio to studio or from station to station.

The delivery and installation of household appliances occupies up to 10 vehicles a day. This is seasonal work; the requirements drop to two vehicles daily in winter. It reaches a peak shortly before Christmas. Drivers and offsiders attend short "schools" where they are briefed on the latest models of refrigerators, stoves, dishwashers, etc. A good crew can install up to 16 and even 18 appliances in a 10-hour day (earning overtime, of course).

The company has been for many years associated with the motor industry. Before General Motors began Australian production, the company imported its vehicles from overseas. McRae's handled hundreds of cars each week, using rigid trucks and single-axle trailers to move them from wharf to the GM plant at Pagewood, one of Sydney's southern suburbs. Now this is all changed.

Since the Holden car came into production in 1949, imports have dried to a trickle, but McRae now handles partly finished vehicles and cases of parts coming in by rail from body pressing and component manufacturing points such as Melbourne and Adelaide. These ar moved by a continuous shuttle service of trucks betwee Cooks River rail terminal and the Genen Motors-Ho/den's assembly plant at Pagewood.

McRae's parcel delivery operation occupies up to 3 vehicles in peak loading times, such as th pre-Christmas rush, but normally 20 vans and small tra tops can handle this work.

But the most demanding segment of the McRa operations is that pertaining to newspaper work. 7-11 company's vehicles and equipment handle a hi percentage of all reel paper coming into Sydney by se for most of the city's daily newspapers.

Then, at the other end of the publishing operatic)/ McRae delivery units handle the finished product—eac day's newspaper—on a distribution network for one Sydney's morning dailies.

Trucks providing this service are on call 24 hours day.

Learning the routes

Newsprint requirements vary from day to da) according to the size of the newspaper to be publishet and so do the demands for deliveries of reels to eithi the newspaper's own store or even direct to the presse. At the other end of the operation the number of deliver vehicles varies again, according to size of th publication.

Approximately 60 drivers are trained for newspapt delivery work. There is always a small squad of me learning the routes.

Beyond the metropolitan area, and up to distances r 350 miles, contractors do the deliveries. At times, whe a contractor does not turn up. McRae trucks and drive; suddenly find themselves on fast express runs, returnin to base late the following day.

The night shift commences between 71 p.m. an 1 a.m. After the country edition is printed and got awai the metropolitan edition begins to come down rf shutes. Some vehicles on short runs can cover twvt. routes; the others, after doing their runs, return to tF newspaper office to carry out other work incidental production, such as moving waste paper, bringing , ,wsprint reels, delivering other publications to rail, C.

In the transport industry, "utilization" is a key word ese days. On interstate work, operators are getting renomenal mileage and utilization from their vehicles. it local cartage is generally regarded as a 7.30 a.m. to 30 p.m. task.

Although strictly in the local short-haul field, McRae Ptains maximum use from a section of the fleet through e newspaper delivery operation. Units that return to e company's Camperdown depot after a day's work ound the wharves, rail yards, stores and warehouses, .7., are quickly refuelled and checked and prepared for e night shift on newspaper deliveries.

Most of the company's vehicles average about 1,000 miles a year each.

The Bedfords in the McRae fleet cover virtually the llole range—LI t J2 J3 J5 KCC KEL KG, etc., plus a rinkling of earlier models. Most are petrol units; there

e only eight diesels in the fleet of 108 vehicles, wever, the company is leaning toward diesels and laid, in the future, shape much of its replacement )ficy around this type of power.

Speaking of replacements, McRae's programme volves the retirement of an average of 10 to 12 ,hides each year, and the same number of new units d into the fleet.

Why does the company favour Bedford vehicles? 'ell, there is the obvious point that one of its biggest rstomers is General Motors-Ho/den's, but director ?lin McRae said that regardless of that aspect, he is Pn vin ce ci that the company would be using Bedford on leer merit.

"We've tried other makes," said Mr. McRae. "In fact, e've got other makes in our fleet right now. But we get e work from our Bedfords, and that's what we want. "Spare parts are in good supply—we rarely have to ait for anything. And they're certainly not as expensive spares for other makes.

"Some makes are particularly competitive on price ese days. But when it gets down to spares, we find at the cheaper vehicle is frequently way up on spare orts prices.

-We know what Bedfords will do, and our mechanics

e experts in working on one make of vehicle. Mind ru, being 'one brand operators' doesn't mean that we ,n't have our problems with changing models; in fact, lmponents are often changed in current models. terefore, standardization doesn't mean much in that vise. However, the mechanics are familiar with .9dford equipment, and that means a lot when it comes keeping maintenance costs within reasonable ?rameters," said Mr McRae.

McRae's maintenance programme is based on a 200-mile oil change and grease, plus comprehensive B C and 0 dock schedules. Even though the company uses a premium oil (Shell Retella 20W40) across the board and could logically be expected to push the change periods to double the present figure, oil is regarded as relatively cheap and fresh oil at short intervals is considered to be a form of insurance.

Valve grinds, the fitting of rings and bearings, and similar tasks are carried out on a condition basis. The usual tell-tales of increased oil and fuel consumption are checked, and a compression test carried out, before a decision is taken. If a vehicle begins to use a pint of oil a day, that's the signal to bring it into the garage to have a thorough look at lines, filters, etc., for leakage before testing for likely internal causes.

Modern oils and fuels, as well as improved materials, are credited with pushing valve grinds from the former figure of 5,000 miles to around 15,000 these days. It is rare to fit rings and bearings under 50,000 miles.

Some vehicles do better than others. The J series units, working on car body and cased parts assignments during the day, and on newspaper deliveries at night, will produce 125,000 miles from an engine before pull-down is necessary.

Driver ha bits

Many mileages achieved are a direct reflection of driver habits. Clutch life, for example, varies between 5,000 and 15,000 miles. Naturally, action is taken to correct driver faults when clutches come in for re-lining at low mileages.

Brakes are similarly affected; there can be a variation between 8,000 and 15,000 miles, according to driver technique.

Tyres usually yield 28,000 miles on new rubber, and as good (frequently better) mileage from re-caps. Cases are mostly re-capped twice.

Wall damage is carefully watched; chafing caused by gutter-rubbing is a common trouble, and as soon as a tyre shows signs of this type of wear it is immediately switched to an inside dual position.

McRae's service manager, Mr. Bill Brown, who has been with the company for 28 years, places the utmost importance on accurate settings for ignition and fuel after a vehicle has been overhauled or has been in the shop for an -A" dock. Test instruments are used to set points, plug gap, cam dwell, etc., and an exhaust gas analyser checks the fuel lair ratio. Driver complaints about indifferent engine performance are usually investigated by means of this special test equipment.

All vehicles in the fleet are fitted with governors, restricting engine revolutions to 3,000, which provides a top road speed of around 50 mph. This became policy after an outbreak of engine blow-ups some years ago, caused by over-revving.

Bill Brown also places solid reliance on the "grease man".

-Get a good, observant man in this job and he'll save expense and trouble," says Bill. "He looks for tell-tale engine, diff or gearbox leaks and reports breakages or looseness. The mechanics can thus jump on incipient troubles before they are allowed to develop."

The garage carries spare engines, reconditioned by the company's own mechanics in slack periods. No machining is carried out in engine reconditioning and vehicles are usually disposed of well before an engine requires this degree of attention.

In addition to eight mechanics, the company employs two panel beaters two spray painters and two bodybuilder 'welders. Each vehicle, as it comes out of the mechanical shop, following overhaul (after, say, four 'A' docks) goes through the body shop for a final dress-up in the company's familiar colour of red with white lettering. The body shop also attends to the minor bumps that are part and parcel of the history of vehicles which spend their working life in today's heavy metropolitan traffic.

McRae Carriers run a versatile operation into which the comprehensive range of Bedford vehicles fit efficiently for the bulk of the company's requirements. In today's competitive market, they are keenly priced, and although like all imported vehicles there are occasionally problems of continuity of supply in some models, a firm like McRae does not suffer greatly in this direction because it is able to map out its replacement programme well ahead, thus enabling suppliers to bring stock forward almost as required.

Attracting style conscious Australians

by Barry Hatfield, AIRTE, AM1AME, Assistant Editor. Truck and Bus Transportation, Australia.

BEDFORD CHASSIS, perhaps more than any other make, are modified to a very considerable degree by many Australian operators. "Cutting and shutting" (slipping an extension into the chassis) is the norm for many. Others move the engine to the rear to provide better steering and brake balance and reduce noise levels, particularly in the case of the larger diesel engine; some prefer other makes of diesel and fit it at the rear in place of the Bedford unit. And, of course, there are those who accept the chassis as it is sold, in the main, but do some modifications to meet particular circumstances.

One of the latter is fleet operator Mr. Geoff Dewey, whose Chester Hill-Bankstown Bus Service uses a 19-strong all-Bedford fleet in outer-suburban Sydney.

Operating from a newly erected depot at Chester Hill, 12 miles from Sydney, Mr. Dewey's fleet is versatile; it covers route services and long-distance charter work. His Bedford? tasks range from heavy peak-hour feeder services to the metropolitan electric train network, through off-peak shopper trips, school runs, etc., to high-cruising-speed coach tours involving distances up to 1,600 miles from base.

Tour operations

Bedfords serving both types of requirement are not unusual in Australia, as this make of vehicle finds a ready place in most suburban and country town fleets, but they are generally by-passed in favour of the heavier class of diesel chassis for long-distance tour operations.

Chester Hill-Bankstown Bus Service derives its name chiefly from the two main suburban centres in the western sector of sprawling Sydney.

Both centres sit astride portions of the electric railway network serving the outer regions of the city and tend to dictate much of the company's route service format.

The area,, while possessing a proportion of secondary industry, is largely residential; its working population commutes to the city's offices or to the predominantly industrial centres in adjoining suburbs.

In addition to handling commuters to and from the trains, the company's buses serve 19 schools i the area, as well as carrying shoppers to and from th suburbs between Chester Hill and Bankstown. A bi drawcard is the huge $17 million Bankstown Squat regional shopping complex. Of a total of 600 trips eac day into Bankstown Square provided by all operator licensed to serve this centre, CHB's buses account ft 130.

"Our shoppers' services are growing," said M Dewey, "and we'll have to increase the frequenc shortly. Saturday mornings in particular have seen sudden jump—up to 75 per cent more than last yearend we could at last be seeing the effects of car parkin problems. Australians love their cars, but high-densit living and congested shopping centres are encouraging swing—we hope—back to bus travel for shoppers."

In the past financial year, the company's buses carrie just on 1,300,000 adult passengers, and 800,00 school children—not counting the once-a-week schtu sports day traffic which the company classifies in h charter operations.

The increasing population and traffic density in th suburbs covered by CHB is reflected in running time continued on page 1; "We could always rely on five minutes to the mile, but now it's closer to nine minutes to the mile," said Mr. Dewey.

0-m-o is standard One-man-operation is standard throughout the fleet, although many of the newer bodies have two doors for faster unloading at termini. Solomatic ticket-issuing machines are installed in all the route service buses.

The fleet comprises two SB 3 Bedfords, three VAM 5 chassis, and 11 SB 5 models; these are essentially route buses, but they can be switched to charter operations if the occasion requires.

The remainder of the fleet is made up of two VA /14 70 chassis, and one VAL; these are allocated exclusively to long-distance charter.

The latter phase of CHB's business is the one that's starting to boom with the increasing awareness, in Australia, of the country's tourism potential—both for the people that live here, and for incoming tourists.

"While some operators are willing to send their coaches to just about any place in the outback," Mr. Dewey explained, we consider inland Australia knocks around the lighter chassis buses too much, and so we concentrate on highway and secondary road charter.

"Even so," he continued, "we do some high mileages. A trip to the Great Barrier Reef up in Queensland can set us back 3,300 miles return. These are camping tours, where groups Of students are taken on educational sorties into interesting places. We carry about 45 people in a VAM 70 specially built to carry plenty of personal luggage.

"We supply the sleeping and kitchen tents on these trips, in addition to the cooking gear. The students bring their own bedding and cook their own meals. It's a great deal of fun. Our Bedfords clock up quite a few miles in each day with a fair load on their shoulders on trips such as these, but we can't complain about their performance."

To ensure that this kind of "expedition" runs smoothly, CHB sends along a support vehicle—a Holden panel van (another General Motors product in Australia) towing a small trailer. The idea here is to carry the tents and the Porta gas cooking gear (in the trailer) and the food fin the van). This provides the party with two drivers and a vehicle in case of roadside breakdown-although this is rare. One of the VAM 70 chassis was the subject of a modification exercise before the coach body was constructed.

"We thought the VAM 70's engine was a bit too noisy for a high-class coach, located as it was up front in the saloon, so we moved it back behind the front axle and dropped it so that it does not protrude into the passenger area. Although it's mounted vertically between the chassis frame members, it fits quite easily under the raised flooring of the coach, which is a deck-and-half design.

"By moving the engine we reduced weight on the front axle by 7cwt, and we were still able to fit luggage bins in the skirt area on each side.

"We consider that we've gained all the advantages of other chassis configurations that we see these days, without being saddled with any of their disadvantages," said Mr. Dewey.

VAL is tops For pure coach work though, Mr. Dewey puts the VAL at the top of his list. He listed his reasons: "The ride is excellent, and the high safety factors on the steering gives the drivers plenty of confidence. We had a tyre blow out in a dangerous situation but the driver brought the coach under control quickly. We find it necessary, however, to swap the factory-fitted radial tyres on the front axles for conventional nylon or rayon tyres, for a better wear factor and improved directional stability on the steering. We also fit Smith's exhaust brakes to assist braking on long runs in hilly country."

When asked why he retained an all-Bedford fleet, Mr. Dewey replied that his company was "battling" before it bought its first Bedford route bus back in 1959. "It literally put us' on our feet," he said.

"We're fortunate in that we get excellent after-sales service, good attention to warranty, and that we enjoy a fine relationship with our dealer. All this counts. And again, we can be assured of parts delivery within four hours at the most. It isn't necessary to say how important this aspect is for a bus fleet!"

The company is gradually phasing out the SB 3 petrol-engine Bedfords as it considers that "petrol engines have had their day!"

One of the biggest complaints Australian Bedford bus operators have is that wheelbases have to be extended when maximum body lengths are wanted. But even with this to contend with, Chester Hill-Bankstown reckons it still can't go far wrong with Bedfords.

"We get good value for the money we pay out. If operators complain that the chassis aren't man enough to take Australian conditions, then I suggest they're not placing their specification sights high enough. They must need something heavier to start with.

"With our Bedford policy we can afford to replace vehicles fairly regularly, aiming for the latest-design coach bodies--which pays off in attracting style-conscious Australians."