RAILWAY EMERGENCY MOTOR TRANSPORT.
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A Description of the Central Control Lorry System Adopted by the Great Eastern Railway to Reduce Terminal Delays.
PROBABLY MANY people have seen numbers of various types of lorries running to and fro between London, Ipswich, and Cambridge and Elmswell, all marked with the familiar initials G.E.R., and a number. Possibly some of these people may have been interested enough to wonder what work these lorries are performing, and how the system is organized. With a -view to obtaining these particulars' we recently interviewed the Superintendent of the Company's motor road transport, whowas able to give us some very interesting details of this system, which embodies such interesting features that we are sure a description of it will prove of interest to our readers, particularly to those who are operating large fleets,
The Great Eastern Railway road motor transport system Was originated in September, 1919, not Ibng before the railway strike, by the enierprise, careful foresight, and vigorous management of Sir 'Henry Thornton, K.B.E., the general manager of the Great Eastern RailwayThe Government loaned the railway a considerable number of returned army lorries, which number has grown from time to time until the fleet numbers about 170 vehicles. This fleet has been used in coping with goods con— ge,stiom Mr. J. G. B. Sams, a very live gentleman, with sound, practical ideas on the running of motor vehicles, was made Superintendent of this road motor transport, and although the work has been uphill owing to the difficulty of finding suitable garages and repair shops, yet the results have proved the system to be a success in many ways. The system involves the use of four garages, situated at London, Ipswich, Cambridge and. Elmsivell, and the lorries. are operated on two distinct systems, the whole being under a central Control situated in the offices at Liverpool Street.
A riclical departure from the present practice is the payment Of drivers by mileage, except when delivering and collecting in the London area, which are paid at time rates, owing to the difficulty of maintaining a fair average speed with the existing traffic conditions. In the country only a flat allowance is made for delivery and collection. They are also paid a bonus every day for safe running, and time-keeping within reasonable limits, and for general upkeep of the vehicles ; this bonus scheme ipplies to both systems, And the Superintendent stated that 'before the system was siarted he had quite a file of small accident reports on his desk every day; now that the bonus is in operation he seldom has any, c24
In system No. 1, the lorries are single-manned, and are sent from the London garage to collect goods from various districts in the London area: If they return at any time up to noon, they are allowed. to deliver the same day to a distanee of 40 miles, but for every hour after noon this distance is reduced by 0 miles, so that the drivers will not be home too late ; that is to say, if a vehicle returns at two o'cloek it will only be sent out a distance of 20 thiles. These single-manned vehicles deliver to the country garages, but they do not deliver from the latter.
If there is time to load for London at their terminal points, they return to London the same day. If not, they stop the night and load next day before returning to town.
In system No. 2, the vehicles load in London during the day, and as they return to the garage in Bishopsgate, they are petroled up and greased, and made up into three convoys, which are parked up until the evening. These convoys leave at half-hour intervals, commencing at A p.m., and each lorry has a fresh driver. • Each of the three convoys consists of from six to 15 vehicles; and each has as its destination one of the three country garages.
Each convoy is accompanied by a fitter mounted on a motorcycle and by a guard who rides in the rear vehicle, -and is provided with a pedal bicycle. It is the duty of each fitter to see that the convoy is kept in order, to. prevent stragglers being left behind, and to attend to any minnr repairs which may be necessary. If anything goes wrong which the fitter cannot repair, he instructs the guard in the rearmost vehicle to mount his cycle and to telephone or wire from the nearest point to the Control in London, stating full particulars of the breakdown and where it has occurred.
At the same time that the oonvoys start, from London similar convoys start from the country depots. and when they meet, the fitters in charge of the convoys from London band them over to the fitters in charge of the convoys from the country garages, and take charge of the convoys from these garages, returning to London with them.
In this way the fitters always return to their respective garages, and do not have to-stay at others. On the other hand, the drivers remain in charge of the machines to which they were originally allotted, and take these right through to the country garages, which are really the centres of distribution for the particular districts in which they are situated.
On arrivalat the country garages the vehicles are looked over, petroled up, arid any small defects are attended to. Each is then provided with a driver and a van guard, and is sent out in the early morning to deliver its load within a radius of 35 miles from the country garage. It will be noted that when in convoy each vehicle is manned by a driver only, and it is not until the actual distribution of goods is commenced that a van guard is allotted.
In system No. 1, the vehicles never work in convoys, and are always manned by a driver and a van guard.
Before the system of paying by mileage was inaugurated difficulty was experienced owing to the drivers sleeping the night in their lorries, and coming n with reports of magneto trouble, etc. No such E are now received except in ,genuine cases, vhen, to prevent hardship, the drivers are paid time a,tes if the cause of breakdown is due to failure of material and not to lack of care on the part of the driver.
The Ipswich and Elmswell garages are aerodromes, and for the men who stay there during the night sleeping, accommodation and, a mess-room are
provided in the officers' old quarters. Each man draws andosigns for blankets and a pillow, his signature being cancelled when these are returned in ,the morning. Outside contractors have 'provided canj teens on the premises, and meals, tobacco, etc., can be obtained from these. In London, a portion of a Salvation Army hostel has been -taken over by the company for the use of their drivers; whilst at Cambridge the men have to find accommodation in the town. All the drivers who have to stay away from home are allowed a certain amount for expenses and for sleeping accommodation, and when provided with accommodation by the Company is. is deducted from this amount.
The Control system is simple but highly efficient. In
a small sanctum is situated, on a wall, a large board carrying as many hooks as there are lorries. On each of these hooks is hung a. card denoting the exact state of a lorry at any moment: Each hook is numbered, and its card bears the same number. A blank card denotes that the lorry is available for service. If the lorry is on loan to another department a " loan " card is hung on the hook. If under load, awaiting the road, an" under load" card is used ; if proceeding from London, a " clown " card, and if coming up to London, an "up" card. Similar cards are used for lorries under repair and for breakdowns.
The operation of the Control continues day and night from seven o'clock on Monday morning until noon on theyfoliowing Sunday, and it is manned each day by three shifts of controllers.
We will suppose that a start is being made on the Monday morning. Orders came into the London commercial department during the day, and at 5 p.m. a statement is sent up to the Control showing what loads are available and for where. The Control immediately advises the country commercial departments, which are attached to the res.peetive garages to which the loads are consigned, what is being loaded for them on the following day. The country coinmercial departments then know what return loads must be arranged accordingly, arid they have between 24 and 36 hours in which to pre
pare them.
As the loaded convoys leave the London garage the Control sends a second telephone naessage to the country commercial departments saying that the lorries have left for them, at the same time the Control sends telegram's to the railway stations concerned. The reason foe,wiring the railway stations is that way-bills have to be made out at the beginning of each trip, as the lorries are actually replacing ,trucks, and the railway system must be followed in order to -conform with the systeria of accounting. In the same -way, whenever lorries leave a country garage for London, the commercial department or station advises the Control either by telephone or telegram.
In the case of a breakdown, we have already mentioned that the fitter communicates with the Control. The Control immediately advises the garag& nearest to the breakdown, and gives lull details • of .1.Nnhat assistance' is required. • It will be Seen that the Control. is practically news propagandist in addition to orderinglorry movements. The information if has is sent to where that information is .useful. In the same way all other useful information is sent to, the Control, whiCh thus' keeps in touch with the repairs, and knows 'the exact
condition of every vehicle at any time: '
It should be noted that lorries working on the convoy system (that,-is, No. 2 system), between garage and garage, become System 1 lorries for the purpose of loading and unloading 'after they have actually reached the garage to which they are consigned, The fleet of vehicles consists of the following makes r A.E.C., Hanford, and Peerless. Two repair shops are provided, one at Elrnswell and. the other at Bishopsgate, and the lorries are docked at least once every six weeks for examination and small repairs. At Elmswell is situated a travelling workshop fitted up on a Peerless lorry, and this can, when necessary, proceed to where
extra assistance may be required.
At Bishopsgate some arches under the railway are utilized as a garage with accommodation for 70 vehicles. A 10,000-gallon Bowser petrol tank is installed, whilst at the Cambridge garage is a 3,000-gallon Bralay tank.
Although this fleet has not been running very long the garage is already fitted up with a fine, clean mess-room, a drivers' kit store, and a lamp roam. Every lorry carries a card on which spaces are left for the dates on which the lorry has been oiled, and at the bottom of this card are also spaces for the dates on which the lorry has been examined. In order to ob
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lain petrol, lubricating oil, etc., the driver has to hand in a signed demand note showing the exact amounts required. Every driver when booking on for his turn of duty is provided with a road bill, which has to be filled up and signatures obtained at the beginning and end of each Journey, so that the correct mileage can be ascertained. This road bill when completed is handed to the foreman of the garage to which the driver is attached.
A driver's equipment sheet is also issued to each driver when he takes over a lorry. He signs a certificate on this sheet as to the articles which are handed over to him, and he is responsible for any deficiencies which may occur after. These sheets have to be initialled by the ramp man and a checker at the garage, otherwise the foreman, to whom the vehicle is eventually handed over will not complete the certificate which he gives in his turn, and the driver will be requested to refund the cost of any deficiency. The headquarters spare part stores are also conveniently situated at the Bishopsgate garage, and can thus be kept under direct observation and up to date.
A vehicle,of particular interest is being employed as a garage general duty lorry at the Bishopsgate garage ; this is a vehicle which was built by the Great Eastern Railway in 1905 to be used as a motor omnibus. During the railway strike in October, • 1919, t his machine, fitted Nvith
lorry body, ran regularly between Romford and London, conveying members of the staff. The vehicle has now been converted into a platform lorry, and appears still to have several
Top—Loaded vehicles parking up to form one of the convoys. Bottom— more years of Part of the garage for 70 lorries at Bishopsgata. Arches under the useful service be