COMMERCIAL MOTORS FOR MUNICIPALITIES.
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Smile Opinions Based Upon an Extensive Experience Gained in Conducting the Cleansing Work of an Important City.
By Capt. F. W. Cable, A.111.1.C.E., Chief of Highways Department, Westminster City Council.
THERE IS probably no more vexed question at the present time than the respective values of particular types of mechanically driven vehicles for use in connection with municipal work.
Horse transport is dying a natural death, and, however much one may care for horses, it is obvious that the day of the horse in this sphere is over ; that only people who wilfully shut their eyes to the comparative values of the two types can be found to contest the point. • At the moment, the horse just holds its own tor a radial transportation of about i mile, but, even in this case, if the transportation authority employs mechanically driven vehicles as well, it .means the provision of separate establishments and personnel, which entails overhead charges far in excess of the saving in actual running costs. I often wonder what argument would be brought forward by advocates of the horse if they were asked why, in the olden days, oxen were superseded by horses.
Before proceeding to a comparison between vehicles of different types for municipal work, I should like most emphatically to state that it is quite impossible to lay down a hard and fast rule as to whether petrol, electric, petrol-electric, steam or any .other type is the most suitable in all municipalities. Local conditions are mainly the deciding factor.
In the first place, it is necessary to consider how far the ratepayers are prepared to pay for a luxury as against a necessity.
The Economic Point in Refuse Collection.
By this I mean that in all municipal transport (except bus or tramway service) tho main work of transport is " house refuse collaction. There is a certain point—the economic static point. If refuse is not Collected sufficiently often to safeguard public health, although there may be a saving in the actual cost of collection, this is more than counterbalanced by the loss of health to the community, which, after all, should be the predominating interest, and one which cannot be translated into definite ffgures owing to its illimitable results.
The other side of the picture is the provision of means of collection, not justified by necessity and quite beyond the economic powers of the municipality. In this case a council is in exactly the same position as a company spending money beyond its means.
In writing this article I did not wish to refer to the particular council whose transport I supervise, but, in explanation of the points above referred to,
I think perhaps it would he interesting to your readers to know that Westminster has 100 miles of streets and, as is well known' these streets contain houses, restaurants, theatre, Government buildings, etc., throughout practically their entire length. Westminster during the day and evening has an enormous floating population, and it would be actually injurious to the health not only of the inhabitants, but of the day and evening population, if the collection of house refuse were to proceed during the whole of the day ; it has, therefore, been decided that the collection should proceed only between the hours of 5 am. and 10.30 a.m., and that in view of the nature" of the premises a daily collection should be given.
This being the case; it is obvious that the 5-i hours available must be utilized to the utmost, qnd speed and capacity are vital factors in the maintaining of an efficient service.
• To meet this situation, the fleet of motors has been Selected from makers who could show: (1)Reliability, (2) service for spares., (3) speed and capacity, (4) low running costs. Although these four items are very important for all municipalities, it is true that in many cases the order of these points would, from an economic point of view, be altered, and certainly No 4 would not take the lowest place, although it should not be allowed to assume supreme importance.
It is, I believe, a fact that the only city in the world that gives a regular daily collection is Westminster, but -that is not necessarily because the Westminster City Council is organizing its collection better than other municipalities, but only because it, by reason of its peculiar position, has to meet a situation not encountered by other authorities.
The fewer collections per week carried out the nearer one arrives at the cenditions where the horse survives.
Most big cities nave a daily collection over their central area or main streets, the remainder being semi-weekly or weekly, whereas urban councils or rural councils collect weekly in their town or village areas, and as and when necessary elsewhere. I cannot too strongly call attention to the advisability of carrying out an intensive collection of reluse where possible, not only on account of the obvious advantages of collecting during as few hours as possible, but also by reason of the opportunity of using the vehicles on a double shift, the second shift being utilized for the transport of road materials, etc., with a corresponding reduction in overhead charges per hour of work done.
Electricity versus Petrol.
Let me now touch for one moment on the question of electric versus petrol lorries for municipal work. I have recently been able to conduct a running test with a representative of the Orwell Electric Vehicles (Mr. Makower) in Westminster—a report thereon was given in the discussion on a paper read before the Road Congress by Mr. Ayton.
The figures necessarily were not wholly conclusive, as peculiar conditions apply at Westminster ; however, certain results were obtained which were published and may have been of some use to those contemplating the purchase of municipal motors. For the benefit of your readers I give the figures here.
The above figures show an advantage of 2d. a ton in favour of the petrol vehicle, but in applying them generally it should be noted that conditions at Westminster are exceptional, particularly in so far as the lorry obtains a full load with comparatively few stops and starts.
The figures were obtained by the two vehicles operating in taking the house refuse for the same area in two consecutive weeks, and it will be noted that the electric vehicle completed the work at a cost of £11 6s. 6d., as against 212 2s. for the other.
C24 Furthermore, in applying these figures to other districts, it should be noted that the City of Westminster is in the favourable position of purchasing petrol at is. 94d, per gallon, and that electric power is in many places procurable at lid, per unit instead of 2d.
The question of the radius of action of an electric vehicle on one charge of the battery does not arise under the conditions usually appertaining to house refuse collection where the daily mileage is comparatively low. (Signed) F. W. CAnra, A.M.I.C.E., Highways Department,
Westminster City Council. A. J. MAKOWER, M.I.E.E.,
On behalf of Mossay and Co., Ltd.
These figures proved to my satisfaction that electries were not suitable for the area under my control, but, as I stated before, that is no reason why they should not. be a paying proposition elsewhere, and the figures can only be of use to others as a basis on which to make investigations for any particular town.
Steam lorries are not being used to the same extent as they were a few years ago, and the reason for this is, I think, mainly the question of speed, loss of time in starting, drawing fires at the end of the day, and, to a lesser extent, the objection generally held to any vehicle emitting smoke and cinders while proceeding along a highway. Nevertheless, steamers are, without question, a very sound proposition for certain classes of municipal work, where they are employed in conveying materials for road construction in the country and time is not of the greatest importance.
I have had many discussions with representatives of steam lorry firms, and they almost always claim that a steamer can travel as fast as any commercial vehicle is permitted to travel according to law. This may be true, but I have the sincerest sympathy with the man in charge of the repairs of a fleet of steamers if they are driven over some country roads at the same rate as a petrol lorry could safely proceed. Personally, I consider the chances of "a, steam lorry being under repair (and by that I mean the slightest repair as well as the serious one) to be far greater than a petrol lorry.
The Composition of a Municipal Fleet.
The question of the actual composition of a municipal fleet, whether it be petrol, steam, electric or other power, is a very important item.. Some authorities choose to have all their units of one capacity ; others have half of, say, 3-4-ton vehicles and half of 2-2-ton or 30-cwt. units.
I have always made it a ,practice when providing machinery, in engineering works, to ; divide the units of power so as to obviate, so far as possible, wasting power on the one hand or multiplying units on the other hand to prevent wastage, and I am convinced there is more wastage from this source in engineering works and mechanical transport at the present day than from almost any other source.
As a general basis it will usually be found that, f.or municipal work, where the motors are used for more than one purpose, it is advisable to provide one 2-3-ton vehicle for every three 3-4-ton vehicles. This will provide in Most cases a sufficient number of small units to do work of a light nature where a larger vehicle would travel with an incomplete load.
A further point in connection with the fleet i's to standardized so far as possible. Standardization is the key to efficiency and, if any authority has many different males of lorries represented, they must keep a very large supply of spares, which would be quite unnecessary if they had standardized on one or two makes.
At the present time the most interesting feature of the motor situation is the production and use of
the tractor-lorry. I shall be interestedin seeing what position this vehicle will take in the next few years. The trailer never has been a satisfactory propOsitiOn, but it has served a very useful purpose, and it may be that the tractor-lorry will solve the problem.
At the present moment I can see one definite use•for this type of chassis, where it can. havenocom-:
petitor—that is as a street-watering or flushing vehicle.
A tractor-lorry chassis is capable of taking a tank of 2,000 gallons capacity, as against, the usual -756 gallons on a 3-4-ton chassis, and-the saving in using a conveyance of this type for watering roads in the immediate vicinity, of a town where there are no hydrants available is too obvious to need eitiphasis. Furthermore, many roads which, have hitherto been left unwatered and are nothing more nor less than dust tracks in hot weather will come within the range of the watering lorry, and so ratepayers who for years past have paid for something they n'ever had
may come into their own.
Gully-emptiers have of late been very much to the front. I have tried many makes, and I must admit the one that gave the best results was a steamer, but not one has proved more economical than hand-emptying in Westminster, owing to the nature of the paving which results in the detritus in the gullies solidifying and, consequently, a continual breaking of the vacuum of tthe gully-emptiers when the operation is being carried out. I believe, however, this does not apply elsewhere, saidthere is undoubtedly a great opening for this plass of machine in districts where cesspools are still in existence.
Road-sweeping machines have been placed en the market in increasing-numbers during the past few years, and there are several types which find favour with different authorities.
There is one machine in particular which sweeps and collects the sweepings with success, but even this is open to improvement, there being an insufficiency of water, such supply as there is being delivered on to the road so near the collecting brush as to render it ineffective.
The machine Is, therefore, liable to become a nuisance in dry weather in disturbing the dust. If, however, a water-cart precedes the sweeper and collector, a most efficient means of keeping-the road clean is attained.
There are other machines which simply sweep the roads; the mud, etc., going towards the channel. do not consider this a practical proposition, because the sweepings must still have to be further swept along and collected by manualiabour.
Taxation of municipal vehicles is a very vexed question-. Many authorities consider that all refuse vehicles should be exempt. I never:quite sea why any vehicle should be exempt, for it only complicates matters, and local government, is, after all, only work delegated to local bodies by the national government. The taxes go to the commafund.
Why a fire-engine should be exempt am] a refusecollecting lorry taxed is one of those complex points too subtle for the average man's brains.
In England at the present time there are seven or eight firms making lorries of such eiteellence_ that there is practically nothing to choose between them, and, therefore, as a purchaser, I am guided very largely in advising my committee by the service provided in case of spares or repairs if either is outside the range of the council's workshops. As I believe my opinion is shared by many municipal Officials, it behoves -manufacturers to provide immediate and good service.
I will now, speaking simplyas a user, give a, word of advice to motor manufacturers, and that is—Do not try and make one chassis perform too many duties. It is very much ,like the pocket-knives that used to be sold (mainly to office-clerks) which would do everything from sharpening a pencil very indifferently to taking a stone out of a horse's shoe with exquisite pain to the equine victim. If an authority wants to buy one motor to convey materials for road construction, to empty gullies, to water the streets, and even to serve as a fire-engine, sell them two or three chassis, because if they have not the knowledge to see that one type is not sufficient for all purposes you must teach them. Just a word on the " slump" before closing. I hope all manufacturers will keep a good heart. There are no lorries better than the best English lorries and things will surely soon come right.