Incomplete Inquiries Make Difficult Problems
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IHAVE, from time to time in these articles, emphasized the importance of inquirers giving me as much information as they possibly can when they ask for assistance. In the first place, the absence of some essential item involves not only the need on my part to write for that information, but it means delay in reaching the final conclusion and giving the operator the answer he desires. It so happens that recently I have received two inquiries of this nature, both of them of such general interest as to justify my dealing with them at length. There is in these two cases the additional difficulty, not -by any means unknown, that the inquirers have not replied to my letters asking for the desired additional data. That not only means that they are not going to get a reply, but that I have gone to some trouble to no purpose.
One of these inquiries related to goods haulage, the other to passenger transport.
The first concerned the conveyance.of flax. The operator stated that one of the difficulties with this material was that it was bulky. He likened it to " wheat in sheaves," and certain particular problems, to which I shall shortly refer, arose from this peculiarity of the load.
The interestingpoint about this inquiry was that the operator was so precise and definite as retards some of his figures Ile told me that he was using a 10-ton, petrolengined. rigid six-wheeler, even specifying the name of the maker. He told me that it was consuming a gallon of petrol for every six miles of running, which is interesting. It happens to be slightly more than the average figure quoted in " The Commercial Motor " Tables of Operating Costs.
He advised me that, although he was in actual fact working outside London, circumstances were such that he was paying the driver the London rate of wages. The time taken to load the vehicle, he said, depended to some extent upon the assistance the driver was given, but could be taken as five hours.
Nature of the Load influenced the Running Time Because of the bulky nature of the load he had fitted the vehicle with extensions over the driver's cab and beyond the tailboard. Notwithstanding this the width of the load was 2 ft. in excess of the normal width of the vehicle, which necessitated some care in travelling, chiefly because of the necessity of giving more than the usual consideration to other vehicles on the road. Furthermore, the height of the load, from the platform of the vehicle, was 13 ft. 4 ins. This really made the vehicle top-heavy and inclined to roll, and these two circumstances—the need for extra consideration for other road users and the top. heaviness of the load—considerably slowed down travelling time so. that on the loaded journey, at least, this was considerably in excess bf the normal. He advised me that there were two routes over which he was working, starting from a point A: one to B. 40 miles distant, the other to C, 80 miles distant. The working day, he said, was from 7.30 a.m. to 9 p.m.. five days per week.
He mentioned further that the duration of the job was eight weeks, so that he had to make provision for only this period out of the year. He asked me what charge he ought to make.
The most important item upon which information was lacking was the time needed to unload. Repeated requests by telephone brought no reply: the operator, apparently. was out all day and although I left messages he took no notice of them.
Another item of information which I deemed desirable was the time allowed to the driver for rest and refreshment in the course of the day. To work from 7.30 a.m. to 9 p.m. without a break, apart from being illegal, is not what one would expect to continue for eight weeks, on end, even if the week were limited to five days.
It would have -helped me considerably if he had stated the number of journeys he was able to make per week over either distance, or over the two, run, perhaps, alternatively or irregularly. I could not, however, obtain that informa tion. Finally he gave me no indication of the weight carried per load.
In view of this lack of data I have not been able to give him a direct answer. To take alternatives and work the problem out in full, making such assumptions as I could, would make the matter too much to deal with in the course of a letter.
The Danger of Assuming Times and Loads H I were to make some rash assumptions as to time for unloading, for rest and refreshment for the driver and weight per load, it is quite possible that I might make suggestions for rates which would prove rtiinous to hint or, alternatively, be so high as to seem ridiculous to his customer who would accordingly reject them and both parties would be involved in a prolonged discussion and argument as to the bill to be paid.
In view of my inability to deal with the problem sufficiently briefly to answer the inquiry by letter, I propose to handle it at length in this article.
I will begin by assuming a time for unloading which I should imagine is not sufficient, namely, one hour. In that event I shall have to make provision for six-hour terminals (five hours loading and one hour unloading) and five hours for doing the double journey of 40 miles each way. In assessing travelling time at five hours I am taking into consideration the fact that the nature of the load makes it difficult to travel at any reasonable speed, and I am assuming that it takes three hours for the outwkrd journey with the load and two hours return.
The time for the round journey is thus II hours, and 1 am taking it that those are the actual working hours of the driver, leaving the other hour and a half for rest, refreshment ahd so on.
Referring to Table VII in " The Commercial Motor " Tables of Operating Costs, I find that the standing charges per week for a vehicle of this capacity should be £9 19s, 6d. As the wages in this case are a special item. I deduct the amount set down in the tables for wages, namely. £4 18s.. which leaves me £5 Is, 6d.
To that I add wages for 56 hours per week according to the scale for London drivers, and that is £5 17s. 2id. I also add 5s. per week to cover insurances and provision for holidays with pay. The total, so far, is £11 3s. 81d.
His establishment costs are likely to be somewhat below the average because I gather that he is a man in a small way of business, and I will assume that they are £4 Os. 30.. thus bringing my total of fixed charges to the nice round sum of £15 4s. per week.
If he is doing five journeys pet week of 80 miles each he is covering 400 miles per week, and the running costs for a vehicle of this type covering that distance each week is quoted in the Tables as 10.81d. per mile. The total running costs per week are 400 times that 'amount, which is £18 Os. 4d., so that his grand total comes to £33 4s. 9d For the foregoing cost he carries five loads, so that his cost per load is approximately £6 13s. According to data in my possession, flax weighs approximately 90 to 95 lb. per cubic ft., and on this lorry he
,,eems to be carrying 2,100 to 2,200 cubic ft. It appears to me, therefore, that his load is likely to approximate to 8 tons, so that his net cost per ton, on the basis of the above assumptions, is 17s.
Now suppose I make a more reasonable estimate as to the time needed to unload. I do not think it would be so
long as the loading time because the load is now presumably being thrown downwards instead of upwards, and assuming that there is approximately the same amount of assistance given to the driver, then I should think three hours is a fair estimate of the time needed. It will be seen at once that we are now in some difficulty as compared with what would have been the case had one hour been sufficient to unload, for, in the previous example, it has been shown that to load, travel the outward journey, unload and return
takes 11 hours. So soon as that time is exceeded, and tmless the law be broken or provision made for exceeding the 11-hour day occasionally as is sometimes done, then one round journey cannot be completed in a workina° day. What is likely to happen is this: On Monday the driver will commencework. He will, with assistance, load his
vehicle in five hours, take three hours to reach the delivery point and three hours to unload. That will complete his day's work, and he will have to stay the night where the delivery is being made. On Tuesday he makes the return journey in two hours, spends five hours reloading, and a further three hours getting back to the delivery point. That is 10 hours and it is obviously too late to start unloading that night. In consequence, he puts the vehicle up and stays yet another night away from home, On the Wednesday he first unloads, taking three hours, runs back home-another two hours-and takes on another load-live hours-making 10 hours' work, and that finishes Wednesday.
On Thursday he sets out on his third journey of the week. He takes three hours to cover the 40 miles at the particularly slow speed which the nature of the load demands, takes three hours to unload and two hours to get back. There is no point in part loading the vehicle
or, at least, I should not think so,. and, therefore, for that day, he works eight hours Only and leaves the vehicle ready for reloading in the morning.
Getting Down to Tonnage and Actual Costs
On Friday he loads, taking five hours, runs to the destination, a further three hours, unloads, another three hours, and as he has now done 11 hours' work be puts up for the night. On Saturday morning he returns home in acouple of hours.
Now let us turn the above journey times and loads into tonnage and costs. We start as before with the standing charges of E9 19s. 6d., deducting the amount set down in the table for wages-44 18s.-leaving £5 Is. 6d. To that we have to add the wage for 54 hours at the London rate, which is £5 12s. 2d., also, as before, 5s. for insurances and holiday pay, giving-a total of £10 18s. 8d.
This time we have to make provision for three nights' subsistence and I propose to assess that, including some odd expenses, at £1 9s. 4d. There is still the establishment. cost figure of £4 and the total is £16 8s. per week.
He has made four round journeys of 80 miles each, that is 320 miles during the week. Now the figure for running colts in "The Commercial Motor" Tables for a vehicle of this size covering approximately 300 miles per week is actually 11.16d, per mile. Allowing for the fact that the vehicle is covering rather more than 300 miles we can take that as being 11d., and 320 miles at 11d. is £14 13s. 4d. Adding that to £16 8s. gives us a total of £31 .1s. 4d. For that he has made four journeys, so that his actual cost per
journey is £7 15s., and if a load, as I have calculated, is 8 tons, then the cost per ton is, in round figures, 19s. 6d.
That difference of two hours as between one estimate of unloading time and the other, therefore, increases the net cost of haulage by 2s. 6d. per ton, approximately, or about El for each load.
To discuss the figures for the longer journey, the 80 miles lead, and taking, first of all, that the unloading time is one hour, it is obvious that it will not be possible to complete a round journey in a day, and we must therefore proceed to a day-by-day analysis of the work done.
On Monday there will be five hours loading, five hours travelling on the outward journey, one hour unloading, a total of 11 hours, so that the driver will stay the night away.
On Tuesday he returns, taking four hours to travel and reloads in four hours, and that finishes that day's work. On Wednesday he takes five hours to travel, an hour to unload and four hours to get back home again, a total of 10 hours. On Thursday he is five hours loading, five hours travelling and an hour unloading, staying the night. On Friday he returns in four hours, loads the vehicle up, being nine hours' work, and ceages until the next Monday.
' Running and Loading Times Covering Six Days
On the next Monday he begins with a loaded vehicle, takes five hours to travel, an hour to unload and four hours to return. On Tuesday he loads in five lours, travels five hours and unloads and stays the night. On Wednesday he takes four hours to come Ktck and five hours to load and is ready to set off with a loaded vehicle on Thursday morning. On the Thursday he .travels to his destina,tion in the first five hours, unloads in an hour and is back home again on Thursday night after four-hours on the road. On Friday he starts again by loading, taking Ave hours, five hours travelling, one hour unloading, stays the night away and takes four hours on the Saturday morning to return home.
In the fortnight he has carried seven loads and has worked an average of 52 hours each week. He has also been away from home two nights each week. His bill of costs, made up on lines similar to the foregoing, comprises £5 .1s. 6d., net standing charges, that is without wages; -£5 7s. 2d. actual wages; 5s. for insurances and provision for holidays; 21 Os. 4d. for subsistence allowances and expenses and £4 for establishment costs, the total being £15 14s.
His average weekly mileage is 560 and that, according to " The Commercial Motor " Tables of Operating Costs, should be charged at 104d, per mile, which gives a total of £24 10s. for running costs. His total cost, therefore, is £40 4s. He makes 31 journeys for, that, which means that the cost per journey is approximately £11 10s. and the cost per ton £1 9s. to the nearest shilling.
Finally, we will nowconsider the longer journey and the more reasonable figure of, three hours for unloading.
Working this out as above it will be found that he can just complete three journeys from Monday to Friday inclusive, the driver working 52 hours, so that his standing charges are precisely the same as in the last 'case, that is, £15 14s. The mileage run is 480 and, at 100. per mile, that is £21. The total cost is thus £36 14s. and the net cost per journey is practically £12 5s. and the cost per ton £1 10s. 6d., again using round figures.
Owing to the seasonal nature of the work the haulier is entitled to add 25 per cent, to his costs in order to arrive at his rates. .Where the cost is 17s., therefore, he thould charge 21s. 3d. per ton; if 19s. 6d. he should charge 24s. 6d.; where it-is £1 9s. his charge should be Ai 15s.; and where the cost is £1 105. 6d. he should charge £1 17s.
S.T.R.