Graeme Wall wrote:
> In message <4AU$Ve8nG+vIFA12@
perry.co.uk>
> Roland Perry
perry.co.uk> wrote:
> >> In message <0001HW.C4E57C4201868CC7F0407648@
news.eclipse.co.uk>, at
>> 11:51:30 on Thu, 4 Sep 2008, Stimpy
yahoo.com> remarked:>>>> John Williamson
btinternet.com> gurgled happily, sounding
>>>> much like they were saying:
>>>>>>>>> The amount invested in buying the lorry, counted against (I'd guess) a
>>>>> quarter of that value of boat using about a quarter of the fuel per ton
>>>>> changes the figures a bit.
>>>> Umm, one boat might be cheaper than a wagon (but I'd doubt it), but you'd
>>>> need a LOT more than one boat - after all, one wagon can do a good dozen
>>>> or more deliveries in the same time as one boat can.
>>> Mmm... presumably, to get a single (say) 40 ton delivery a day from
>>> London to Birmingham, you'd need 10 boats?
>> Good point. For the investment in boats to half the amount as lorries,
>> they'd need to be 1/20th price.
>>
>> (Assuming a lorry and a boat carry the same weight/volume, which is
>> close enough for a sum such as this).
>
> What is the working load of a narrow boat?
>
Depending on type of boat & depth of canal, from 18 tons in a motor boat
to 30 plus for a butty. Standard 72 foot length & 6 foot 10 inch width
assumed, with a metre of draught available (About the normal depth of a
lock sill on a narrow canal). Also assuming normal construction using steel.
Cost to buy per boat, about £25,000 for the motor boat, about £18 to
20,000 for the butty, new build hulls, ready to use, using pleasure boat
costings. Commercial would probably be slightly cheaper, as the pleasure
boat hulls include a full length roof over the cabin, although the
commercial hulls use thicker steel. So, to move 40 plus tons (2 fully
laden 38 tonners, near enough) on a good canal, it'd cost £45,000 in
capital, spread over at least 3 times the life of the average lorry.
(I'm guessing a new 38 tonne lorry is about £175,000 on the road.) A 38
tonner does about 6 mpg, a narrowboat about the same with a butty
attached, moving twice the weight. My earlier envelope lied slightly.
Dry docking & painting takes a week or so with 4 or 5 people working on
the boat, the engines run for a year between major services, with
regular oil & filter changes, & you're using tax free diesel at the
moment. The hull will last over 25 years with normal care. The engine
will normally last about 5 years between rebuilds, but 50 isn't unknown.
Cabin refits are every few years, & cost upwards of 2000 depending on
the specification.
As`far as number of deliveries goes, a lorry can legally do about twelve
return trips in t days from London to Birmingham, taking loading time
into account, before you need to be employing 2 drivers. So one lorry
replaces 6 pairs of boats, roughly. For a local trip within Birmingham
or London, (if you stay on the waterway network), for instance, the boat
can do almost as many trips as the lorry, as most of the time is waiting
for loading & unloading. On this trip, a single boat would carry as much
as a single articulated lorry per day, ignoring the option to dump a
trailer & go back for another one, but then again, you can, as used to
be the case in Birmingham, use a tug & 2 or 3 boats. 30 horsepower
moving a hundred tons or more at 4 miles per hour.
--
Tciao for Now!
John.
