Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1918 [PAGE 535]

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1917}

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

529

I enclose a letter from Mr. Morey with reference to the service that such a truck would be in his work. In connection with our operating work we desire to be ° able to have workmen and janitors telephone to the store room for their supplies instead of making trips back during working hours to obtain the materials and tools they need. In order to find out what this would mean in dollars and cents an investigation was made during the week ending July 28, 1917, to determine the amount and cost of time consumed of the men that have to return to the store room and tool room at the Power Plant during the day to secure materials with which to continue their work. At best such an investigation can be only an approximation wherein certain assumptions must be made to permit of conclusions. T o arrive at some results the actual material tickets turned in to the store room at times other than at 8:00 a. m. and 1:00 p. m. were used. T h e job to which this ticket referred was located and the distance of that job from the store room was approximated. Then on the basis of a travel rate of a mile in twenty minutes and the wage rate of the man who signed the material ticket, the cost of the time lost was calculated. The same procedure was followed for tools. N o consideration was given to the time lost by delays at the store room nor the time lost, occasioned by the stopping and starting of work on account of the trip. The Business Office for the same period made a survey of their delivery situation and, estimated that by automobile delivery the time of one boy at $2.00 per day could be saved. T h e estimated savings per day expressed in dollars from the various sources due to delivery of materials by a service truck directly to the workman are Tools $ 2.50 Carpenters 1.25 Concrete workmen 55 Electricians 1.10 Janitors .... 3- 2 ° Painters 2.00 Plumbers 340 T. Miscellaneous . 1.10 Business Office supplies 2.00 $17.10 Loss for one year of 300 days ,...,. $5130.00 Probable cost of operating and maintaining a Ford Service Truck for one year 2780.00 Saving $2350.00 This has led me to a consideration of the time lost by the men in my office traveling around to different buildings, and it has impressed me espe-