Operators Know Your Costs
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New Tables Costs and Char lute an Aid lo S Embody Latest ges and Consti. ettling Disputes
NEVER, in the 34 years since their first publication, ha v e " The Commercial Motor" Tables of Operating Costs been so appreciated; never before have we had so many requests, almost demands, for a new and up-todate edition.
A standard with which operators may compare their own costs has always been requisite: to-day it is an urgent necessity, no less than a yardstick by which charges may be measured. For all those years this publication has been that standard, that yardstick. Now, when costs fluctuate so rapidly, when there are so ,many disputes about charges, its usefulness is more than ever apparent.. The latest edition, published this week and on sale from these offices and bookstalls, embodies figures for costs and charges based, first of all, let us emphasize, on known data, culled from practical experience of everyday use, relating to fuel and oil consumption, tyre wear, depreciation, etc., brought up to date as regards the current cost of these commodities, including presentday prices of new vehicles, so far as they are ascertainable. The cost of maintenance, too, is calculated on the basis of the day-to-day experience of users, having regard to the increasing age of the vehicles in use, the growing cost of spares and the rising wages of mechanics and fitters.
New Tables Costs and Char lute an Aid lo S
Users and Officials Appreciate Value The requests for this new and up-to-'date edition of the Tables, delayed in production, let us state, because of the paper situation, have come not only from operators but from Government Departments. In fact, a Department of the Ministry of War Transport was actually given extracts from the figures before they were in the hands of the printer.
One of the reasons why operators are so anxious to have available for reference these latest figures of average costs is no doubt the recent spate of cancellations of agreements on rates. We have in mind two in particular: the Air Ministry cancellation of the agreement on sand and ballast haulage and of that on the carriage of packed aircraft. The latter is obsolete, we are told, because the traffic is now carried by the M.O.W.T. Road Haulage Organization. The ostensible reason for cancelling the sand and ballast agree ment has not, so far as we are aware, been disclosed; what we do know is that the Ministry is entering into contracts with individuals and is driving some exceedingly hard bargains. Operators are finding the need for facts and figures to justify their fair and reasonable charges when, as is happening, they submit their cases to the Regional Traffic Commissioner for arbitration.
It might be thought that there was some Misunderstanding here, having in mind the fact that, in cases for arbitration, the R.T.C. is concerned with only the operator's own figures for cost, and is, accordingly, not usually willing to accept outside estimates. In point qf fact, hauliers find "The Commercial Motor" Tables of Operating Costs helpful on these occasions, usually on one or other of two grounds, but sometimes on both of them.
Minority of Users Keep i Detail Records In the first place, a minority only of operators keeps comprehensive and detail records of operating costs. They have some data, but are not sure if the figures they have are set out in the way which is most likely to be helpful to them. In such cases it is the form of the Tables rather than the figures which is useful. The haulier uses the Tables as a check upon the completeness of his figures, to see that he has properly provided for every item.
Sometimes it is impossible for complete data to be collated : this is liable to happen when the dispute relates to a contract which has only recently commenced, or is so short as to make it impossible to present comprehensive figures of cost. When putting in a claim, for example, relating to a month on a special job, neither cost of maintenance nor of tyres can be ascertained. In such cases the operator may well take the figures in the Tables as being a fair approximation to actuality, and does so, usually with success.
Nevertheless, we must once more emphasize that the figures in these Tables are averages: they are not put forward .arbitrarily as being what it must cost to run the type or size of vehicle to which they refer. Tipping wagons, for example, engaged on road construction work and loading into new building sites may be expected to cost 20 per cent. more for maintenance and as much as 50 per cent. more for tyres. Vehicles with expensive bodywork, such as furniture vans, cost more for maintenance and depreciation chiefly because of the cost of the body, its repair and paintwork. On the other hand, a plain platform type of lorry, engaged on mediumto longdistance haulage on trunk roads, will cost less than the average on account of tyres, maintenance and depreciation.
It must not be overlooked, either, that maintenance and depreciation costs are to some extent interdependent: A vehicle'which is kept in service for longer than is justified by the amount quoted for depreciation is likely to cost more, on • the whole, for maintenance. In that connection, too, it should be borne in mind that there is a maintenance item which does not appear, that is the cost of the idle vehicle, idle because it is off the road for maintenance and repair operations, which grow ever more frequent as the machine ages.
If applied to average every-day conditions, the Tables will be found sufficiently accurate for use in making estimates, as well as being a check on actual records. We do take some pride in the fact that many operators use them in preference to keeping their own data, although that is not a course which we would recommend.
Danger of Hooter Confusion ?
wE ;must congratulate Klaxon, Ltd., upon the compelling and gratuitous advertisement which has been given to its products by Mr. Herbert Morrison. Possibly, in referring to the giving of warnings of the near presence of flying bombs by means of the Klaxon instrument, he was not referring so much to any particular make„ but to the device as a type.
One difficulty strikes us as being the risk of confusion between the warning proper and others of a imilar kind given by motor vehicles. When many older vehicles have been saved from the scrapheap to perform further duty, it may well be that some at least of these carry types. of Klaxon horn, regarding the sounds from which mistakes may conceivably arise. That the warning given is emphatic and in other respects satisfactory cannot be doubted, but is Mr. Morrison considering the question of forbidding the use of similar-toned. instruments on motor vehicles? If he does not, the risk may remain; if he does make a regulation to this effect, it may cause a considerable amount of bother, and the substitution of another form of warning device on the vehicles concerned will be difficult in these days of short supply.
As we write, a Klaxon warning has sounded from a neighbouring building, and was assumed by some people in our office as being a warning from a vehicle. That was immediate and unsolicited proof as to.the risk involved.