Problems of
Page 63
Page 64
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
THE HAULIER
AND CARRIER
IT is most important to keep in mind certain essential features of this method of keeping account of the operating cost of commercial vehicles. In the first place, it should be emphasized that it is designed for the use of owner-drivers and for those who have more than one vehicle, but who are only poorly acquainted with the business of account-keeping and who, therefore, desire above all things that the system which is suggested to them shall be simple and as free as possible from complication.
The principal object of the system is the safeguarding of the haulier against the sins of omission, of omission to record certain items of cost, to his ultimate embarrassment, when, at some more or less distant period, he begins automatically to assess his profit and
loss account and to find that whereas he thought he was making a profit he was really incurring a loss.
Another feature of the system, hardly second in importance to the foregoing, is that it enables the haulier to ascertain, within one week of beginning to use any vehicle, what that vehicle is costing him per mile and per week. It presents that information to him at least once per week and never lets him forget it. Then, like all proper systems of costing, it serves as a regular check upon his operating expenses in that, by indicating to him, each week, the actual cost per mile during that period, it at once discovers any unusual increase in cost, at once calling his attention to it and permitting rectification before the loss involved can become serious.
In this system there are four books of which only one, that which I am at present considering, calls for c41 any extensive amount of clerical work and even that does not mean more than a few minutes' work each day.
This is the book in which actual records of operating costs are made. One such ledger is required for each vehicle, it being quite impossible to keep proper accounts of more than one machine at a time in the one book. The setting out of the fly-leaf was detailed in the previous article of this series. It embodies all the basic information about the machine to which the book refers, its size, make, capacity, registered number and many other items of information.
These are also summarized in such a form that they provide actual figures of cost, per week or per mile, as the case may be, in connection with the following items :—Licence, garage rent and rates, insurance, interest, depreciation, tyres and maintenance. The figures are given in such form that they can be used each week in the regular pages of the book in the way which I am about to describe.
Making the Entries.
The haulier reading these notes will have observed that already, in the fly-leaf of his book, there is information concerning seven out of the 10 items of cost which are enumerated in The Commercial Motor Tables of Operating Costs, leaving only three, namely, fuel, lubricants and wages, still to be accounted for.
Of these the first two are running costs and the reason for making provision for daily entries concerning them may be obvious. Wages, however, as a standing charge, might have been thought suitable for inclusion amongst the items on the fly-leaf. In fact, as most 'of my readers are aware, the actual amounts of wages paid to drivers vary from week to week, being affected either by overtime worked or by bonus paid on work done. Where neither of these conditions prevails the amount of the driver's weekly wage may also be entered on the fly-leaf, in company with the other items already mentioned and treated as they are treated.
There is one other important piece of information which must on no account be missed and that is the mileage covered each day. Where much of the • work that is done is on contract of time as well as, or instead of, mileage, a note of the hours worked must also be kept. I have made provision for this in the schedule.
Table II shows how the page of this account book should be ruled and Table III is a sample page completed. The figures relate to the vehicle, particulars of which were given in the previous article and enumerated in the table showing the fly-leaf.
Each page of the book is set out to represent one week. There is one division for each day, with provision for entering up the speedometer reading at the end of the day, the petrol, oil and grease used, and the hours worked. The mileage covered must also be entered ; it can be, ascertained by subtracting the speedometer reading of the previous day from that which is current.
At first glance.the table may seem to be rather a formidable document—anything but the simple form which
I have promised. Actually there is hardly anything in it for the owner to do. He has, at the most, five entries per day to make, namely, the speedometer reading, the hours worked, the petrol consumed, oil used and, if any, the grease used. The last item will probably need entry only once per week.
At the end of the week, on the Saturday evening, the summary at the bottom of the page will need working out. It can be done in 10 minutes. When completed the owner can see at a glance whether or not the rates he is charging be showing him any profit.
If every haulier completes this page for a few weeks he will soon realize the wisdom not only of making a habit of it but of revising his charges in an upward direction. With these records before him there will be no haulier who will charge as does one with whom I have been brought into contact. This man charges 5id.
per mile for a 5-ton lorry carrying six tons S.T.R.