ADVICE FOR THE HAULAGE CONTRACTOR.
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Answers to Queries on the 'Subject of Running Costs for Light and Heavy Vehicles.
Charges for a-Petrol Five-tonner.
[4459] (Paper Makers).-The minimum charges for a 5-ton lorry are 3s. a mile, 14s. an hour, 26 per day, 233 a week ; for a 4-ton, si per cent, less than these.
Charges for Hiring Out a Five-ton Steamer.
[4460] (lluli).-The minimum charge which you should make for the hire of a 5-ton steam wagon is 28. 9d. per mile, 12s. an hour, 110s. per day, £30 5s. per week. 'This is assuming a working day of 10 hours. The additional charge for a trailer would be Is. a' mile, 45. 6d. an hour, 36s. a day, 29 18s. a week.
Running Costs for a 25-cwt. Van.
[4461] (Aldershot).-For a 25-cwt. van, the running cost would be approximately led per mile ; for a 2 to 21-tonner, roughly 111.cl. per mile ; for a, 4-tonner, is. id. per mile. From a knowledge of your own internal works cost, you should be able to decide for or against the advisability of proceeding with the contract which you have in view.
Charges for a Leyland and a Ford.
[4462] (Farnworth).-We anticipate that the Leyland you would use for your haulage work would be one of the War Office type, and in such a. case the following would be fair charges for you to make : per mile, 3s. 3d. ; per hour, 15s. ; per day, £6; per week, 232 10s. If by Ford lorry you mean one converted to carry a ton, then proper charges in such a case would be as follow :-1s. 9d. a mile, 9s. an hour, 70s. a day, 219 a week. For a Ford van, capacity 7 cwt., the charges -would be Is. 3d. a mile, 7s. ed. an hour, 52s. 6d. a day, 215 a Week.
Char-a-bancs Charges, [4463] (Bury).-We should anticipate that running
char-a-bancs in the way you suggest ought to bring you in more than 2300 a year. You will probably be able to calculate for yourself on the following basis. The running cost for a char-a-bancs, including standing charges as well as running cost, would be 18d. per mile, assuming a mileage of approximately 500 per week, which you shoulddo during the season. To pay, you ought to make a minimum of 3s. per mile run, as this, in the case of a 30 passenger -passenger char-abanes, only involves rather more than id. per mile per passenger. You will realize that a quite moderate charge would pay you if you could rely on the vehicle being filled.
Hiring Out Two and Three-tonners.
[4464] (St. 3 ohn's).--The total working cost for 2 and 3 ton lorries are 11.3d. and 14.1d. respectively per mile run and assuming about 400 miles per week. These include garage fees and insurance. The charges for the hire of such vehicles are : 2-ton, 2s. a mile, 9s. an hour, 80s. a day, 122 a week ; 3-ton, 2s. 6d. a mile, 10s. an hour, 90s. a day, 224 10s. a week. These are the minimum charges. The hiring charges which we have given you allow, in-the case .of a 2-tonrier, of is. per Mile over and above the working cost of the wagon, so that in order to make a profit of 212 per week on. this cost alone, you would have to run at least 240 miles profitably per week. You must remember, however, that out of ,this this 21,2 will have to come sueli other overhead charges whiedi cannot be stated to be working costs of the wagon, such as rent for any office you may take, postage, advertising, telephones, and other sundry expenses so that you ought to be able to reckon on at least 300 miles a week to make sufficient'profit for it to .pay you.
Running Costs for a One-tonner. [4465] (Poplar).-The running costs of a I-ton wagon, on a basis of 100 miles per day, and covering the following items, fuel, lubricant, tyres, maintenance, depreciation, driver, rent and rates, insurance and interest on first cost, is 9.04d. per mile.
Haulage Work with a 30-cwt. Lorry.
[4406] (Avonmouth).-The idea of your going in for transport and haulage work after the.war is quite a good one. There -will be considerable competition, but on the, other hand there is _plenty of scopes We take it that you have, in deciding upon 30 cwt. as the capacity of the lorry, taken into account the special features which will obtain in your ease. For general haulage work with only one lorry, a vehicle with a little bigger capacity is usually advisable. The Napier is quite a good choice.
The running costs of a 30-cwt. lorry will be roughly as follow :-Petrol, 2.8d. ; oil, .25d. ' • tyres, 1.3d. ; maintenance, 1.8'ed., making a total of 6.2d. per mile, plus rent, rates, insurance, depreciation, interest and wages. The charges which you could fairly make for a. 30-cwt. machine would be Is. 9d. per mile, 8s. 3d. an hour, 70s. a day, 219 a week.
Charges for a Three-tonner.
[4467] (South-east).-It ought to be possible for you to calculate your own charges for small loadson the understanding that you must see a return, with a 3-ton lorry, of at least half-a-crown per mile, or, if, as appears likely, the work is such as 4) call for considerable delays whilst collecting and, delivering packages, then you should see a return of 10s. an hour. As indicating the method you should adopt in calculating your work, we will suppose that you are able to collect and deliver a full lorry load of 2-cwt. bags, that is to say, 30 such bags, in the course of, say, three hours, then you would want, as total payment for delivering those bags, 30s., so that ls. should be the average charge per bag. You would,. in calculating, have to make due allowance for some of them having to be carried longer distances than others.
Five-ton Steam .Wagon Running Costs.
[4468] (Oheshire).-The running' cost. of a 5-ton steam wagon on rubber tyres, allowing for 60 miles per week,. is 140 per mile. This includes all charges, fuel, lubricants, tyres, maintenance, depreciation, wages of driver, a portion of the wages of the mate, rent and rates, insurance and interest on first cost. As a contractor and in order to ensure yourself a fair profit, you must add to these running costs a minimum of 60 per cent., and as much as 100 per cent, if you can get it, the reason for this being that whereas in the case of an ordinary user who runs wagons to carry his own goods this case of running is merely an incidental item of his business, in your case you have to allow for management and overhead charges of the business itself in addition. Further, so soon as the business assumes reasonable proportions, you need to have at least one, and pro-. bably more, stand-by vehicles, for, of course, you cannot run the risk of failing to turn up to keep a contract. If you will add, these percentages on to the running costs which we have given you, you will arrive at a fair charge to make per mile for your wagon. These costs cover loaded and -empty running, and, your charges must be made accordingly. We do not' 'anticipate that you will have any trouble in making your venture a. successful one, nor in,leeping your rates, bearing . all the circumstances in mind, low enough to enable you to compete with the rail
way 'company.