Approved Depots.—Article I.
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The Second Stage of an Important British Development.
By the Editor.
The imminent publication of the second edition of the " Handbook of Approved Depots" will mark a stage in the development of agent and agencyorganization plans for the sale, accommodation, maintenance and running of commercial motors. It has been the writer's pleasure to assist in the genera] scheme for this handbook, as was the case with the first edition, but the great bulk of the very considerable work connected with it has, of course, been borne by the seegretary of the Association, Mr. F. G. BriSto w.
To Follow the First Series The Agent's Year."
It is desirable, no doubt, with Series No. 1 of our special articles concerning new sales developments recently concluded, immediately to devote space to Series No. 2, and to provide that it shall deal with existing provincial depots. This is our intention. We open with a general article. The " C.M.U.A. Handbook" will not reach its maximum size until many editions have run through their course, but the outcome of the arrangements which are already in hand for agency and branch depots, the completion of which is dependent upon releases from war restrictions, will certainly ensure, before the third edition is due some time in 1918, noteworthy additions to its pages.
. The present article is in no sense to be viewed as a review of the second edition of the handbook. We shall deal with it from that standpoint, on publication, a few weeks heece. Our immediate concern with the scheme of its contents is confined to their relation, as in the first edition, to roadside facilities for both man and vehicle, the provision of which class of facility is, according to degree of excellence, the true means of successfully building up turnover in storage receipts, sales of 'consumable stores, orders for repair work, and instructions for general maintenance.
Several Points of Approach and Origin.
It is within the knowledge of many supporters of this journal that some of the principal examples of successful establishment by British makers owe their origin to divergent points of initiation as regards type of vehicle. There are makers who were originally constructors of traction engines ; there are others who began their road-locomotive work under the Motor Car Acts, but who have at all times confined themselves to heavy-motor construction ; there are not a few who began with private motorcars,' and from which lighter types they have either evolved, or been drawn to, the heavy motorcar. There are evidences of similar happenings in connection with the scheme, the country over, of approved depots for the service of commercial-motor owners and drivers. Not every good depot. is started on a complete basis.
The establishment of coal pick-up depots, new cases of which are likely to appear in many towns, may in some instances be regarded as but -the starting point of depots which will, later on, offer facilities of other kinds, and the same transition may be put on record in respeU of certain coke-supply depots. The arrangement and the advertisement of the latter class of depot are being perseveringly carried out as one result of the good work of the London Coke Committee, which committee never ceases to urge upon the various gas undertakings of the country the expediency of their supplying graded coke of uniform quality, suitable for use in steam wagons and tractors.
It may surprise not a few of our readers to know that there are now nearly 200 listed and recognized n26
coal-supply depots in the country, where specific arrangements are made to cater for both regular and occasional requirements of steam-vehicle owners. Free watering is allowed at many of them. Corresponding arrangements at coke-supply depots reach a total which is already slightly in excess of 200 supply-yards or gas-works. Whilst gas undertakings are unlikely to develop either storage or maintenance plans, not a, few of them are giving the closest attention to adaptations at the works, both as regards means of access and rapidity of supply, to the end that coal-gas as fuel shall become more readily available, for use either at atmospheric pressure or after compression, for the benefit of users of commercial motors who cannot obtain enough petrol.
New Interesis Coming on the Side of the Commercial Motor.
The important point, from the standpoint of the user, is to get e-verybodyeinterested and concerned with. his well-being. Until there is a. sense of community of interest, sources of opposition to developments of road locomotion must predominate. Each new interest with which contact is made may be regarded as a potential enemy of commercial motoring converted into an ally. Everyone is glad to see important evidences of trade interest by coal suppliers and coke producers, but the movement of the year 1917, to which we atta,ch most importance of all, and of the progress of which we are ourselves convinced, is that of the agent. The " C.M.U.A. Handbook" testifies to the increasing interest of existing agents, by reason of the higher percentage of their names in the list of approved depots. The first edition of the handbook did not contain a promising number of such agents, but the new one does. There are no doubt not a few established agents out of it who should be in it, but that may be in part their own fault. We trust that they will guard themselves against any such possibility of omission from the third edition, by at once sending a preliminary intimation to Mr. F. G. Bristow, Secretary ,the Commercial Motor Users Association, 83, Pall Mall, S.W., to the effect that, when the next edition is in course of preparation, they will be ready to furnish details of their depots, the accommodation at them, and other points.
Installation a Tire Presses.
A feature which will make its appearance in the handbook for the first time is a record of depots at which tire presses have been installed. No feature is of more importance to users than the existence of a, tire press as part of the equipment at their disposal. Time is saved, earnings are not lost, and much irritation is avoided, by the prompt replacement of worn or damaged tires, the completion of which work can only be taken in hand satisfactorily in direct relation to the frequency of occurrence in the country of tire presses in the hands of people who know how to use them.
The list of approved depots in the -second edition concerns some 114 towns and villages in England. Its limitation to Englanti. suggests an extension of the third edition to Wales—only Cardiff is now included—if not to Scotland. ' There is a, unique reference value about the handbook as it is now compiled. We wish to see itE comprehensiveness even More extended_ It should become the recognized guide to accommodation for both local and long-distance traffic, the latter more particularly.