AT THE HEART OF THE ROAD TRANSPORT INDUSTRY.

Call our Sales Team on 0208 912 2120

MORE READERS' LOG SHEETS.

20th December 1921
Page 24
Page 25
Page 24, 20th December 1921 — MORE READERS' LOG SHEETS.
Close
Noticed an error?
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.

Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

"The Skotch " Analyses the Set of Forms Returned by a Reader and Represented to Cover the Work of a Wagon, for One Month'.

HA.ULIERS are, under stress of. the',,present keen competition, beginning to take a really active interest in their accounts, their outgoings and incomings—when there are any of the latter. Many of them arc finding our log sheets— which are issued gratis to any bona-fide applicants by the Editor of this journal—to be extremely useful in this regard, and amongst those who make use of them, quite a number are returning completed lags for criticism and comment, with a view to obtaining some guidance as to their proper employment. Not all of those log sheets which come back to us in this way may he published ; many of the senders 'are somewhat reticent, and prefer absolute secrecy, to which, of course, they are entitled. Most of them, however, are of the same mind as that reader whose log sheets we publish herewith; they do not object to their figures being treated publicly, for the general goad, so long as their own names do not appear in connection with the information which is thus afforded.

The accompanying log sheets concern the running of a, 4 ton J type Thornyeroft during the month of October last. The first thing which is apparent, on examination of the figures, is that this.,particular

correspondent has not been too punctilious in the conviction of the form. Part of the reason for that, however, he gives in his covering letter.. I will deal with that aspect of the matter. a -little later on. Meantime, I propose to consider his •sins of commission rather than his sins of omission. The first of them is an arithmetical error ; the total mileage for the week ending October 8th should be 247 and not 237, as stated. That ;may pass without further comment.

The column headed:." Maintenanee " is grossly overloaded, serving as it does for such items as wages, insurance, taxation and tyres, as well as the legitimate items of expenditure on maintenance, for which it is intended. It would be much better to eliminate these figures from the log sheets, which are, as the name implies, devised to enable the owner to keep track of variable running expenses in connection with his vehicle, which expenses are incurred daily and differ in amount from day to day. None of the items to which I have referred is of that order, and, moreover, their inclusion nnder the heading "Maintenance " not only tends to complicate matters, but also obscures the real maintenance cost of the vehicle, which is really a most important one,

requiring careful attention and constant watching. Wages, tyres, insurance, and taxation should be kept, separate and entered in an ordinary accbunt book. Subject to this observation, I should like to remark that the item for wages is very high. I am informed that it is excessive owing to the fact that a second man is employed to assist the driver. Even so, it is not a fair charge against the actual working cost of the lorry. Where a mate is employed, it will rarely be found necessary for him to he in attendance all the time. Where a fleet of vehicles is in use, it will be found possible to transfer him from time to time from one lorry to another, thus spreading his services and, therefore, wages over a number of different machines. Where there is, only one, it will still be found possible, in a properly organized business, to find something else for him to do. If employed for loading and unloading, he is actually a warehouse hand, and if his wages are charged against transport at a/1, the utmost should be one-half, the remainder going down as establishment charges. As to the actual results in regard to running costs, which are shown by the figures appearing in the log sheets, the following is a summary:—

Total mileage, 991, during the four weeks. Petrol consumed, 156 gallons ; this is equivalent to 6.4 miles per gallon or 4d. per mile for petrol against our standard figure for a four-tonner of 3.44d. per mile. Lubricants include 13 gallons of oil and 4 lb. of grease ; presuniing this is the price as stated on the Jog sheet, namely, 3s. 11d. per gallon for oil and is. 2d, per lb. for grease, the cost is 0.66d. per mile, as compared with our standard figure of a77d. Maintenance appears to be confined to the first three items of the log sheet for the week ending October 8th, and amounts, in all, to 33s. 10d., which is equivalent to 0.4d. per mile, as against our standard figure of 2.0d. per mile. This is particularly favourable, but. our correspondent must not be unduly bucked at the result, since this is an item which can only .be judged after several years of work. For tyres it will be observed that he allows a regular figure of 21 per week, which is equivalent really to id per mile, against our standard of 1.80d. per mile. If we allow depreciation at our standard rate, namely, 2.07d. per mile, it is apparent that the actual running cost of this particular vehicle during the month with which we, are concerned is 8.13d. per

mile, as against 10.48d. THE

Tags


comments powered by Disqus