MAKING A LIVING BY MOTOR HAULAGE.
Page 15
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
In This Article Some Pertinent Queries, by Readers who are Actually Setting Out to Make Their Livings by Motor Haulage, are Answered.
IN.the unusually long interval which has elapsed since I wrote my previous contribution to this Page, inquiries from readers have accumulated. As it so happens, too, a great many of them are very appropriate for public discussion, and I propose to deal with a selected few this week, by the simple process of giving question and answer,
a London reader, has bought a secondhand 1-tonner, with the intention, he states, " of earning a living doing haulage work." He does not know how to get at the cost of running his vehible, or what he should charge for the hire of it. He asks my advice.
Well now, it will take him quite a long time to find out actually how much his vehicle is costing him to run : it took me 18 weeks, in articles Written week by week, to explain a very simple method of doing so. If he refers to those issues Of The Commercial Motor for March 27th, April 3rd,_ lath and 24th, May 1st, 8th, 15th, 22nd and 29th. June 12th and 19th, July 3rd, 10th, 17th, 24th and 31st, and August 7th and 14th, all during 1923, he will find that explanation. Meantime, as he will need to know approximately, and at once, what it will cost to run, 80 that he can also know What to charge, I propose to tell him so,
The Charge the Haulier Should Make.
The information was actually given in special tables, which contained operating costs and .fair charges for all types and sizes of vehicle, and which appeared in The Commercial Motor foe November 27th, 1923. Assuming that the vehicle in question is mounted on pneumatic. tyres, then it will cost 4.07d. a mile to run and4 10s. a week to keep. The 4.07d is made up of 1.11d, a mile for petrol, calculated at is. 3d. a gallon and on a basis of 13-11 miles per gallon r 0.15d. a mile for lubricants (oils and greases), I.48d. a mile for tyres, 0.754_ per mile for maintenance (including the cost of an annual 'overhaul) and 0,58d. for depreciation.
If our inquirer has paid but a low price for his lorry, and thus calculates to reduce the depreciation fieure, he will find that, as an offset to that, his cost of maintenance will be higher, as well as most likely, his consumption of petrol and oil. Indeed, if the vehicle is very " second-hand" it may well be that the cost per mile will increase to 40. or possibly more.
The 24 10s. which I have stated to be the weekly cost for keep is additional to the running cost. It is made up of Be. 4d. towards the annual cost of a licence, 23 for driver's wages, 5s. for rent and rates of garage (this may be more in the case of a London reader), 8s. 4d. a week towards the annual cost of insurance, and another Sc. 4d. interest on first cost of the vehicle. Here, again, I must point out that, although it may be true that, in the case of a secondhand vehicle, bought cheaply, the actual amount for interest on first cost is proportionately reduced, yet it is also the case that insurance companies, in the majority of cases, increase their rates against vehicles over a, certain age, which increase will offset the saving in the item of interest. In this particular case I should imagine that increased insurance will have to be paid.
It should now be obvious that the total cost per week or the total cost per mile run will depend very largely upon the total number of miles run during the week. If there is no running at all, the total weekly cost is 24 10s. If 100 miles be run the total will be 24 10s. plus 100 times 4.07d., which is 34s. all but a
penny, and the weekly cost is 26 45., while the cost per mile is 14.88d., very nearly Is. ad. a mile. Ifithis is all the mileage run, then at least la. 6d. a mile will have to be charged, and that will only bring in El a week for profit and 5e. a week for sundry expenses. At 200 miles a week the total cost would be 27 185., and the cost per mile 9Acl. With that mileage is. mile charge will bring in a gross profit of 210 less _ 27 18s. or 22 2s. If we still only allow 5e. a week for sundry expenses, then the net profit will be LI 17s. a week.
I think the, best way to answer our friend is. to tell him that the most he can get to-day is is. a mile for a 1-tonner, out and home, and that this will only just bring him his money back at 150 miles a week. Abcve 150 miles he makes a profit, which increases rapidly when the weekly mileage exceeds 200. Below 150 miles a week he is working at a loss.
Can One Shilling a Mile be Made. to Pay.
Another man, " T.G.S.," from somewhere in the West Midlands, has a 20-35-cwt. Berliet, which he frequently uses to carry 2-ten loads—that's an
advised proceeding, anyhow! He has been charging, he says, is. 6d. per mile for short runs, up to five miles out, and is. ad. per mile for anything over that distance. Be tells me he has riost a lot of work through not Charging a shilling a mile, and he wants my advice.
Like the other fellow, he gives me no idea as to his weekly mileage, but since his lorry must cost him, in the long run, an average of a shilling a mile, unless he does more than 200 miles a week, the obvious cqurae is to go on losing work at that figure. It will not pay him to run for a shilling a mile unless he has a contract for at least 300 miles a week, and even then his gross profit will be no more than 23 15s. a week.
The Capital Needed to Run a Ford.
" A.G.S.," of " Briuoi," wants to know how much capital he would need to start with a 1-ton Ford. I should say 2250, part of which he will spend on the vehicle and sundry accessories, the balance to tide him over the first few months, while he is getting work. There is, of course, no objection to having rather more than the amount quoted_
He also desires to know about costs and charges, and him I would refer to the answer given to " E.A." Tun SHOTCH.