PROBLEMS OF THE HAULIER AND CARRIER.
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The Broadest and Most Difficult Problem of All—Deciding What Line to Take Up in the Haulage Contracting Business.
IT is only natural, of course, that the beginner in any industry, the man who is starting in any occupation, should have the greatest number of problems to solve and the most difficult. The novitiate to the haulage contracting business is, however, I think, worse off than the majority. for that business covers such a wide ground and there are so many phases of it, that the problems arising are bound to be more numerous and more difficult than usual. If therefore I were asked what is the most difficult problem with which I could deal in this series of articles, I should at once, without hesitation., say it was that presented to the beginner who has made up his mind to become a haulage contractor but who is in doubt as to the particular branch of the business which he should follow.
Choice of Vehicle the Deciding Factor.
We can arrive at a partial understanding of the difficult nature of that problem if we study for a moment how many different ways there are of earning a living with a commercial motor vehicle. First of all, however, there in the choice of the vehicle itself. It is right to take that first, because, in the majority of eases, the beginner drives the machine himself and his choice is largely determined by his preference for one type of vehicle as against another_ There is, in making that choice, the broad, .distinction between the steamer and the petrol vehicle—for the moment I will leave out of consideration the "electric," because that is such a special machine and suitable only for such special purposes that it is not likely that a one-man concern will be able to do much with it. If a man chooses steam, then his further choice—of the use to which he will put it—is fairly obvious. He will go in for the carriage of heavy loads over long distances. That kind of work is the steamer's forte; nothing can equal the steamer for it, and to a man with a preference for a steamer and a, liking for roaming this Very pleasant country of oars, there could be no better choice, either of: vehicle or of avocation.
The Infinite Variety of Petrol Vehicles.
If petrol be the choice, then there is the whole range of sizes and types, from the articulated six-Wheeler down to the•10-cwt. or 1-ton light van, with prospect of profitable business with either of these extremes or with any one of the many intervening sizes. The very. heaviest, the six-wheelers, will appeal to the man already referred to in connection with the steam wagon, as having a fancy for roaming but without the liking for the Steam wagon. The lightest types are for those who are not partial to the heavy manual work which the operation of a four or five-ton lorry involves, and who, moreover, have a fancy for sleeping in the same bed every night. They go in for parcelcarrying, carrying market-gardeners' produce, and for the work which used to be done by the old-fashioried country carrier.
Each different machine has its own special work which it is especially adapted to perform, and for each type of machine and each class of work there are adherents who can find, in the operation of those machines, work which is congenial and, to a greater or lesser extent, according to the energy of the individual, profitable.
Passenger Carrying.
Then, apart from all these, there is passenger carrying to be considered. In dealing with that section of the work alone there is scope for sufficient articles to fill a book. On the one hand, we have the taxi driver. or the hire-car owner, and on the other the owner of
a luxurious coach, who uses it mainly for long-distance tours of a week or more. In the tatter direction there is surely ample opportunity for combining business with Pleasure, in escorting parties of tourists through the pleasantest parts of the British Isles, and being well paid for the work. Then, of course, there is bus work, there is the ordinary seaside coach work, and the running of long-distance regular services between important towns.
The scope, I think all my readers will agree, is simply tremendous, and it is no light matter to be faced with the problem of deciding, Out of that ample range, the kind of work which would be most suitable to the preferences of the individual, at the same time having in mind the very essential condition that there, must be a good living in it for the man who engages his energies in the work.
An Actual Problem.
It so happens that I have a problem of that kind before me at the present moment. It has been put to me in confidence, of course, and I am, therefore, not able to give the details in their entirety. I can, however, put them down in such a way as to make them apply to the needs of many hundreds of readers who will derive, I am sure, considerable benefit from the consideration of the factors involved, and will be able to apply the conclusions to their own special problems.
This particular matter came before my notice a few months ago, in connection with an inquiry from a reader who, apparently, was thinking of starting a regular coach service between two large towns, the distance between which—shall I say—was about 100 miles. He wanted general advice from me on the prospects of success with this particular venture: as to whether it would be likely to show a profit, and what the probable competition would be. He also wanted to know what capital would be necessary for commencing such a service, and, finally—I might say last but by no means least—he asked for detailed advice on the operation and maintenance of the vehicles, some recommendation as to the best type to use, with prospect, as his letter rather quaintly puts it. of further questions to come after I have dealt with these.
(He wound up by asking what my fee would be for this service and wanted some information as to my qualifications i) An All-round Problem.
Now in all this there was a problem within a problem. There was the problem presented by the inquiry itself, and even the newest of my readers will agree that it was no small one, and there was the personal one, as I might put it : "Row much of my time am I justified in devoting to so special a ease?"
In the first place, as thousands of readers of these articles know from personal experience, there is no charge for answeriag questions arising out of the matters which are dealt with in them. The Editor regards it as his privilege to deal with such inquiries and the service is part of that which is regularly and daily rendered to his readers. Obviously, however, this inquiry comes outside the scope of an ordinary "Answer to Queries." The first part is not so bad, but the second part involves work which would take up months of an expert's time. I was, therefore, in a hit of a quandary as to how I should deal with it. Clearly the man himself had realized that he could not possibly ask for all that assistance for nothing, hence his inquiry as to a fee. On the other hand, I doubted if he realized exactly how much he was asking, and I did not want him to think that there was 4ny unwillingness to help or any desire to try to make money out of his troubles. In the end I Suggested that we should meet when he came to town and we could then discuss the first part of his inquiry, namely, the prospects of the proposed scheme, and suggested that consideration of the latter part of the problem be left until we had dealt with the first.
Getting Down to Brass Tacks.
I heard no more for a couple of months or so, and came to the conclusion that he had found someone else to do the job for him, until, when the Commercial Vehicle Exhibition was looming very near, I got another letter, asking me if I would go into the matter for him. Well, in the end I asked him to meet me at the Show, and we had a heart-to-heart talk over the matter. It then transpired that he was just such a man as I have discussed in the earlier part of this article; that is to say, he was one who had a little money to invest ; he had decided to go in for haulage work and could not make up his mind what would be the best line for him to follow. He had been favourable to the idea of starting one of these regular long-distance bus services, but, beyond writing to me, he had not carried the idea much farther.
I gathered, lathe first place, that he was not overburdened with capital. He would not be able, for example, to buy several vehicles outright. Indeed, it rather seemed as though he would buy the first one on the instalment system. Now, I am not opposed to the instalment system; as a general rule I recommend a new vehicle bought in that way to a second-hand and, therefore, doubtful one bought, more or less, for cash. I did not, and do not think, however, that it is at all possible to start a business of the kind he had in mind on capital so small as to necessitate its conservation in that way. I am of the opinion that the preliminary expenses of starting a service of that kind are so very considerable as to put/ it out of the question for a man who has not three thousand or four thousand pounds available and who is willing to risk that amount in his preliminary expenses.
In the first place, an enormous amount of preparation—" spade work," as it is called—is necessary. Presumably, it will be desirable to make arrangements to pick up and set down passengers in all the principal towns through which the service passes. That involves obtaining licences to ply for hire from the local authorities in each case. Then comes the matter of advertising. This will have to be on a very large scale if the whole thing is not to be a failure from the start. There is only a limited number of people who are partial to the idea of using the motor coach for long journeys in preference to the railway. Those people have to be reached in some way or other and advised of the existence of the service. That cannot be done for a small sum, for the advertising has to be spread over all the places passed through by the coaches, as well as at the terminal stations. Editorial publicity in the local papers is most desirable and, although it is impossible to buy such editorial publicity, it is, nevertheless, not obtainable without some considerable effort on the part of the promoter—effort which costs money, if only in the way of travelling and hotel expenses, for letter-writing will not carry him very far. is:11 these things, too, take time, and, what is more important and much more difficult to arrange, they call for the services of experts. For that reason I do not think that setting up a service of this kind is work for the small man with a limited amount of capital. Because that is so there is no point in dwelling on the matter at great length in these articles, which are, in the min, devoted to_assisting such small men. I propose, therefore, to dismiss that part of the subject and to return to some of its more practical aspects in subsequent articles. S.T.R.