Suburban Delivery by Motorvan.
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Motorvans are cooling so much into vogue for suburban delivery round London that the excellent photograph which accompanies these lines, showing the Lacre vans employed by Harrods, Limited, being loaded up in the dispatch room of the well-known stores in the Brompton Road, should be of considerable interest. No less than 23 motorvans of this make are employed by Harrods, Limited, and 3 more will be in use shortly ; they are driven by the old horse drivers of the company, and they have entirely superseded the horsed vans for all suburban work. This is saying a great deal for the results obtained with this form of haulage, and the fact has been brought to our notice that, to take one example, the delivery work from Shepperton is now carried out by means of three vans which run directly from London. The use of these three vans has done away with the necessity for the maintenance of a depot at Shepperton. A staff • of nine men which was kept at this point is now no longer maintained, and the three vans, with the 13 horses required to work them,have been taken off the road with all-round benefit.
An average of at least 70 miles per day is run by each van employed by Harrods, Limited, and careful attention
to detail on the part of the head of the dispatch staff has resulted in most economical working. An excellent idea introduced in this connection is the driver's road-card, which we reproduce. This card, which is taken each morning when the driver leaves on his round, is left in the van at night ; the adjustments specified are attended to by the night staff, and a clean card is left in place of it. Entries are made daily in a book from each of these cards, and thus a complete record is kept of the performance of each van. All repairs are entered, together with the quantity of petrol and oil used. A perusal of any of these records enables those in charge to make a very clear estimate of the capabilities and carefulness of the driver of each van.
A staff of four mechanics and two apprentices is kept tor day work and two mechanics carry out the adjustments required at night. A substantial bonus is given weekly to each driver whose car has not suffered accident or loss of parts through carelessness. The Lacre Company sends down one of its experienced drivers with each chassis delivered, in order to give the prospective driver of the van a week's tuition in the work.
At any time of the night, orders may be telephoned to Harrods, Limited, and the goods will be dispatched by motorvan the first thing in the morning, and the vans are the means of carrying out such runs as that from London to Maidenhead and back, deliveries, of course, being made along the route. This run totals well over so miles. The fact that the country customer can be served with almost equal quickness to the resident in town is one which adds very largely to the quantity of orders received daily by any business concern, and it is possible to open up a connection in a field which has hitherto been too distant successfully to cope with by means of the horse van. A large access of trade is the natural consequence of. the use of the motor delivery van in this way, whilst its advertisement value is not inconsiderable at all times.