HINTS FOR HAULIERS.
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An Occasional Chat on Subjects and Problems of Interest to those Who are Engaged, or About to be Engaged, in Running Commercial Vehicles for a Living.• ONCE AGAIN we have to digress from our onward course of considering the method of collating costs of running, this time at the urgent request of several readers who put questions of general interest concerning certain problems in motor haulage with which they are confronted.
One of these—it is, perhaps, the mo.st interesting of the three. with which I propose to deal—concerns a bus service which my correspondent. proposes to inaugurate between three towns, so disposed that a complete run in either direction covers a distance of twelve miles. He wants to know what fares he should charge, and in the same breath, so to speak, he also tells, us that he is a new reader of this journal, so that clearly it will not help much to refer • him to past articles on this subject. First of all, it is clear that we shall have to estimate for ourselves the number of journeys which he will make a. day. Out and home, the distance is
twenty-four miles. Taking all possible stops into consideration, it is not likely that the average time for the double journey will be under two hours. He proposes to work from nine o'clock in the morning to half-past eleven at night, employing a double shift of drivers and, if necessary, conductors. Concerning the latter, by the way, I shall have something to say a little later on. The. length of his working day is, therefore, 144 hours. It will be clearly impossible to do seven double journeys in the time, allowing for waiting periods at each end; or, at any rate., it will be safer for purpose's of the calculation which we are about to make, to assume that six double journeys is the maximum. Now, according to our scale of hire charges, the " time charge " for a ten hour day is £4 17s. 6d. Fourteen and a half hours increases that amount to approximately E7. Each double journey of twenty four miles at is. 2d. per mile for the "distance charge," is 28s., and six of them amount to eight guineas. The total return, therefore, which our correspondent must see, per day, under the conditions named., is 215 8s. Now, if we assume, as is invariably advisable, that, on the average the thirty-passenger bus which he proposes to use, travels half full, then, altogether, on the six journeys, he will carry 180 passengers, one way each. Those 180 passengers must pay him 215 8s.— that is to say, is. 8d. each. One shilling and eight pence should therefore be the fare for the whole single journey, and for shorter distances 2d. a mile.
Before dealing with one or two other points which my correspondent, raises in his letter, I should like to suggest that it would be advisable to build, on to the two Leyland chassis which he proposes to buy, buses with a seating capacity for forty or fifty passengers, so that he may be better able to take advantage of rush hours, and increase the possible return.
On the question of conductors, I hardly think that, for a country service such as this, they are necessary, unless the local authorities insist on their employment—and I do not know of any reason why they should. If, as I understand, the buses are not yet purchased, I should suggest that the bodies fitted be equipped with front entrances so that the driver may collect the fares as the passengers enter, If this is not practicable, then my correspondent must add, to the figures. which I have given, another pound a, day as a correction for the additional expense involved in the employment of two conductors per day per bus.
His figures as to annual licence and insurance are approximately correct, except-that I doubt if be will be ableto obtain cover for the passengers as well as the vehicle for an insurance premium of E30 per annum, it is, to my mind, absolutely essential that he should insure against the risk of accident to his passengers. Hackney carriage licences and registration fees, concerning which he asks, are now covered by the one annual tax under the new Act. The garage rent and rate will be from 10s. to les. per week per vehicle, according to the acconamodaa tion available. Since his district is a country one he may be able to improve upon this figure. The cost of a licence for the storage of petrol is only a matter of a few shillings per annum.
Auother correspondent who has hitherto evidently had considerable experience of goods haulage on the water (by canal) is considering the purchase. of a lorry on the gradual payment system. I see no objection to this course, so long as our friend looks well ahead, and is fairly sure of being able to complete his payment to time. I do not think that a five ton lorry is generally suitable for use alternatively as a char-h-banes. It is too heavily built and too low geared for the purpose. As regards costof running, our friend should refer to the issue of this journal for June 14th, in which he will find the information which he requires.
A third correspondent has a one-tonner, and he has evidently been asked to hire this to a client who proposes to provide his own petrol and driver. The question is what should he charge per hour for the loan of the lorry in such circumstances? Referring to our running costs, we find that on a machine of this size, petrol accounts for 2.8 pence per mile. If we were considering merely the mileage charge, we could, therefore, subtract 2.8 frqiijas1 the standard . rate, mlsing the figure about 5440171 mile.a time charge, the driver's wage accounts in round figures for is. ad. per hour, so that fer time only our charge in the present instance is; 3s. 9d. per hour. Our correspondent wishes to know what he should charge per hour, apparently without restriction as to mileage. I think he is quite justified in assuming an average speed throughout the day of ten miles an hour. The mileage chart per hour would, therefore, be ten times Sid., which is 4s. 7d., together with the 3s. 9d. time charge, amounting to 8s. 4c1.—say Ss. 6c1. per hour.