The "Bottle " Delivery Van.
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Messrs. Worthington' s Novel Advertising Medium 4311 Tour.
It has been suggested, in certain quarters, that the admittedly enormous value of the motorvan as an advertising property is already on the wane. Whilst this may have some slight foundation in fact, as far as the larger cities of the kingdom are concerned, it is by no means the case in country towns, where interested eyes are invariably turned to watch the passage of the mechanically-propelled delivery vehicle. Even in London, where the number of commercial motor vehicles is advancing by leaps and bounds, the presence of any motorcar of an unusual pattern immediately attracts a large share of attention. This was particularly noticeable in the case of the extremely apt design adopted by Messrs. Worthington, the well-known brewers, for their new Spyker delivery van. This van, which was supplied by the British Automobile Commercial Syndicate, Limited, of 97 and 98, Long Acre, W.C., was illustrated by us on October 25th. It is fitted with a body which is an enlarged facsimile of a beer bottle, and this preambulating model of part of the contents of a public-house induces thoughts, and remarks, amongst the witnesses of its passage, which conduce to an early adjournment for the purpose of consuming the real article. The nature of the advertisement is one, of course, that not only commands attention at first sight, but gives occasion for future comment, and, owing to the fact that this device has been fitted to a motor chassis, it has been able, in a very short space of time, to make itself known, and to get itself talked about, in a great number of the larger towns of the kingdom. " The bottle," as it is popularly known, was delivered to Messrs. Worthington on October 16th, and, after being shown at the Brewers' Exhibition, it left London. on November 1st, for Northampton, with a load of 25cwt. of advertisement matter, to be delivered to the local agents of the firm in the different towns visited on its tour. From Northampton it continued its runs, passing through Leicester, Peterborough, Coventry, Birmingham, Burton-on-Trent, Nottingham, Leeds, Hull, Scarborough, Doncaster, Manchester' : etc. ln. each of these centres, in the interests of the lOcal agent's, it circuiat d through the town and its environs, wi the t . t
I i business in each of them has been lar y iien0ased. e
quests, we understand,-are received daily by DgeS'srs. Worthington for " the bottle " to be sent down to other towns, in order to bring about the gratifying increase of trade which has always attended its advent. On Saturday last it arrived in Load-on, after a month's tour, during which over 2,000 mils had been covered. The actual journeys, from point to point, came to, in the aggregate, about 800 miles, and, in addition to this, 30 to 50 miles per day would be covered by the van in carrying out its purely advertising function
as apart from its delivery work. .
No trouble was experienced during the tour, with the exception of a minor defect in the ignition arrangements, and it was only found necessay to change one tire during the entire time it was on the road. In the opinion of these users, the van, apart from its enormous value as an adyervertisement, has turned out an unqualified success in. respect of the delivery work it has been called upon to do, which is, as stated above, the delivery of advertisement matter, which, naturally, must reach its destination with all possible speed. The only real difficulty experienced by the firm with the motorcar has been some slight interference, on one or two occasions, by the police, who have complained of the obstruction caused by the curious crowds that assembled to see this novel medium for goods delivery. The reptoducdon of the cork, which is, in reality, a powerful acetylene headlight, was found to be a great service on the night journeys. The van had the honour of appearing as a topical attraction on the Bioscope at a Leeds theatre.