Our Service to Readers in 1930.
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wE pride ourselves upon being a transport users' journal and we like our readers to feel that we take a real personal interest in their efforts to run their vehicles economically and efficiently, whether they be earning their livelihood by providing means for transport or by working for concerns, large or small, directly connected with the industry, or employ motor vehicles of any description as adjuncts to their ordinary business.,.
There is no need for us to make New Year resolutions as to the service we shall give, for we have always been prepared to guide and help the user in every possible way, and we are continually solving readers' problems, some of which involve a considerable amount of time and expense, but this service we give freely and wholeheartedly in the knowledge that it is being appreciated.
We referred last week in a leading article to one important section of our activities in this direction--we allude to The Commercial Motor Tables of Operating Costs, which constitute an invaluable feature in connection with which we publish regularly an important series of articles for the haulier in which costing and other problems are elucidated.
Periodically, we include specifications of all vehicles on the British market, and these form a useful guide to the potential buyer. They are reproduced in brochure form for the convenience of those who do not file their copies of the journal. Every endeavour is made to keep the reader of The Commercial Motor up to date in his knowledge of all important matters occurring in the field of road and cross-country transport.
Careful attention is paid . to Parliamentary activities which concern the industry and the earliest possible notification given of any changes in the law affecting the employment of motor Vehicles..
Special sections are devoted to news regarding the passenger-transport side and to possibilities in connection with the promotion of sales in overseas countries..
Each week a member of our staff makes a thorough search of the files of new patents at the Patent Office and details of those of particular interest and value are published.
We are always ready to take up the cudgels c17 on behalf of the industry in general or of any particular section of it where we consider that important interests are at stake. Our demands for better protection of the driver, the prevention of excessive periods of continuous driving (which are not only fatiguing but dangerous) and for improved safety in the construction of passenger vehicles are but a few out of many examples which could be quoted.
A feature which we inaugurated last year and in respect of which we have received many letters of appreciation is our "Opinions and Queries." We have, of course, always devoted a section of the paper to letters on interesting subjects from our readers, but this comparatively new combination has proved most successful, and the advice given to particular inquirers has been the means for helping hundreds of others whose problems have been somewhat akin to those with which we have dealt. Within the course of a few weeks a revised edition of our Tables of Costs will be published, and these will be reprinted for issue free of charge on application.
Local Organizations for Improving the Status of the Haulier.
A FEW years ago the railway was practically the sole important medium of goods transport except for local deliveries. Long-distance transit by road was not regarded so seriously. To-day, however, there is a great number of commercial men—with goods requiring rapid transportation between towns comparatively far apart—which uses the road almost exclusively. It must not be thought, however, that the present state of affairs, particularly with regard to the haulage industry, is all that might be desired.
The position of the haulier requires consolidation ; the essential course is to make the goods-carrying industry a more paying onei.e., it must work on an economic basis, thus Increasing public confidence. Those complaints which. are made to-day are, in the main, the outcome of inefficient organization. To pre, elude the possibility of justifiable criticism it is necessary to maintain a high standard of equipment, which, of course, involves an attendant financial outlay.
Well-organized services are operated at basically sound rates which permit no reduction of predetermined schedules. The concerns in question command the respect of all thinking business men. When indifferently organized concerns work over particular routes they usually attract much business temporarily by charging low rates. This cutting of prices, as we have pointed out for many years, does lasting harm both to the wise and unwise operators. For the latter one has no sympathy, but the former have to bear the unjust burden andfeel it more acutely because they realize that the folly of others has brought it upon them. A great deal can be done by local groups of operators to combat this evil: Much. has been effected already in this connection on the passenger-transport side; the same cannot be said with regard to the goods-carrying branch. In this class of work rate cutting is a rampant evil and is causing daily loss to thousands of operators who realize only too well what are the irreducible economic charges per mile for the loads they handle. The ultimate andinevitable failure's of the inefficient cast a certain reflection upon those hauliers who wish to adhere to sound principles, although such failures in a Measure remove the cause of the evil. The whole trouble EA in the length the period during which the wise must suffer for the unwise.
If operators can combine locally in associations to stabilize their charges for various classes of work and can gather within their ranks the majority of hauliers in any particular district, they can, in time, bring to heel the defaulters or restrict their competition. Propaganda disseminated among customers may do much to point out the folly of employing "cheap jack" hauliers. True wisdom lies in paying a fair price for work done in an efficient manner.