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.
rirIME AFTER TIME do I receive letters from correspondents signing themselves " Constant Reader" who, nevertheless, ask for information which has repeatedly appeared in these columns. Such a one is " H-.J.G.,' whose letter arrived while I was away on holiday—which explains -to him, I hope, why I have been rather long in replying to it. He writes: _u It is perhaps unnecessary for me to say that I am an. ' every week ' reader of The Commercial Motor, . . . I should. be. obliged, if you would tell me what are the running costs of a Ford one-ton ehassis fitted with a char-a.-bancs body for 12 persons. . . ." He desired to know the running. costs per mile, allowing for depreciation, etc. Now I certainly should not have thought he was a constant reader. For the rest, in order to save him and many others similarly placed the -trouble of referring to back numbers of this journal, and also in order to provide those who do not mind looking back, with the dates. of the issues in which they will find the essential information, 1 offer the following as a
reply. .
In the issue of The Commercial Motor for February 15th of this year, on page 890, were given the working costs of various types and sizes of chars-h-bancs, the Ford one-tonner figuring amongst them. It is tine that in my tables I treated the Ford as a ten-passenger machine, and my present correspondent wishes to use it to carry twelve people. That is a matter which will not, however, affect the results to any considerable extent, unless it be to depreciate the machine more rapidly, and.even that is doubtful. My correipondent will find, if he, refers to the page,. that the working costs of a motor vehicle are divided into two parts: the running costs, which mount up as the mileage of the vehicle increases, being actually so much per mile run ; and the standing charges, which, for practical purposes, may be stated to run on to the same extent whether the lorry or char-a-banes is in the garage or on the road. Therein, by the way, lies the importance, so often insisted on in these. columns, of keeping °a motor on the road as miich as -possible, so long as the mileage ccvered is done at a profitable rate. These costs decreased during the early part of this year, owing to the fall in price of the various commodities which are consumed by a motor vehicle, the biggest reduction occurring in connection with petrol. This welcome change was recorded in the issue for June 14th, on page 557, by the issue of new tables of running costs for petrol lorries. The new costs for chars-a-banes were not published, as it was thought that readers could make the necessary corrections for that type of vehicle themselves, having the figures for load-carrying machines before them. In this. particular instance the running pests for a .Ford one
tonner may be accepted to some extent as being 'applicable to a char-a-banes on that type of chassis. They are as follow 1—Fuel, 2,80 pence per mile; lubricants, 0.40 pence per mile ; tyres, 1.50 pence per mile ; maintenance, 1.2 penceper mile (maintenance includes all such items as spare sparking plugs, cleaning rags, paraffin and wick for lamps, etc.); depreciation, 0.60 pence per mile. Total, 6.52 pence per mile. The standing charges are as given in the article in the issue for February 15th, namely :— Licence duty, Os. 2d. (my correspondent writes from the provinces); wages, £3 10s. ; rent and rates (for the garage), Os. ; insurance, Os. ad. ; interest, on first cost of the vehicle, 17a. 6d. Total, lls. 11d. •
My coriesPondent. further informsame that he is averaging 15 miles .per gallon with his machine. If this performance as regularly accomplished, over months at a time, and will bear recording in some such manner asthat. indicated laY our log sheets, then the fuel cost in the case of this machine is reduced from 2.-80d. per mile to.2.23d. per mile. This econCimy is quite possible, of course, but I would caution (air friend against, making his calculations on the results of one or two measurements of the petrid-used. He must bear in mind that the consumption Over a long, straight run is considerably less than is possible in ordinary everyday use, that the weather and the state of the road surfaces, the amount of hill-climbing to be done, etc:, affect the consumption to a much greater extent than is popularly imagined. Reprinted below is one-quarter of The Commercial Motor weekly log sheet, copies of which will be sent to readers on. request, on the understanding that they are to return them for criticism so soon as they are completed. The full sheet has space on which may be recorded the figures of running costs referring to four vehicles. Instructions as to the completing of the forms have been given on this page during the last few weeks, and further 'information will he given
freely on request.. THE SKOTCH.