HOW DO AGENTS VIEW REPAIRING• BY MANUFACTURERS?
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No Broad-minded Agent Objects to a Manufacturer's Own Repair Depot in a Strategic Centre.
By" Vim."
WHEN DISCUSSING a large question of principle, such as whether agents for commercial vehicles have just cause to complain of unfair competition by makers who have their own depots for carrying out repairs to cars manufactured by ;them, there must be generalization. Neither I, nor anybody else, is competent or has authority to speak for the whole of the motor trade. However, it is a subject that I have talked over with a good many proprietors of large garages, and I think, therefore, that what follows may be taken to be the average opinion of them all
A manufacturer must have the right to decide for himself in what manner he can best render service to the possessors of his vehicles. Undoubtedly, there are considerable numbers of users who believe that the proper person or firm to be entrusted with repairs is the maker. Broadminded agents realize that it is up to them to prove to these users that they are wrong in their belief, and that the independent repairer is every bit as able, to put, and keep, vans and lorries in order, as are the actual manufacturers. That
• they are confident that the bulk of maintenance work will come into their hands, as time runs on.and they perfect their organization, goes without. saying.
Where Manufacturers' Depots are Justified.
In support of this, they point to the example of the touring car trade, in which local depots opened by makers were often found to be non-paying propositions and were subsequently closed down. In cities like Manchester, London, and similar centres of commercial and industrial activity, they fully recognize • that the quantity of motor transport in use justifies makers' repair depots, and are not at all inclined to quarrel with the policy of the firms behind them on their account Indeed, where such depots carry large stocks of replacement parts, agents usually look on them as being of great assistance to them, in that their stocks may be cut down to the barest limits with the certainty of almost immediate replenishment.
The sort of thing to which agents do object as unfair competition—and clearly it is unfair-competition—is for a manufacturer to open up an establishment of his own on ground that has been rendered fertile by the energy of some agent in that district. Instances where.this has been done are by no means isolated. Perhaps the manufacturer may not have known at the start that he was doing something that is termed a "dirty trick," for he may have been deluded into imagining that the sales of hie vehicles in the district have increased by natural growth, especially if the centre is an important provincial town. But, ignorance or self-delusion is no excuse, and one e.an understand how bitterly any agent, who has his preserves so poached on, resents the action. The attitude of the agent towards manufacturers' repair establishments is this:—that provided they are run for the purpose of 'giving service to users, he ra,ther welcomes them than otherwise ; but, if their main purpose is to rob him of the fruits of his labours. then he is dead, against them and the people behind them. That is quite natural, and no business man of human flesh and bloodwilhdeny the justice of his resentment. Plenty of healthy, fair-and-square coinpetition is the very life of trade, and the person who has confidence in his awn abilities enjoys it. The agent does not ask for a monopoly, though he hopes to deserve it, but he does insist on a straight deal. Before long, manufacturers will be divided into twa more or lea's distinct groups—of those_ who really believe that by distributing.through local agents they can effect economies and give their users the best service, and of those who prefer to deal direct with their customers. The half-and-halfers will not exist, for the reason that retailers of commereial vehicles will have finished with them.
The Makers' Alternative to the Local Garage.
In trade, the strong policy is the only one that brings respect. One can see that there is much to be said for both methods—none for the principle of " toleration " of the retailer. Motor agents have no desire te use the force with which their accumulating unity is endowing them—indeed, only a handful of extremists in the trade place any trust in such force— but commonsense will always have its way in the end, and manufacterers will be obliged to declare whether they are for or against, because they who do not declare " for " will discover that they are receiving the cold shoulder. They will then be faced with the task of. replacing the local garages, which they used to treat somewhat in the light of parasites, with their own servise organizations. That will entail opening branches wherever they have a customer, for one user is just as entitled to service as are a thousand.
Do maken of commercial vehicles want .to undertake repairing work? Are they anxious to be burdened with all the trials and troubles that are incidental to it ? Stalely not. And there is no necessity for them to take on the responsibility, if they will co-operate with. the well-managed garages up_, and down the country. When they feel that, in such-andsuch a locality, service facilities are insufficient for the needs of their users, why should they not seek out the right sort of motor trader and give him a hand to bring his place into a state to cope with the business? If his capital resources are limited, they might let him have stocks or spare parts on a sale or return basis, loan him special tools, and so on. Having set him on his feet, they could leave him to look after the welfare of their customers in the full assurance that not only would their interests be safeguarded, but that repairs would, in all probability, be put through more economically than if they had a depot of their own on the spot.
The Agency System Will Benefit the Users
The influence of the retail motor trade—and it is an immense iefluence—is ready to back up commercial vehicle manufacturers who show that they value it by the terms of their sales policy. That users vOuld benefit by a strengthening of the agency system, I have tried to prove in previous articles ; in any event, they would not suffer, for a revulsion to the past state of things would follow if motor retailers and repairers failed to justify their position as intermediaries.
Only a few years back, not a single maker of private cars distributed his productions exclusively through trade channels, because they were all doubtful as to the wisdom of that principle. To-day, several of the most promising makes of post-war cars are to be bought only through agents, and the result is that garage proprietors are preparing enthusiastically to furnish the service which their owners will require 'when repairs and new parts become .essential.