THE GREAT SECOND-HAND QUESTION.
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The New User Should Have a New Machine. By "The Inspector."
THE LIQUIDATION of contracts is now in full swing at all Government headquarters, and on. all sides we learn of negotiations and settlements with a view to the more or less equitable termination of contracts for all classes of material. Lorry manufacturers and makers of special motor vehicles, coachwork, certain accessories, and so on, are all rapidly being put into a position 'which will enable them once again to offer their wares in a free and open market. Generally speaking, so far as I can ascertain, the Government attitude is one which, while aiming at settlements that are, shall I say, not extravagant from the ratepayers' point of view, is intended to enable the manufacturer to resume his former activities with as little interruption as possible, while at the same time urging him to do so with all attainable speed. As the public announcements, in the advertising columns of this journal and elsewhere, already reveal, considerable quantities of high-grade British-made lorries, with their dependent accessories and fittings, are now on offer for early delivery to the commercial buyer, and it is in this connection that I venture to make a few suggestions to the user whose ear is reached better through the columns of THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR than in any other way known to the writer, at any rate.
I have lately spoken to a few business men who were deprived of the bulk and certainly the better portion of their commercial-motor equipment in the early stages of the war owing to impressment and who have had to make-shift all these many months with inadequate substitutes or with no substitutes at all. In one or two of these cases I must admit I was not surprised to hear the view expressed that they proposed to wait the chance of picking up lorries released from one or other of the pnncipal classes of national services at prices which they imagined would in the end be highly attractive. It is this point of view which I consider it is desirable to analyse and to combat.
First of all, I have always held, rightly or wrongly, that the returned lorry problem, which has caused and is causing such a tremendous lot of discussion, is one which, in the end, will not prove anything like so great a hindrance to the trade or the industry as is being frequently suggested. It, of course, has to be admitted that, in the end, a considerable number (and I am very loath to hazard a guess in figures) of the Army's mechanical transport units will have to be sold out of service, but I feel perfectly confident that such a course will not be possible in any case for six months, and, if I am not very much mistaken in my anticipations that the re-settlement of the European troubles will take a great deal longer than the suddenness of the armistice is liable to suggest, we shall see very little of those returned lorries—pther than were scrap—for a year. and maybe a great deal more. It has to be remembered that a large number of them will only be junk when they come to be disposed of, and it will not be the best ones which will be offered first. The longer the delay in returning them from the German frontiers—and perhaps even from Russian and other haunts of Bolshevism ; who knows I—the fewer there will be to put on the market for use in civilian life.
A second-hand lorry, whether it he one of those which have been misused necessarily in war-time service, and subsequently fairly well maintained, or whether it be a machine that has just been knocked to pieces without any attempt to save it from rapid dissolution—or again a, machine still with much potential service in it—is a purchase which has to be made with the utmost discretion. Reputable agents dealing with this class of goods will be the first to admit the difficulty of giving an absolutely first-cla,ss bill of health for any second-hand machine once it has .3hanged hands from its original owners, who presumably knew of ite weaknesses and its accidents. A second-hand maehineat a cut price, unless it has the backing of the manufacturer's or a really high-grade repairer's certificate that it has been overhauled and certified as all correct, carries with it the possibility of very high maintenance charges, and not infrequently unsuitable and unreliable service.
Mr. Edge has, with his usual novelty of outlook, advocated swamping the markets with as many warreturned machines as possible so soon as possible. It seems to me that he has missed the all-important fact that the effect would be far more likely in the end to be detrimental to the more widespread adoption of mechanical transport than it is to result in numberless converts to mechanical haulage. The beginner who commences his experiences with a second-hand machine of doubtful grading is running risks and, in many cases, is likely to be disappointed to such an extent that he abandons further experiments at any rate, for a while, which is a loss to the industry. The second-hand machine is safest in the hands of experts. The man who is essaying mechanical haulage as a new development in his business should, in my opinion, always be urged to test his theories with a brand new machine. He should eliminate all possibilities of unknown factors until such time as he and his staff have the experience that enables them to foresee and forestall mishaps which are more likely to occur with a machine that has seen much service than on one on which the maker's paint is still fresh. I would particularly urge all new users to abandon the idea of picking up a second-hand machine returned from the wars at some very doubtful date in the future. It is hardly necessary to counsel existing owners and users to purchase such machines with care. A second-hand machine may do, and very often does, much good service provided it is carefully " vetted " when it is bought, and provided that expert supervision and attention is available from the start.
The other factor, which is a set-off against those who anticipate the possibility of making a better bargain at a later date, is that the need for mechanical transport from the nation's point of view is going to be most urgent in the first six months or so of the New Year, in the period while the railways are still hampered by ill equipment and overcrowded with the transport of troops and of surplus war material. The successful business house will be the one that gets going in the matter of recovery of peacetime conditions at the earliest possible moment, and the best way to ensure that, in many cases, is to make certain that transport methods are all that can be desired. The most effective plans for reconstruction will be badly hampered in the new conditions, which will always in the future prevail, if supplies cannot be obtained quickly and finished goods cannot be distributed with equal celerity. There is, in my opinion, a strong case in quite a number of instances of which I know to purc,hase right here and now. There are, as a matter of fact, a great many orders for new vehicles already being placed, but that in no way vitiates the importance of my contention that not a few would-be users are unwisely dallying with the idea that it is going to pay them to wait.