HINTS FOR HAULIERS.
Page 15
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The Reason Why in "The C.M." Tables of Running Costs and Standing Charges the Average Figures Employed are Slightly Higher Than the Best Figures Claimed by Manufacturers.
• I MAY imw take up the challenge thrown down by Mr. Cornock, of the Mann Patent Steam Cart
and Wagon Co., Ltd., who,. in a letter which appeared in the issue of The G.M. for November 7th, suggests that the running costs as published in the "1923 Outicok " Number of this journal are high, in so far as they apply to steam wagons.
He also draws a comparison between the costs of petrol wagons and those of steamers which were given in the tables, but there I Must beg to be excused from following him. No comparisons have ever been suggested, and no direct comparison is really pos sible—the steamer has certain disabilities which affect its running costs in one way ; the petrol vehicle has its own peculiar trouble, too, but the last-named are quite different. The working spheres of the two types do, it is true, overlap, but not to such an extent as -to render the very close comparison of their average working costs either practicable or desirable. Mr. Cornock is entirely mistaken when he says: " The table purports to give the operating costs of steam wagons in such a form as to be readily com parable with a companion set of costs for petrol
-wagons." The table does not if I may say so, purport such comparison ; comparison is easy, it is
true, but that is only incidental, and due to the form in which the tables are, quite naturally, presented. Now, although I have had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Cornock in the flesh, and Mr. Mann, too, on more than one occasion, and each time in the most friendly fashion-----I have even broken bread with them ' ---it is, nevertheless, quite impossible for me to meet him, or any other manufacturer or vendor of commercial motor vehicles, over this question of costs. We stand on the opposite banks of a natural gulf, one which has never been bridged—that which divides the seller and the buyer. Never will it he possible for the seller and the buyer to regard with the same partial eye the goods sold and bought. I shall never get a manufacturer to agree that my running costs are right, for that 'reason. He sells vehicles, and he knows how well those vehicles per form. He knows how economically they really can be run, how low the running costs can be kept, and how little repair is needed, over a comparatively long period. His views on running costs are, therefore, quite naturally, and in perfectly good faith, coloured by these direct experiences. He resents the suggestion that the average cost of running is higher than his own figures, and is not at all placated when actual costs, far higher even than those which are given in the published averages, are shown to him. He replies, and quite rightly, that the,costs should not be so high, and that, if the wagon had been pro perly looked after from the time it left, his works, and if due care and economy in the use of fuel and other supplies had been exercised, the actual figures would approximate very closely to his own. This, again, is perfectly true and correct. Unfortunately, only the minority of wagons of any type receive the right amount of care and attention. The majority are roughly handled and hardly worked. Their costs are; therefore, much higher than they need be, and the average figures are increased accord ingly. The running costs which are regularly tabulated in this journal, and which appeared last in that special issue to which I have already referred, are averages of results obtained in actual everyday use. They will never closely approach those which a manufacturer truthfully and rightly states are obtainable. Having thus, and at some length, explained the
fundamental reason for the differences which exist between Mr. Cornock's figures and mine, it is hardly necessary for me to go into detail with regard to all
the points which he raises in his letter. As an example of what I mean, I may take the case of fuel costs. Glancing quickly through my data on this particular item, and confining myself solely to 1922 figures of five-ton rubber-tyred steamers, I see such figures of cost per mile as 5.3d., 6.1d., and 8.1d. I My average, actually, is 3.42d. In the tables I invariably overstate the cost, and never omit to point out, as I did in this instance, that the results given are capable of considerable improvement. I do not deal with coke, because only a minority use it, so that it is not of very great interest.
As regards the actual price -per ton for coal, the steam wagon industry is fortunate (or unfortunate— I really do not know which), in that there is no uniform combine-promoted price or its fuel. Mr. Cornock, however, may be interested to learn that petrol, too, may be bought for Is. 41d. per gallon.
I do not at all agree that.Ma,intenan•ce and Depre ciation should be taken together, or that one necessarily diminishes as the other increases. With regard to these items the differences between Mr. Cornock's figures and mine are so clearly those which naturally exist as between seller and user that comment is needless.
As regards wages, my running costs ane not specially prepared to suit either the Mann steamer or any other. It is open to any user who finds it possible to dispense with the second man 'to deduct the item of his wages from the amount stated.
Just why, in a. table giving total costs of working, I should he expected to omit rent and rates, I cannot understand.
With regardeto interest on initial cost, the proper way to reckon this is 1 per cent, above the Bank Rate, which may be ascertained from day to day by reference to the newspapers, • or direct from any bank. The prime cost was ascertained from sources other than the tables of specifications given in the " 1923 Outlook" Number, and the average chassis price was 21,100. An addition to this was made for ,bodywork, as all types of steam wagon bodywork are not listed at the chassis " price. The exceptionally low price of the Mann steamer, as published in the specification, was not then known to me. It certainly affects
the average very considerably. .• . That average, however, is not so low as stated by Mr. Cornock, for two reasons. Many prices, relating to the dearer wagons, are omitted front the table, and these prices happen also to be the figures for the wagons of which the greatest numbers are on the road.
I think I have now written enough to show that I have not only not gone "widely astray" in my figures of costs, but have not, gone astray at all. As regards the ex-parte statements of certain steam wagon users that they cannot make haulage pay with petrol wagons, I expect many :petrol vehicle makers have heard the contrary expression from some of their " satisfied customers."
As regards depreciation of steamers, I think if Mr.
Cornoek and I could have a little crack together, we could tell one another some weird stories of steamer troubles while on steel tyres. Actually, depreciation is calculated on a life of 125,000 miles approximately, for both petrol and steam, with8certain exceptions in the case of the former, in which depreciation is reckoned over 100,000 miles. THE SHOTCH.