The Commercial Use of Highways.
Page 1
Page 2
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
The major portion of Mr. I--Toward Humphreys' paper before the Society of Road Traction Engineers will be found in is issue (pages 515 to 518). We believe the text of this contribution will go far to send home the fact that England, notwithstanding the greater percentage of her roads in relation to area, is far behind France in appreciation of the economical and political importance of good highways, and of their adaptation for internal communication by vehicles of all kinds. It has yet to be generally realised that our roads are a national asset, and that any money spent upon them is returned several times over if expenditure is directed to the best advantage.
We are particularly interested in the report of the county surveyor for Northumberland, Mr. J. A. Bean, in respect of the annual pro-vision of foundations for roads in that county where no foundations previously existed, and in his-figures upon this branch of the subject, because they go to show that our roads can be adequately strengthened at -no prohibitive cost. It is true that the element of time must enter into the proposition, but those who are critical of the progress of commercial motors, arid who assert that any such progress has been gained at undue cost in highway maintenance, should remember that they have already had at least seven years to deal with the problem, which years have been practically wasted by the majority of county councils. Too much time has been spent in standing aghast at possible costs, as an easy substitute for the tackling of the subject in some manner such as has been quoted from the county of Northumberland. Eight miles of strong foundations per annum is no great total for any county, but it is better tban nothing, and this record is capable of great increase if and when the Legislature comes to the aid of those who are now suffering the -consequences of increased through traffic, and of the altered character of such traffic.
Where Trade should be Cultivated.
Not a few manufacturers are asking themselves in which direction the next considerable accession of business may be expected. Orders for one-ton vans and five-ton steam lorries have alone been maintained at an approach to a satisfactory level, and, with the motorbus section of the industry in a relatively stagnant condition, as compared with the eighteen months ended the 3oth June, 1906, and in the absence of im_ mediate prospects of a revival other than such as may be provided by the sum total of isolated country orders, makers are universally on the alert for fresh trade openings. Our advice is that they should turn their attention to the organisation of chains of agencies throughout the country.
It is true that the evolution of the commercial-motor agent has proved a slow process, and that the average agent who deals in pleasure cars has been generally unready to move, but we do not think this fact need give occasion for surprise. Each successful class of agent and salesman is a species apart from any other the man who can persuade one to buy a typewriter might be all at sea in the selling of a cash register, whilst the machinery agent can hardly hope to impress the buyer of soft goods. No manufacturing industry is suddenly brought into line with those which have long years of history behind them, because time is necessary for the gradual discovery of acceptable custom and serviceable rules before uniform and satisfactory bases of interrelations, both between manufacturer and agent, and agent and customer, can be formulated. The sale of commercial motors calls for expert knowledge which has to be selfacquired. There is no school, no body of tradition ; and the would-be agent has to gather facts, and take hints, from a number of similar or allied trades, during which period of assimilation and rejection he must be prepared to endure some of the buffeting-s and kicks which are far from uncommon happenings in the lot of the producer.
We ask again, as we did in the month of April three years ago—" Who is to be the middleman in the commercial motor trade?" From the manufacturer's. point of view, he mutt be a man who can help to bring orders together in groups, who will buy a demonstration van, who will be prepared to follow up customers and to undertake maintenance contracts, and who will perceive the superiority of a steady (if deferred) return to a snatch profit of undue dimensions. It is true that one car sale sometimes includes the attraction of a fortnight at Monte Carlo, in which the lucky entreprenezer may fan himself after his labours, and spend the proceeds, but there is no room in commercial-motor circles for the Casual and dilettante seller of the pseudo aristocraticvariety. Workers drily are wanted : men who will plod along, day by day and week by week, upon lines which are well understood by all successful business men, and which methods tell in any other trade. It is for such as these that a demand exists, and for them that a return will be found. ,Some are already at work ill the motor industry, and have equipped garages, or engineering shops, primarily for the service of patrons who own pleasure cars, and not a few have already reversed their policy, and have put the commercial motor in the forefront. One large and successful company, in fact, is reported to be on the point of
shutting down all its departments except those which concern business vehicles. It must, however, be admitted that the type of agent we have in mind cannot yet be claimed to have a numerous existence. He requires to be cultivated and informed, and to that end this journal will continue its missionary programme.
The agent who is possessed of some resources, let us say the man who can obtain financial backing to the extent of £1,000, may well decide to make his immediate entry upon this class of trade, He stands, with a fair and not excessive measure of attention, to make profits under four principal branches, and these are : (a) from hiring contracts; (b) from maintenance and repair orders from users ; (c) from the supplying of fuel, lubricants and various stores ; and (d) from commission on sales of vehicles or tractors. He alone, as the man with local knowledge, can tell where to look for business, and can study the requirements of the individual at least expense. He can spare the efforts of the manufacturer who, wherever an attempt is made to do business direct, has often to waste time and travelling expenses. No manufacturer is able to offer the same quid pro quo for an order as is the local agent who has his own repairing depot : the maker has no effective answer to the objection of the owner of horse-drawn vehicles, who shirks. a change to the mechanical, of which he knows but little, and always fears the worst. Real and substantial dependence upon a good local agent creates an air of confidence which cannot be rivalled, and a new buyer has the added knowledge that his drivers can obtain hints and advice free, gratis, and for nothing. Today, and during the past few years, we have had the spectacle of wasteful competition from a distance, between a large number of makers who have all been nibbling at one possible buyer, and that in the dark as to his standing or true intentions. This state of affairs should be replaced by intelligent competition on the spot.
This article is addressed equally to makers and intending agents, whom we beg to consider the advantages which must be secured upon their joining forces. An enormous amount of trade has to be done, for there is not an owner of horses in this country who has not got his eye and mind upon the development of the commercial motor. Two thousand millions sterling is the lowest accepted estimate of the value of horses and vehicles in the United Kingdom, and inroads upon that total have already been made, though to an insignificant extent. Suspension of expenditure upon stables, and the deferment of fresh purchases of more horses, which courses have avowedly and publicly been adopted by reason of the improving status of commercial motoring, indicate the existence of a large reserve fund from which orders must come when the conviction that the right stage has arrived is fully sent home. Steady and sustained effort to consolidate agency organisation is the surest method of
attack upon such reserves of capital, and we would urge owners of garages and repair shops, machinery agents, van and wagon builders, and others, the study of points which have been briefly outlined herein, and the wisdom of their paying a visit to the Olympia Show next month. The work which lies before anybody who elects to take up the sale of commercial motors will be more easy year by year, if not month by month, because references to satisfied users are becoming more easily obtainable in all directions. Again, whereas vans and lorries have hitherto only been successfully applicable in special cases, such as where mileages and loads arc largely beyond the capacity of horses, there is bound to be a gradual lowering of the base lines, and a multiplication of the cases where economy can be proved. As output increases, so will first cost fall, and, as the accumulation of road experience is turned to account for each type of vehicle, so will annual outgo grow less for the user.
Heads I Win—Tails You Lose.
Our query of four weeks ago in connection with the abuse of demonstration trials, when we asked whether a black list was not necessary, appears to have touched a responeive chord in many quarters where what we may venture to term a " milking process " has been experienced by members of the industry. So long as protracted trials are given on incommensurate terms, for precisely so long will traders accept gifts in the shape of service for which they would otherwise have to pay a fair market price, and so long will big losses have to be charged to establishment expenses by constructors, and shown as a paper asset in balance sheets. We strongly urge upon makers the fact that there has been enoughsuch pioneering, and that the strictest curtailment should, by common consent, be immediately applied in this department, a result that might readily be attained at a round-table conference of the commercial-vehicle committee of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders. Far he it from us to suggest that the demonstration trial should no longer find a place in the selling programme of companies and agents, for we believe in its legitimate continuance, and its survival is assured. Further, as the representative organ of users of commercial motors, we should be false to the trust that is reposed in us did we not insist upon the positive necessity for a practical trial over the actual working rounds of an intending purchaser; but a trial of that nature ought to be essentially different from those to which we take exception. The latter category includes service trials which extend over periods varying from six months upwards, and whose close often witnesses a departure from the initial understanding, and the re-opening of the whole weary story with a competitor. Glaring instances of this character have been brought under our notice recently, from different parts of the country, in at least half a dozen cases, for which reason we put it to any owner of a large number of horse-drawn vehicles, as much as to the constructor of the commercial motors which are subjected to such tests, that the situation is an impossible one, and cannot be maintained. Protracted trials may have been necessary in the past, but trade nowadays, if it cannot be done on less drastic terms, is better left alone. The motor manufacturer cannot pull all the chestnuts out of the fire for those who contemplate a change in their haulage systems, and we expect that very few new deals will be made upon the basis of " heads I win—tails you lose." It would be more advantageous, from the profitearning point of view, as well as from the standpoint of the accumulation of data to serve as a guide in the future, that some of our large manufacturers should promote their own motor-delivery and carrying companies, even at the risk of that loss which is inseparable from the purchase of experience in the establishment of a new business, than that they should, by virtual embarkation of their own capital upon a business other than that for which they were brought into existence by their financial backers, appear to lose heavily on manufacturing account.
These losses are really due to the excessive cost of selling ; they must be eliminated soon, else more shutters will go up. We are strongly of opinion that no trial for an intending customer should exceed one week, unless the terms provide for extra payments in the event of non-purchase, and all who ask for more are seeking that which the industry cannot bear. By all means let there be arrangements in the nature of a partnership, where big orders are at stake; but an end to all-round free trials is well within sight.