How Much to Add to Charges
Page 68
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Advances in the Cost of Fuel Are Major Items Which Hauliers Must Recoup in Order to Keep Their Businesses Going: Effects Concerning Various Types of Vehicle are Discussed
T0 assess the effect of the increase in the cost of fuel, I will take as examples a number of different vehicles and consider the varying kinds of work on which they are employed. My calculations can be used to compare costs between types of vehicle, also to arrive at additions to charges when hauliers seek to justify such increases to their customers. It is obvious that rates must be substantially advanced if operators are to stay in business.
The mileages I have taken for my assessments may not he appropriate in many instances, but as the position concerning the allocation of supplementary fuel rations is unclear so far, I have to resort to guesswork and take figures which I think will apply.
1 have reckoned the cost of fuel to be 3s. 10d. a gallon for oil fuel and 4s. Id. for petrol as obtaining before the new increases, and my figures based upon such costs are taken from " ' The Commercial Motor' Tables of Operating Costs." For the present prices I have added Is. 5d. to the .price of petrol, making 5s. 6d. a gallon. and Is. 41d. to the cost of oil fuel, making 5s. 24d. Many users have lost the concessions granted by the oil companies for taking bulk supplies, and in such cases the advance in cost is even harder.
Taking first a 1-ton van used by tradesmen for local deliveries and covering 200 miles a week at an average of 16 m.p.g., the cost per mile before the increase was 3.2d. and the cost per week £2 13s. 2d. Now the cost per mile is 4.15d. and per.week £3 9s. 2d. Thus there is an addition of 16s. to the weekly petrol bill, approximately 30 per cent., and the cost per mile has risen by nearly Id.
Daily Collections
The same type of vehicle operated by tradesmen for local deliveries and the daily collection of goods from markets might cover 300 miles a week and average 16.5 m.p.g., a slightly higher figure than in the case of local-delivery work only as some fairly long journeys are made. Before the increase the cost per mile was 2.8d. and per week £3 10s. The current figures are respectively 4d. and £5, representing increases of 1.2d. and £1 10s.
A 6-ton lorry used by a jobbing haulier or a C licensee may cover 200 miles a week and average 10 m.p.g. The petrol cost per mile before the price increase was 4.9d. arid per week £4 Is. 8d. With the increase it is 6.6d. per mile and £5 10s. a week, 1.7d. and £1 8s. 4d. higher respectively.
These two vehicles in the petrol-engined category perhaps serve as extreme examples, but indicate the lines along which operators of other intermediate types may calculate the extra money they may have to disburse. Coming now into the class of oil-cngined lorries, I will first take a 7-tonner. Many hauliers and C licensees use such vehicles on mediumdistance work and the mileage I shall assume-360 a week -is intended to relate to conditions under rationing rather than normal.
Where a vehicle would, however, normally cover this dis( 28 lance, the cost per mile would be 2.3d. and per week £3 9s. Today the costs are 3.12d. and £4 13s. 71c1. respectively, involving an extra payment of about 0.8d. per mile and £1 4s. 74-d. a week. The fuel-consumption rate is 20 m.p.g.
Similarly in relation to a 12-ton six-wheeler I must assume a weekly mileage lower than normal. T will take 480, and normally this would involve a cost per mile of 4.I8d. and per week of £8 7s. 3d. if the fuel-consumption rate is 11 m.p.g. With the higher price of oil fuel the cost per ma is 5.66d. and per week £11 6s. 3d., so that the operator pays an additional 1.48d. per mile and £2 19s. per week.
I will also reckon upon a similar mileage in connection with a maximum-load eight-wheeler, although I realize that actual weekly mileages under normal conditions arc often twice as great. Many hauliers will, on the other hand, consider that 480 miles a week is excessive for a calculation relating to rationing. Taking a fuel-consumption rate of 9.5 m.p.g., the cost per mile was 4.8d. and per week £9 12s. These figures now become 6.5d. and £13, representing increases of 1.7d. and £3 8s.
Passenger Transport
In the passenger-transport field the position is rather more complicated than in haulage. Operators providing regular bus services, so it would seem, will be the most highly favoured of all owners of commercial vehicles in the allocation of fuel, whereas coach owners will fare the worst. For my calculation I will take a 26-seat single-decker with an oil engine, and assume a fuel-consumption rate of 10 m.p.g.
Taking a weekly mileage of 600, before the price increase the weekly. fuel bill would have been £11 10s. and the cost per mile 4.6d. These figures have now risen to £15 12s. 6d. and 6.25d. The weekly bill is £4 2s. 6d. higher and the cost per mile greater by 1.65d.
A further burden it the increase in the cost of tyres. In the Tables the following costs are given for the types of vehicle I have dealt with in regard to fuel: 1-ton van, 0.63d. per mile; 6-tonner, 1.6d.; 7-tormer, 1.93d.; 12-tonner, 2.47d.; eight-wheeler, 2.64d.; 26-seater, 1.15d. The rise announced by the tyrc manufacturers is 10 per cent., so that the increase per mile can quickly be judged by moving the decimal point in my figures one place to the left.
Taking these increases and multiplying them by the mileages I have assumed give the following approximate additions to weekly expense: 1-ton van (200 miles), Is. Old. (300 miles). ls. 7d.; 6-tonner (200 miles). 2s. 8d.; 7-tonner (360 miles), 5s. 91d.; 12-tonncr (480 miles), 9s. 101d.; eightwheeler (480 miles), I Is. Old.; 26-seater (600 miles), 5s. 9d_ Compared with the advance in fuel costs, these rises seem insignificant. Nevertheless they must be covered by operators budgeting for future expense. Tyre economy can often be improved by careful driving and with care the increase in tyre costs could be absorbed. Much the same applies to fuel economy, but by no means to the same extent. A sudden jumP in price of nearly Is. 6d. must be followed by a rise in rates. S.T.R.