MOTOR COACH COMMISSIONS.
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How Owners are Exploited by Self-appointed Booking Agents.
ONE OF the minor problems of the coach owners in the big industrial centres concerns the payment of commissions to people who influence business. Whilst the practice of paying a small commission to 'booking agents who have arranged for the transit of passengers is useful, signs are not wanting that there has developed a tendency amongst some people, who have become acquainted 'with the fact that commissions are paid by some coach owners, to become self-appointed passenger agents.
At the outset, the fact should not be lost sight of that the payment of commission is closely associated with the matter of rates. Obviously, if a coach owner advertises a 10s. run and he pays a 10 per cent. con mission on bookings, his actual rate is only 9s. Now, some owners of motor coaches adopt peculiar methods of recompensing individuals, who, acting in a private capacity, organize coaching parties, and place the order with them. Some owners give the organizer a free seat; • others pay a commission ; whilst many condemn these practices as being bad in principle and injurious to the trade in general.
Fleet owners operating a big field always have a number of booking agents to whom they pay commission, generally 5 per cent., but sometimes 10 per cent: on the fares of all passengers booked with them. The agent is given a status and is authorized to adopt any legitimate method of obtaining business, subject B30 to the arrangements of his firm. He is a cog in the machinery of motor coach industry and performs a useful function Furthermore, he is under direct control of a coach-owning company.
Now, it must be obvious that if individuals who are authorized to book a coach or coaches for a. picnic party are going to press for a commission before giving an order to a selected coach owner, it simply means that the position of the recognized agent is being subverted and direct encouragement is being lent to_ a form of parasitism, which is likely not only further to accentuate the difficulties which have been experienced in the past in the matter of rate cutting, but is also liable to open. up another issue, that of competition in commissions amongst those 'coach owners who do not definitely and decisively shun the payment of commissions in all but legitimate cases.
Recently, a coach owner of our acquaintance, who had been doing regular work for a football party, was informed by one of those self-appointed agents that, unless he was paid a 10 per cent. commission, he (the coach .owner) could not have the order. In this case he. did not get it, and, presumably, the coach belonging to an owner, willing to pay indiscriminate commissions, was utilized.
On private hire work, coach owners are usually asked to tender. The prices they quote are competitive, and it seems to us that when, on tep of this,
attempts are made to extort a commission on the total amount paid, the time has arrived for coach owners to regularize this department of the organization and to eliminate those whose claims to be "passenger booking agents " are very ill-substan tinted. What is their gain is the coach owner's loss. The present seems a very opportune time for organized coach owners to devote a little consideration to the subject, especially as the general question of rates is now engaging attention.