TRANSPORT TIPS FOR TRADESMEN.
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Particularly Addressed to those Who are Replacing Horsed Vehicles by ,Motors, or Contemplating So Doing.
THE purchase of a motorvan by a trader after full and intelligent consideration does not necessarily Mearr that ho anticipates, by reason of the purchase, any improved direct economy in his delivery system. This system must be regarded as the work of a department of his business, this being a service department and not direetly a profit-making one, it is because the department, considered separately, cannot show profits that it is so often more or less neglected, or run at the lowest passible expenditure without sufficient regard to the consequences of poor efficiency.
Reasons tor Buying Vans.
The main 'underlying principle of all large modern retail stores is service. It is sought to offer the customer anything he could possibly require, at a reasonable price, and to deliver it to him at the ghortest possible notice. A trader who offers poor service will never make much progress, even though his wares represent exceptionally good value. From the standpoint of the comparatively small trader, service is particularly important. He is not in a position to buy to the same advantage or to hold so great a range Of stock as a large store.. His turnever being smaller, his overheads are liable to be larger. The chances are that he cannot compete against much bigger stores purely on a price basis, but must depend for the maintenance and development of his custom on the fact that he gives such good service that people are willing to pay his prices and are inclined to recommend others to go to him. There are, of course, very many cases in which the purchase of a motorvan means a positive economy, three or four horsed vehicles being replaced. In other instances, however, the purchase is justified rather by regarding the van at a weapon of attack to be used in the struggle against more or less equal competitoPs. Alternatively, it may be a weapon of defence used to resist the aggression of very large competitors. Again, it may have no direct referenee to competitors at all, but. may be purchased with a view to creating new business rather than attracting existing business. The better the facilities for buying and taking delivery of goods, the more people are likely to purchase. Good and prompt service, for example, encourages the residents in country and suburban districts to save themselves the trouble of producing things which they find they can purchase almost, if not quite, as cheaply, and with very much less trouble.
Again, a trader may find that, despite all his efforts, he tends to lose a certain amount of business to some much bigger concern in a moderately adjacent large centre. The right reply in such a case may be to develop in the opposite direction, making good the loss to a big competitor on one side by a balancing gain at the expense of small competitors on the other side.
A Note on Second-hand Purchases.
The purchase of a second-hand rather than a new vehicle is a proposition which naturally appeals to prcspective buyers who do not wish to be involved in considerable initial outlay. In some eases it is a sound proposition ; in others it is the reverse. The buyer of a second-hand machine is, in a sense, taking
on the tail end of another man's contract, with the contingent liabilities. Sometimes he gets a good bargain because the other man cannot afford to carry on, or has for some quite good reason, changed his system. ILother cases, the reason for sale is that
the vehicle has not really given good service. It may be induced t'o do so by competent maintenance fol., lowing a thorough overhaul. On the other hand, it may he past hope, unless renovated throughout at ccnsiderable expense.
As a vehicle gets older, there is a probability that the cost of operating it increases. The purchaser must, therefore, set this increased cost of operation • against the saving in first cost. Very., much,, of course, depends on the history of the vehicle. If it is found on inquiry that the original manufacturer has been in touch with the vehicle throughout its life and has a fair knowledge of its history, the risk involved in the purchase is considerably reduced. A second-hand vehicle recently reconditioned by its makers may be nearly aa good as a new machine, but probably costs nearly as much. The word " reconditioned ' is very loosely used. In its best sense, it means that every worn part has been replaced. by a new one and the machine is, to all intents and purposes, a new one. The term is, however, not infrequently applied to a more or less casual and irresponsible overhaul for the purpose of eradicating the more glaring faults without worrying about those that are likely to become apparent only after a further short period of service. Lately, one hiss seen so-called reconditioned vehicles offered at prices which could not possibly even cover the cost of reeenditioning alone, if the work had been theroughly perf.-irmed.
other pitfall of which the buyer of second-hand must beware is the danger of getting the wrong type for the work, merely because it appears to be cheap. If the work really calls for a two-. tonner, the it is better to pay the full price• for a new machine of that capacity than to put a four.: tanner on to the job,' even though the latter can be had as a gift. The vehicle of larger capacity is, naturally, heavier, and in every way more expensive to operate. As a penalty for getting it at a low price, its owner has to pay for constantly transporting its dead weight about the roads. If possible, even more fatal is the policy of getting a secondhand vehicle that is really too light for the work. The man who actually needs a 25 to 30 cwt. van, but who tries to economize by picking up a cheap onetonner in the second-hand market, is simply asking for trouble. In all probability, the machine is only available because it has not proved to be up to its originalwork, which may have been heavier than was originally anticipated. Many of the parts may have been overstressed; in which case they are ready to give 'trouble at the slightest provocation. Even if the machine has been fairly used, the process of constantly overloading it will break it up in a very short time. Even occasional sins in respect of overloading may well prove fatal. The damage once done cannot be rectified by subsequently considerate use. The structure is strained and can never recover. Just reeently, numbers of people have been buying vehicles of the wrong earrYing capacity,because they thought they were getting bargainsv whereas they have really been purchasing trouble.