Motorvans 'for Tradesmen.
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This journal has kept the motorvan in the forefront of its programme of development, although steam wagons and motorbuses have, so far, received a greater measure of attention. We have, none the less, perceived that the van busintss is the branch which promises to cause the most diverse vet steady demands upon manufacturers. It is true that the replacement of the single one-horse van presents the hardest of problems, for such a vehicle can be run and maintained, including driver and all stable charges, at so low a cost as ,4't is. a week, whilst the delivery work of many a tradesman is small enough to be adequately discharged, by one such horse and van, It is, therefore, our duty to inform the small shop-keeper that a motorvan may prove an expensive investment, because it is only the singlecylinder, 4a-6h.p. types, for a maximum load of about 3cwt. plus the driver, that can be put forward, with any prospect of success, to challenge an isolated, one-horse van in point of working cost. This question of apparent cost, however, is not the whole story, and the dubious tradesman must weigh the advantages of greater range for his deliveries, smartness in attention to orders, and the greater all-rouna capacity for performance of the mechanical vehicle. Journeys can be more than doubled in length, as compared with a single horse-van, and the extra 20 to :zo miles per day adds to the disbursements by only a few shillings over and above those the owner of the motorvan would have to make for a bare 20 miles per day. Two other warnings, we feel, must be given to the tradesman whose delivery outfit is limited
to one horse-van : let him be at pains to satisfy himself that he has in view an intelligent, observant, enthusiastic youth as a driver, and let him remember that it is not as easy, at the present day, to find a substitute, either for the motorvan or its driver, in case of accident of indisposition, as it is for horse-drawn plant.
The unpleasant task over, of pointing out the weaknesses of that which we foster, let us turn to the brighter aspects of the case for the motorvan, and oonsider a few of its advantages. The mechanical vehicle is never tired. It can go out on extra journeys, at times of the year when extra pressure of trade is experienced, and it can do the double shifts without suffering any impairment. It can, owing to its rubber-shod wheels, be sent over heavy snow or frozen surfaces with impunity. It can travel at more than double the average speed of any two-horse van, and it can, therefore, bring about an acceleration of deliveries which is of incalculable value to its owner and his customers. It can attract fresh trade, by reason of its advertisement value. It can save outlay on stables, and free space now monopolised by them. It can be worked at a lower cost for equal amounts of work done, so long as it can be given more than a certain minimum. It is not appreciably prejudiced by use in hilly districts; in fact, the heavier the gradients the better does the motorvan compare with horses. Finally, it can, after a change of the body-work, be used for private or hiring purposes.
We give a summary of the first costs and other data which should interest a large number Of visitors to Olympia. Furnishing warehousemen, grocers and Italian warehousemen, store proprietors, fruiterers and florists, fish, game and poultry dealers, ironmongers and oilmen, bakers and flour dealers, country general dealers, and many other traders, both large and small, must recognise the extent to which their competitors are acquiring motorvans of all sizes, and must ask themselves if it is not time-that they, too, began to move in this matter.
Any delay in respect of the introduction of mechanical vehicles involves grave risks for those who merely look upon the progress which their competitors are making. Astute and careful men of business, who have been experimenting during the last few years, are ordering motorvans to-day by the dozen and by the score. The uncommercial commercial motor is rapidly becoming a thing of the past, and the 3,300 motorvans which are in continuous daily service throughout the United Kingdom promise to be more than doubled in the next two years. No better opportunity for selection and purchase will present itself than that which is afforded at Olympia this week, and we urge every tradesman who can do so to go there.
The Value of Spare Wheels.
Complaints reach us, from time to time, about the loss and inconvenience which attaches to the repair or renewal of solid-rubber tires for vans and lorries. One letter from a subscriber contains a specific complaint that he has to despatch the wheels to London every time, and that there is ruinous delay on each occasion. Railway conveyance and delivery occupy at least two days in each direction, and the tire-makers are most dilatory ! This is the burden of other accounts, and we are asked if there is no remedy. The best alternative, to our mind, is found in the purchase of two complete spare wheels, one each for the front and back axles. The first cost of two such wheels will range, -according to whether the " driver " has a single or twin tread, and to the nature of the attached fittings such as brake gear, chain-sprocket, etc., from .4.25 to and the owner of a utility vehicle has to set interest and depreciation on this additional capital outlay against the possible dislocation of his business for as much as a fortnight. It is a fair estimate which places the earning capacity of a one-ton
motorvan so low as per week, and it does not call for any abstruse calculation to show how wise is the course we so strongly recommend. None but our largest towns possess the necessary plant and equipment for the repairing, changing, or renewal of solid-rubber tires, and it is not every willing contractor who can give satisfaction to the owner who requires a special job to be done in a particular manner. Further, although a few of our largest provincial cities offer a choice of coach-smiths and wheel-wrights who are prepared to re-make a wheel, as regards its fellies and rims, in order to take a new rubber tire, it is by far the most satisfactory course to send the old wheel direct to the makers or to one of the makers' depots. It is the oversight of points such as the keeping of spare wheels, which practice is seldom necessary in connection with horsed vehicles, that accounts for the fact that not a few existing owners of self-propelled vehicles for commercial purposes are, at times, troubled by avoidable losses
Commercial or Not .Commercial ? •
There is abundant evidence at Olympia to demonstrate that it will be some time before a satisfactory and acceptable definition of a commercial motor is discovered. It is certain that no amount of argument will persuade certain exhibitors that official threats of penalisation are either just or deserved, and the Commercial Vehicle Committee has undertaken a -task of the greatest delicacy in endeavouring to keep out the private-car chassis from a show where they admittedly have no right or place. Friction has arisen, as friction must in all first efforts and in the course of events which concern a growing industry, but we wish to deprecate any suggestions that the gentlemen in whom is vested the thankless task of exercising a necessary discretion should have their judgment impugned.
Abuses will creep into the organisation and control of these commercial displays, if loop-holes are allowed to exist for the staging of chassis which can in no conceivable cir
curnstances be credited with fitness for business uses. The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders wisely took the decision in March of last year*, to split their one exhibition into two sections, and further extensions of this principle may become necessary within the next two years : commercial motoring developments, for example, may render it inadvisable to allow motor boats to occupy any portion of the area in 1908, whilst it may be expedient in /909 or two to divide passenger-carrying from goods-carrying vehicles. It is, therefore, in vie* of this possible fresh outcome of _the sectional programme of the Society, imperative that the same firmness of administration shall be followed in respect of classification as has been observed to date in regard to the bond against other exhibitions in or near London. If it be granted that the policy and intentions of the Society were made clear and definite in advance, as we 'believe them to have been in relation to the present show, nobody who has infringed the regulations can hope to establish a legitimate grievance,
There are, none the less, two sides to the question in this year of grace, for who has yet ventured to lay down what is or is not a commercial motor? We, certainly, have seen no definition, and, though willing to contribute to the settling of a suitable and comprehensive set of test points, we should hesitate to bow to a hard and arbitrary rule in the midst of show pressure. Divergence of view is no pleasant matter, either for the committeemen or the exhibitor of a vetoed chassis, and even the lightest of the models at Olympia might be put to bona-fide commercial uses. If a motorcab is to be reckoned a commercial motor, and there is no gainsaying the correctness of that nomenclature, why should it not be mounted on pneumatic tires and on up-to-date chassis of high quality? Again, if a commercial traveller chooses to utilise the rear portion of his car to carry 4cwt. of samples, in place of three human beings and their personal impedimenta, is his car a commercial or a private car? Or, to propound a third case, if a chassis which is saleable for employment in touring and pleasure journeys is actually put in service by a tradesman whose requirements provide a load of goods in proportion to its normal load of people, is the maker justified in his contention that the chassis is a commercial motor, or is he not? Finally, how shall we deal with the concrete instance of the butcher or baker who buys interchangeable bodies, and uses them in accordance with the convincing arguments of the expert salesman who clinches a wavering bargain by advancing the alluring prospect of week-end runs upon the "easily convertible commercial motor "? We will admit, in conclusion, but without mentioning names, that more than one exhibitor at Olympia is " hoist with his own petard." They have, in their anxiety to show how really commercial their pleasure-car chassis are, declared and catalogued them as designed for impossible loads. Unless. it can be proved that these chassis have at least been fitted with strbng-er axles and springs, we must support the contention that their presence in the building is improper.
Exclusively anneuncedSin;," The:Commercia1:Moter,7of March 8th, 1900,. Vol. 11., page 516.