A Word to the Waverers.
Page 19
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Buyers of Horses and Horse Plant will find their Opportunities for Cash Realisation Grow Steadily Less.
By HENRY STURMEY.
Enquiry amongst different firms in the market with commercial motor vehicles shows me that, in one respect as in many others, the commercial side of the motor business is very different from the pleasure-car side. The primary difference between the two classes of customer is generally recognised : whereas the pleasure-car buyer is buying for his own amusement, and whereas it is not a very great matter to him whether the expense of running the vehicle comes to much or little, or to very much more, or less, than he had been led to expect, with the buyer of a rnotorvan or heavy lorry the question stands upon an entirely different footing. It is a business question, and is looked upon in the same way as the adoption of a new and expensive piece of machinery in the factory. On the face of it, the idea seems attractive enough, but, before the purchase is made, the trader needs to be thoroughly convinced, not only that "the thing will work," but that it will work as a commercial proposition, and also, quite apart from the question as to whether he can do his work with the vehicle in lieu of horses, whether he can do the work at a pecuniary advantage to himself. Knowing nothing about commercial mJtors, and only knowing that pleasure cars "break down " occasionally, he wants to be absolutely satisfied that the car is going to be at least as reliable as his horses. Give him positive assurance—not merely personal statements—that both these things can be accepted as definitely satisfactory, and he will feel inclined to go closely into the matter forthwith.
The Troubles of the Salesman.
It is the extreme difficulty of proving claims to a mind in which scepticism finds a place, that is tending to keep back the commercial motor industry, especially in its lighter forms, to-day. It is not sufficient to tell the tradesman, and to produce a printed statement to that effect, that Messrs. Shoolbred and Company, for instance, have increased their mileage by eo,000 miles per annum at a reduced cost in working of £I,3o0, through the partial substitution of motors for horsed equipages. His answer is that their business is not his, and he wants to have it proved to him by ocular demonstration in his own town, by people doing a similar trade to himself, whom he knows and from whom he can make personal enquiries that the thing is so; only then will he consider it. This makes the difficulty in the trade to-day. Go into any town in the Kingdom and interview a dozen of the leading tradesmen of the place, and those who do not promptly turn down the idea without discussion will tell you that they want to be satisfied on this point, that they are waiting to see the experiment tried by Mr. Smith, or Mr. Brown, or Mr. Jones, and that, until the said Smith, Brown, or Jones has the enterprise to start a motor vehicle, the whole question of commercial motor vehicle use is dammed up in that stream.
Delay Involves Risks of other Losses.
Now, there is a matter which I would like to point out to these wavering gentlemen, and it is one which I have never seen mentioned before. Let any man who is waiting on his neighbours enquire of his local coach-builder how the trade in horse carriages is getting on, and what sort of price he can get for second-hand vehicles. I think he will be told that the motor trade has ruined the horse-carriage trade as a whole, and that few people indeed are buying horse carriages to-day. Let him go further than this, if need be, and make enquiries amongst London cab proprietors, and ask them what sort of a market they have for the numbers of horse cabs which have already been driven out of commission by the advance of the motor. The answers to these enquiries will doubtless convince him of one thing, and it is that—
Once the motor vehicle, in any department of transport has " caught on," there will be a rapidly and steadily decreasing demand for horsed equipages, both new and second hand.
Now, with this aspect of affairs in front of him, let him consider what the possibilities are in regard to his own outfits, when motor vehicles come in. One of the points I have heard raised, as a reason for not going in for a motor vehicle, is that the party in question had a number of horse vehicles, which he would have to sell, and, of course, to sell at a loss upon what he gave for them when new. The matter strikes me thus, and I think it is a reasonable aspect of the situation :—Take any one locality where there are no motor vehicles in use amongst the trading community. The great bulk of the traders have not yet begun to think about the motor, or to contemplate its possibilities. They are still, mentally and commercially, zo years behind the times, so far as this point is concerned, and they will buy a further addition to their horsed outfits, if they want any, without misgivings. But will this be the case when motor vehicles have commenced to assert themselves in the district? Let Smith, Brown, or Jones, aforesaid, or Robinson, start their rnbtors, and run them satisfactorily for 12 months, and we shall then find Jimson, Johnson, and Thomson, following suit. All the other horse users will begin to "think about it," and to conclude that, at some time or other, if not at once, they will have to come to it, and that their next purchase in the transportation line, when the time comes that they need to make one, will probably be a motor. Once get to this stage of affairs, and where is the market for the existing horses and horsed vehicles? That is the question for the man to ponder who has got already to the point of considering this question seriously, but who still hesitates.
Why Not Sell Out Now ?
The first man in any district, who starts a motor vehicle in his business, not only gets to times the advertising effect out of it, than he would do if he came in with the crowd later, but he will have no difficulty in disposing of his existing equipages, and, moreover, in getting fair prices for them. This advantage in price which he can obtain today for his horse vehicles, compared with that which he would obtain later on, when the demand is all in the other direction, will certainly more than compensate him for any possible risk he may take in setting up a modern and properly-designed motor vehicle for his work. Don't you think sa too?