ABOUT DELUSIONS.
Page 19
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"The Inspector" Disagrees Entirely with the Tone of a Recent Article in this Journal Dealing with the Present Position.
NOT VERY cheerful that recent article in The Commercial Motor—entitled, if I recall aright, "Delusions About Motor. Transport " ? After reading it, I amused myself for a few minutes in an endeavour to settlein my own mind who the author could have been. I must not complain that he preferred to remain anonymous, for have I not for a good many years, craven like, appeared myself in the columns of this johrnal under a nomde-plume ? Nevertheless, one cannot but wish, when a man seta out to paint the prospects of the industry in colours that are chosen deliberately of as dull a hue as possible, that he would give us some clue as to whether his professional standing and his acquainta,nee with the conditions justify our wasting any time getting worried about his opinions._ • The Possibility of the Liver Being_ to Blame.!
It may be remembered that this anonymous author quarrels rather savagely with the opinions that have been expressed, from time to time during the past few years, to the effect that the commercial-vehicle branch of the industry has a brilliant future before• it. He tilts at. the suggestions that wonderful developments have taken place in connection with motor transport during the war, and that improvements Of any moment are evident since 1913. And, by way of a final shot, he suggests, as if it-Were the fault of the industry itself, that, not only has the cost of the vehicles themselves " about doubled," but that the " general operating costa, have more than done, so," and then he has a final grumble that the roads are the same, only in worse repair!. Very livery, the whole display ! ,
. It is hardly worth while quarrelling with a; pessimist of this kind. Either he is one who dislikes competition, or he is someone who has not managed to make a success of whatever his own share in the science and art of mechanical haulage may have 'been. He can see nothing good in the industry and, certainly, nothing to enthuse about. He is entitled to his own opinions and, if his experience has honestly impressed him as his writing suggests, it will be well if he hustled away and got busy with some more promising undertaking. We shall not 'run after him.
Is Transport in Greater or Less Need?
I hardly feel inclined to waste ink quarrelling with a man who displays his ignorance of the transport conditions of the country in a statement so ill informed as that "less transport is required now than before the war." He, plainly, does not like the fact that there are hundreds of newcomers in' the industry. There is, as a matter of easily ascertainable fact., a greater need for mechanical tranSport properly handled in this country than has ever been the case hitherto. The demand for suitable vehicles is still tremendous, and.there is plenty of money to be made by those who know the job and are capable of handling transport problems as they should be handled.
I join issue with this unknown writer as to his suggestion that manufacturers of commercial vehicles and their agents are selling machines., in their
anxiety to dispose of them, without any regard to the work upOn which they are to be eniployed. Plainly this is not the fact, and simply discloses the author's ignorance of the position, and, on that basis, readers of The Commercial Motor will do well en
tirely to disregard his opinions. The established manufacturers in this country are too jealous of their reputation, and are too well aware of how much of their future success depends thereon, to join in -any scramble for orders—if such a state of .affairs could be imagined to exist at the present time. Surely, it is common knowledge that order books have been packed to repletion for many months past and that deliveries, to-day, of the machines that really matter, can only be given many months ahead. Why any manufacturer of repute should barter his reputation in present circumstances by taking orders, without any regard to the suitability of the employ-' ment intended for the machines, is beyond my comprehension.
That such procedure may be the practice of a few agents Who, handling machines of unknown ancestry and equally vague record, will jump at any order without much regard for the class of work that is anticipated, I ant prepared to believe, but that is not the sort of business that matters a very great deal to the great industry in which so many of us are concerned in this country. We have not yet collie in sight of the state of affairs which this author would have 'us believe exists at the present time, nor, until ibis possible to say that mechanical transport has so far expanded as to be able to relieve the almost impossible rtilway haulage conditions, as they exist in this country to-day, shall we approach the truth in suggesting that there is less need for mechanical haulagein this country than there was in 1913.
Transport Must. Be Done Well.
There is every reason for optimism, but there is -no reason in assuming that the mechanical-transport industry is an easy and royal road to success and to huge quickly made profits. Like everything else that is worth doing, it needs doing well and necessitates a thorough grasp of essentials. There is po room for the .amateur, any more than there it, shall we say, in the ready-made clothing business, or the building trade. Personally, I have no illusions about the motor industry, but the reason for that may be that .I have been intimately engaged in various practical branches of it, and, I might add, exclusively on the industrial side, for twenty oddyears, and there are many like me. It is to be hoped there are very few., like the anonymous author of the article that I have referred to, the publication of which I regret in its circumstances of anonymity. He is no particular friend to the industry—and something has upset him. rather •badly. THE INSPECTOk. [The anonymous author of "Delusions About .Motor Transport" is a contributor to The Commercial Motor of long standing. He is. engagedin a large motor transport undertaking, and .felt, when writing his article, that circumstances fully justified its publication. He will, no doubt, be prepared to go more fully into the matter after reading " The Inspector's " criticism of his artiele.—En. G.M.]