Special Motorvan Section.
Page 13
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Reliable Vehicles Available.—New Business Attracted.— Prompt Delivery of Goods Secured. Economies Realised.
This section or our issue, whilst possessing no small interest for the majority of our regular supporters, is specifically addressed to many who will see " TER COMMERCIAL MOTOR" for the first time. The contents of the following pages give particulars of a number of results that have been obtained by users of seff-propelfed vehicles designed to carry loads of 2 tons and less, and they deserve close examination at the hands of every tradesman in the United Kingdom, whether his dealings be on a large or a small scale. We do not set out to prove that there are no cases in which a horsedrawn van will better suit individual requirements than will a motorvan, for there are, and there will continue to be, many instances where, if an isolated delivery service is easily carried on by a single one-horse van, animal power will remain the cheaper. If expansion of trade is possible, the onehorse van should be discarded in favour of the motorvan.
Our function is to lay before new readers a summary of ascertained facts, in relation to the first and running costs of various types of delivery vans. Al ter a long period of costly experiment, during which many pioneers have spent their money lavishly to the end, indirectly, that those who should now follow may be the gainers, it is universally admitted that the business vehicle has, at last, been evolved, upon lines necessarily differentiated from those accepted for the pleasure car. Not a few tradesmen have, during the past few years, been serious losers through their having prematurely ordered so-called commercial motors, though these proved, in reality, most uncommercial; and we are acquainted with a number of cases of positive hardship, where the purchasers had not a sufficient margin of trading capital to bear such lashes with equanimity. The question arises, naturally, as to whether it is expedient to lay out a sum* which will vary, for average trades, between .4:25o and 4350, upon a mechanically-propelled van, the total weekly cost of which will be anything between £4 and £5. Several.factors require to be weighed, before anybody who is deliberating on the matter can take a sound decision, and it is unquestionably short-sighted to look upon present trade, or the existing round of a horse-drawn vehicle, as the measure of the motorvan 's earning capacity. The principal considerations which contribute to the desired result of high performance, coupled with economy, and any one of which may turn the scale largely in favour of the motor vehicle, are : (a) ability to attract fresh trade, by reason of—(x) the advertisement value, (2) more prompt attention to orders, or (3) regular delivery to, and general convenience of, customers; (b) lower cost for equal amounts of work done, regarded in conjunction with the elimination of numerous uncertainties associated with the ownership of horses ; (e) capacity to maintain a high daily average mileage, in hill) country, without rest intervals ; and (d) occasional use of the vehicle, after change of the body-work has been effected, for private purposes, or for hiring services.
Experience has taught designers and manufacturers where strength must be introduced, whilst constructors of solid indiarubber tires have now gained the necessary knowledge to enable them materially to reduce the expenditure under this head, but, without labouring statistics, we give a short summary of costs and performances, these being the essence of a large accumulated volume of working data in our possession.
Furnishing warehousemen, grocers and Italian warehousemen, store proprietors, fruiterers and florists, fish, game and poultry dealers, ironmongers and oilmen, bakers and flour dealers, and a host of other traders must waken up to the fact that they are accepting a grave risk of seeing their business cut away from them by competitors if they do nut, provided there is reasonable prospect of successful application, move with the times, and decide upon delivery by up-to-date means. One fact of many, which we may quote in support of our statement that the development of commercial motoring has proved itself to be sufficiently advanced for immediate action, is found in the wide substitution now in process of being carried out by careful business men, who have watched the progress of the self-propelled utility vehicle for many years. After holding aloof year after year, a number of them, such as Carter, Paterson and Company, Limited, and Messrs. Shoolbred, have placed large orders for vans fitted with internal-combustion motors. Many repeat orders have been placed with leading makers, and it is satisfactory to be able to record this growth of confidence. The operation of the !Leavy Motorcar Order, 1904, has rendered it clear to all concerned that there is nothing to fear from legislation, and the Local Government Board regulations are equally encouraging, whilst there are at the present time, after making every allowance for discarded vehicles, not less than 3,000 light utility motors in .service throughout the United Kingdom. There is no doubt that anybody who decides to swell the ranks of users should „...have no occasion to regret the step, so far as regards mechani:-.tal efficiency, upon which economy depends so largely, and we believe that the total number will soon be quadrupled.
We now proceed to give a number of interesting and important communications from users, and the first of these takes the shape of an interview with Mr. Leycester Barwell, one of the partners in Messrs. James Shoolbred and Company, of 'I ottenham House, Tottenham Court Rcad, W. I us opinions, as expressed to us and embodied in the following interview, are based on a business experience of 23 years in this firm, during the last 13 years of which he has had the management of the stables and general delivery. Mr. „Harwell rightly claims to have some knowledge of motors, since he has driven his own cars 40,000 miles in the last 31 years, and, although he lives all the year round 27 miles from the firm's establishment, he has not been in a train for the last two years ! ,Mr. Frederick Shoolbred, ho has been the mainspring of the business for the last 35 years, is too fond of horses to take to a motor, but he always gives his support when his younger partner suggests that more vans should be ordered : once, only, has he called Mr. Barwell "over the coals," and that was because the vans were not being delivered quickly enough! It may be mentioned, here, that five more vans will be delivered to him this year, and a further eight by March next. Notwithstanding these big changes in system, not a single man has been engaged from outside the existing staff, a fact of which Messrs. Shoolbred, as may be supposed, are justly proud.