HINTS FOR HAULIERS.
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An Occasional Chat on Subjects and Problems of Interest to those Who are Engaged, or About to be Engaged, in Running Commercial Vehicles for a Living.
HAVING AVING discussed at some length the running costs of various types of vehicle, it is now essential to considerwhat would be .fair. charges for the hire of such machines, having in mind the running costs, and also the other expenses inci
dental to the carrying on of the business of motor haulage contractor. I expect that, already, in the above sentence; I have given the less thou&atful of my newer readers something of a jolt, for it is quite apparent, from letters that reach me, that a good many of them do not appreciate that their charges must be based on anything more than the bare running cost of the vehicle itself. It should, however, require very little consideration to remind a man that there are other expenses which must be covered before he can commence to make a profit.
These expenses differ with almost every case, and it is not possible to .lay down any specific rule. At
one time it used to be regarded as fair to double the running costs of the vehicle, making that the :charge for its hire and, although in certain exceptlonal cases this gave an undue margin • of profit, it was, as an approximation, quite it good method of fixing the charge. Invariably will it be found that establish ment and overhead expenses are such that the hire charge may never be made less than 60 per cent. more than the running cost of the vehicle, and, in a good many cases, it approximates to that already suggested, of 100 per cent. more. • However, since these overhead costsdiffer so materially, the best way to deal with them, from, the point of view of my readers will, undoubtedly, be to take one or two examples, leaving each individual to make his own calculations on the basis .suggested, and, as the first of these examples, I will take the case ,of a haulier carrying on in a small way with only one vehicle and endeavour to find outswhat his charges are likely to be. I will take it that this particular man, whose organization I have in Mind, has a fourton lorry, and that he is setting out with the idea that he will eventually extend his business by the purchase of other lorries, and so on. Such a man will naturally require to have a little office where in
quiries can be addressed, and he will be equipped with a telephone, and other Means of dealing with urgent inquiries' which may come in at any time while he himself is actually out driving the lorry.
I must assume that he has to pay rent for the office, let us say 7s. 6d per week. The room will require heating and lighting, and, although the cost of this will, naturally, vary according to the time of yeaP, it may be taken that, on an average, it. will not cost less than 7s. 6d. a week. The' office will have to be equipped with furniture of some sort, including a typewriter. The cost of this may be about £50. For our statement of income and expenditure we have to consider not the actual cost of the furniture, but. the extent to which it is depreciating annually.TJsually, this depreciation is calculated at 15 per cent. on the first cost; on that basis we shall have to reckon it at 3s. a week. The telephone is likely to be an expensive instrument in the near future, so that, while the • expenditure on local calls and so on would, throughout the year, amount to about 5s. a week, with trunk calls it is probable that it would average, an the whole, about 7s. 6d. a week. Office staff would consist of a boy or girl able to attend to the telephone,. receive and deliver messages with some degree of intelligence, type out letters, and so on. The wages paid will naturally depend upon the type of employee
and the diatrictin which the office is located. We might take 32s. 6d. a week, and an additional 25. 6d.
a week as cost of stationery, etc. Postage and telegrams would amount to 7s. a week, insurance is., advertising 12s., andstmdries 2s. Total £4 2s. 6d.
This item is a standing, or,establishment, charge, and may be considered in connection with the cost of running the business, exactly as we consider the standing charges in connection with the working of the lorry. In the present instance, as the proprietor. has only one vehicle, this stanpling charge will -be distributed over the mileage covered by the vehicle in just. the same way as the standing charges of the lorry itself. For the time being, we will assume that our hero has enough work, as a rule, to keep the lorry running a total of 200 miles a week. His total cost peOmile is 22.62d. His establishment charges, £4 2s. 6d., distributed over 200 miles, will amount to 4.95d. per mile, so that the net cost of running his lorry and his business amounts to 27.57d. per mile. There must be added to this an amount to cover contingencies, particularly the expense of hiring a vehicle to take the place of his own in the event of an accident to -the latter. This is one of the biggest stumbling blocks in the way of success of the haulage contractor, and it naturally operates with varying effect according to the number of vehicles which a man owns. For example, the proprietor of six machines would not necessarily be called to go to any such expense at all. It is more than likely that, amongst six, there would, at the time of the misadventure, be one available temporarily to carry on, or at least such a re-shuffling of existing contracts would be possible as to allow him to proceed without suflering any such loss. This •wouldinot be so easy. in the case of a man owning three machines, while the owner a one is, to use popular phraseology, right up against it. As an insurance against anything of this kind, he has to add a percentage to hisaco.sts. The owner of one vehicle may not safely consider less than 15 per cent, in this regard. Fifteen per cent. on our figure of 27.57d. is 4.14d. Adding the two figures together, We arrive at a figure of 31.7Id., which is our total of expenditure, actual and estimated.
Now! What about profit. How much a week does the owner of a single vehicle imagine he ought to make? It is no use for him to consider the matter as a basis of percentage on cost. If, for example, we
suggest 10 per cent. profit, then, in round figures, he is going to make 3d. a mile, i.e., on 200 miles 600d., or £2 10s. a week. I cannot imagine anyone at the present time investing well over a thousand pounds (If his savings with the idea of only recouping himself. at the rate of £2 10s. a week. Suppose I take a miniminn of £5 a week and-leave it at that. Presumably the man who reads this article and considers he should; have £0 will-know how to make. his calculations accordingly. Five pounds a week on 200 miles is 6d. a mile. Sixpence•added to our 31.71d. amounts to 37.71d. per mile, say. 35. 2d. a mile in round figures as the charge per mile for a four-tonner. For the ,moment, I will lea.we this part of my subject, principally be-cause I would like these figures to sink in. I should like them to penetrate into the minds of two classes of reader. .First, those who imagine that the prosecution of the business of haulage. contractor is-a, sure road to an early retirement on a competence. I would direct the attention of that class of reader to the somewhat high charge-per mile for the hire of the lorry, and to the fact that this is only based on a profit of £5 a week, and would askthem to Criticise the figures by which I have reached that 3s. 2d. a. mile, if they can. Secondly, I want to reach that other class of readers who are experienced, who know how very. seldom 3s. 2ch a mile is actually received for a four tomer. I would ask them also to consider thesefigures•and to write to me and inform me how long a business of this kind will last if the charges made are on the very low scale,which they have suggested to me from time to time.
have received another long letter from the haulage contractor who is also interested in the agricultural side of the business, with whose inquiry I dealt in the issue of February 1st. He is the correspondent, I would remind readers; who inquired as to the ca,pa city of a Forcison tractor. He. now tells' me that a part of the work which the tractor would have to perform would be that of hauling out heavy tree trunks. This makes it extremely difficult to give an answer, because the actual resistance of a heavy tree lying , on the ground may be anything. It is quite possible that, in. a good many circumstances, the Ford.son would not be able to tackle such a load, although, as my correspondent would probably agree, much of the, resistance can be minimized by useful manipulation of the log at the hands of the labour employed. I am afraid I cannot be of any great help to him as regards that.
• The best -way of moving such trees would be, I should think, on good rollers, and, if so arranged, the tractor shouldle able to haul them. I do-not think there will be much difficulty in the tractor obtaining a grip on the class of soil,mientionedby my correspondent, although I .should, add that the Fordson always appears to me to be at a disadvantage in this regard, because it is only fitted with a standard type of strake, and these strakes are not suitable for work in wet clay..
I should advise any owner of A. Ford son tractor to have it equipped with spuds of the spade type, similar to those used on the British Wallis or the Austin. Only that type of spud is of any use in really wet clay, and I really think that, if my present correspondent equips his tractor with these spuds in addition to the standard strokes, he will have no difficulty. He suggests the fitting of a winding drum in place of the existing belt pulley. I strongly advise him not to make any such alteration. The speed of the drum would be much too high for it to be of any use, and, moreover, the tension on the rope would probably have-the effect -either of considerably overloading the pulley bearing or possibly of binding the shaft—or both. THE SXOTCH.