PROBLEMS OF THE HAULIER AND CARRIER.
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The Organization of a Parcels Delivery Service in which a Light Van is Employed.
THEMITE idea of driving a three or four-ton lorry all long and of taking on the kind of contracts that seem popular in connection with vehicles of that type does not appeal to everyone. Many, a man, taken with ,theidea of entering the haulage business because the open-air work is congenial to him, hesitates because he does not regard the collection and delivery of road-making materials as being ideal from his point of view. Whilst, therefore, there is a large number, perhaps the majority of readers of this page, who are chiefly interested in heavy' lorries, and in the work to be done with them, there are many who are not; it is their interests I am now going to Consider, and I Propose this week to deal briefly with the organization and Operation of a parcels collection and delivery service such as might -very .well-be undertaken-by a-man with a light van of about one ton capacity, operating -in a provincial town of medium size.
The business is very much' akin to that of a country carrier, who; in the old days before motors were intro
duced,used to attend the markets, collecting parcels from his customers for delivery in outlying districts; sometimes he even carried the customers themselves.
To-day the same man or his. successor operates in very much the same way, using a motorvan of about one ton capacity. His methods are fairly simple. He has a regular position which he takes up in the market place in each of the market towns which he can reach. His customers know where to find him, and a minimum of enterprise on his part is needed in order to carry on his business.
Country Carrier—Modern Style.
The development of motor vehieles, however, has brought. in its train tendencies on the part of the general public which, although very natural in the circumstances, are causing a certain amount of inconvenience to provincial traders. The buying public, coddled by the bigger traders, particularly the multiple-store concerns, are insisting on having their purchases sent home to them. The provincial trader, on the other hand, in many cases, is slow to appreciate that he can (if he will take advantage of their attitude) himselfft and at the same. time, extend his sphere of operations and the scope of 'his business. by buying his own motor vehicle and delivering his goods. Some of them, of course, are rising to the occasion, and more and more of them will do so as time. goes on. -There are still, however, quite enough of them without their own transport to make it feasible for an outside carrier to make a living by effecting de
liveries for them. In my opinion such opportunities will alwayspresent themselves, because there will always be, even when transport is available, extra parceistof goods ordered after the van has left, and others, overlooked when making up deliveries, for the rartage of which -traders will gladly take advantage of the services of :a local carrier.
The Preliminary Steps.
It may be taken for granted, therefore, that there is opportunity in every town, and particularly in market towns, for the development of what I might call (with all due respect to-, a wonderful organization) a miniature Carter-Paterson business, and what I have to do now is to tsuggest to. the man who is considering•startinpout on such a business the steps he should take to, ensurel success.
Everything, of course, turns on the question of profit and loss; on cost of operation and on revenue; on how much the latter will.exceed the former. Since the cost of operation turns largely on the mileage, clearly the first thing to do is to endeavour to assess the weekly mileage. Begin by mapping out a route. Obviously, I cannot describe this process in detail, since every individual case would differ according to the locality, according to the layout of the townitself and the disposition of the principal trading centress and according to the position of the outlying districts which it is proposed to serve, their distance away from the centre of the town and the frequency with which it is desired to visit them,
Mapping Out the Route.
In the majority of cases there will be three or four directions in which deliveries, shouldbe made. It will rarely happen that the outward distance will exceed ten miles; generally it will be less than this. It will, therefore, be possible to visit two of these places each day. In emergency, at the expense of a little overtime, three can be reached. Actually, at Christmastime and other times during the year when business is particularly brisk, the carrier will have to work long hours and, no doubt, will then arrange to visit every one of the districts once a day. These, however, are special occasions; the extra mileage will be profitable, but we dare not consider them and the profits arising from them in making an estimate of the way the business is going to go. For that purpose we must take it that on an average the carrier will make two circuits a day for six days a week. We may take it that, again on the average, he will rim 539
eight miles out and eight miles back on*each trip and may cover a couple of Miles in the town itself while making his collections. That means to say that :he will cover 36 miles a day or 216 miles a week.
Capital Outlay and Cost.
One of the first things a man will want to know is how much capital he will need. If I assume that he is going to operate with a van of about 25 cwt. capacity the initial cost, including certain extras in the way of decorations devised to give publicity to the fact that he is operating as a carrier, will be £300:In addition he will have to start off with a certain amount of other publicity. This will involve printing and other bills that will aniOunt, with advertisements in the local paper, roughly to £10. The operating costs of his van will amomit approximately to 4th a mile for running and £4 10s. a week standing charges the latter including a wage to himself, as driver, of 13 6s., the standard rate of wages. His total cost per week, then, for the 216 miles will be £8 2s. His establishment charges will be due to having to maintain small advertisements in the local papers and to the occasional printing and distributing of handbills or circular letters drawing attention,to the facilities he ()Nets. Ile had better allow 15s. a week for that.. It is to be preSumed that a profit of at least £3 a week will be expected, so that he wants a total return of very nearly £12 if the business is going to be sufficiently remunerative to be worth while.
How the Revenue is to be Obtained.
He is going to make 12 journeys a week, so that if he can take a journey he -is well covered. To do that, and assuming an average of 6d. a parcel, which
experience has shown to be approximately correct, he must average at least 40 parcels a run. The point h that he has to collect and deliver 40 parcels in'half a day, and it is in this part of the work, rather than the actual travelling, that time will be taken up.
A Time-table Necessary.
The first thing to do is to arrange a -time-table. Then he must circularize the tradesmen, advising them of the times at which he will call for parcels, stating what his charges will be. After a time it will not be necessary, as it may be in the beginning, to call upon every possible client before setting out on the first round. That, if -done regularly, will take up too much time, and the best way to avoid the necessity for it is to follow the plan which has been used with such • success for so long by Carter, Paterson and Co. of having cards printed with his initials or some easily recognizable sign, which his prospective customers can put up in the window when they desire -him to call. This scheme he should endeavour to put into force through but his routes; that is to say, he should get the householders in his ordlying districts to make use of the same signal whenever they want him to take orders from them for collection of parcels in town. Should it seem advisable (if the conditions are such as to make the plan feasible) he might very well sup plement this by doing as the itinerant ice-cream vendors do—having a bell with a distinctive note on his machine, which he can ring as he goes along. The great point is that he must definitely aim-at a load of 40 parcels per run, and must so carefully map out his work that the time occupied in collection and-delivery does not interfere with a time-table based upon two
complete journeys per day. S.T.R.