Concerning Demonstration Trials.
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By Henry Sturrney.
Fer some years past, indeed, from the inceptien of the industry, it has been the custom for motor wagon manufac. turers to arrange demonstrations of the abilities of their vehicles in regard to the particolar work to be done in the service of possible customers, and, 10 anyone acquainted with the cost of running such vehicles away from home, it will readily be understood that this is one of the heaviest expenses of the commercial motor manufacturer's business All exceptional expenditure on the part of the manufacturer means the necessary maintenance of prices, and, although the cost of manufacture has to-day been reduced to very lois figures, so that prices are not likely, in this branch of the industry, to be very materially reduced by eccmomies in manufacture, until we run into very much larger numbers than we are doing Lt present, it is quite certain that they cannot be reduced materially while this and other selling charges remtmin as nee . In the earlier days of the industry, demonstration was, of course, a necessity, because the commercial vehicle, as such, was entirely unknown, and manufacturers could not refer enquirers to users, whilst they had very little definite data to work upon, so that the only way of convincing an enquirer that the vehicles were practical was to put them through a few days' work in the enquirer's own service. It was very much the same in regard to the pleasure car, when it first made its appearance, but mere cars are bought to-day without a trial than after one, and it is only the newer and lesser-known makes, or cars possessing some penoliarity in their construction differing from the conventional, or where some very special requirement in work is in question, that there is any need for " trial before purchase " felt. And so it will be, eventually, in regard to COMinvrci:11 motor vehicles.
Horses Not a Parallel.
salt quite understand a purchaser of a horse desiring to give it a trial before purchasing, as there are points in the mental and physical construction of the animal which can only lie discovered by experience, but with the metor vehicle one has a mechanical proposition, and it should be quite possible for a man who is contemplating the employment of such vehicles to arrive at a fairly accurate idea as to whether a vehicle will do his work, or not, without the necessity ot dragging the manufacturer and his property some hundreds of miles to prove it to him. As I stated above, the pleasurecar trade was once hampered by the same requirement, and occasionally it is so still. I remember, in 1897, bringing mv car fro7n John o' Groats to Land's End, and taking it successfully over the Grampians, the Pass of Killierrankie, the Kirkstone Pass in the Lake District, and over all the severe Devonshire and Cornish hills; yet, although I was able to refer to this performance, I was afterwards constantly meeting men. -especially horse owners—who had got a little pimple of a hill in their own back garden, or just outside their own back door, so to speak, up which they were quite certain the car could not get, and the only way to convince them to the contrary was to do it.
Working Data and Guarantees.
Let us see what we have in the commercial vehicle that calls for any special ocular demonstration. We are constantly told by the hesitating purchaser : " Yes, oh, yes, that is all right. I know it will do Jones' work, because I have seen it, but how do I know that it will do mine? " That is the point, to-day, which is the only raison d'etre for these demonstration trial runs. But, surely, in 99 cases out of too, there is no need for it? What a trader has to do, he can ascertain definitely, and put into exact figures. Of what does his work consist? His load requirements, in the first place, never exceed, say, two tons, and will average, usually, so to 35 cwt.
Now, the first condition is whether the vehicle is strong enough to carry this load. If he goes to a manufacturer who has been in the business long enough to have a number of users of a vehicle of this or whatever other calibre is in question to refer to, he can easily ascertain for himself whether the van or lorry he contemplates buying is standing
up Lo its Nvork Nveil, or is always breaking down. Next comes the question of road surface, and, if he wishes to be entirely assured on that point, it will be necessary to compare the experience of a user in a similarly-rough district as his own, should the road in his locality be particularly bad. Upon this question of mere weight-carrying ability, the few days' trial which is usually arranged is unnecessary, although, in the earlier days of the movement, when makers were as new to the game as the users, even a couple of days' trial under load often discovered fatal weaknesses in the construction. Those days have long since passed, however, and it is onlv in the case of new firms and new constructions that anysuch trials, from this point of view, are at all necessary. The 111(11111facturer with a trade connection and reputation should nor need to have to demonstrate the abilities of his vehicles from this standpoint. He has already done this in establishing his business.
Then comes the question of exceptional hills. As above related, most people think the hills in their own locality a great deal worse than they sire, and they think they are worse than they can be in any other place. The matter of hill-climbing capacity under load is purely a mechanical one, and can be dealt with perfectly satisfactorily under guarantee. The trader can ascertain from the local highway surveyor the exact gradient in the steepest part of the particular hill, or hills, he has in mind, and, with the steepest of these gradients in front of hint, he has a direct
mechanical proposition to put to the manufacturer. He vents a vehicle which will take his maximum load of two tons, let us say, up his maximum gradient, which, we will suppose, is .1 in 7 for a length of T50 feet, with soo to 400 feet of i in 9 or i in to each side of it, and the road surface, although not very smooth, is hard. Here are the exact terms of work the vehicle will have to do. Upon this data the manufacturer can calculate definitely, and he will be able to say whether his standard model, in regard to power mod gearing, will accomplish the work required of it, and, if not, he will be able to indicate the modifications that may be necessary to enable it to do so. Then, if either with or without these modifications, the manufacturer is prepared to supply the vehicle under guarantee that it shall do the work required of it, surely there is no need for the intending user to trouble about it further? Havino given his re. quirements in definite figures to the maker, 0'; trader should reeke the fulfilment of those requirements a part of the contract, and ho will be quite safe then, without a trial, because the manufacturer will have to demonstrate to him, not with a special demonstration car, but with his own vehicle, that it will do the work required of it, and if it fails the contract has not been fulfilled, and the vehicle need not be accepted in that state. from that point of view, therefore, there is no need for trials.
The Saving of Time.
Perhaps, however, the user has difficult and awkward premises to get in and out of, or has a number of calls to make to the premises of customers who are so situated. Here, again, if he will give the manufacturer exact irieNsurements and details of the situation, or situations he has in mind, he can figure upon definite data and the maker will either accept, or decline, it, according as his vehicle can or cannot be made to suit itself to the circumstances. This is another peint which can be settled in the contract, but 1 think that, really, what the man who is considering a motor vehicle and wants a trial has in mind, is not so much the ability of the vehicle to deal with the loads required, but rather to ascertain by practical experiment just what sort of a saving in time he would be able to effect by the use of a motor vehicle, in doing work of the nature which his is. The need for constant stopping and restarting for, perhaps, short periods during one portion of the road, and at another part of the journey to run for a mile or two without a stop, suggests the enquiry : how, taking things all round, will the van do his work, as compared with his horses? He surmises that the only way to ascertain this, is actually to get the work done under his own eyes by the type of vehicle he contemplates purchasing. Well, no doubt this is a very convincing method to adopt, but there is no need for hint to go to the expense, or to put the manufacturer to the expense, of such a demonstration, for he can, by taking a little trouble, find out for himself how even this phase cf the situation will pan out. To start with, it must be remembered that there is only one portion of a commercial motor vehicle's work in which it stands exactly Level, as regards work done, with the horsed vehicle, and that is when it is standing still. Now, if the user can ascertain how much stopping time and how much running time his journeys are made up of, he can very easily calculate, with quite sufficient approximate accurary, in order to form a very good idea as to what a motor vehicle is going to do for him. Let him, therefore, either go himself —if he has the time and is sufficiently interested—or send some responsible person provided with a stop watch, with one of his own horse vans for a day's journey. Let this individual carefully check, to the second, the stoppings and startings made during the day, and at the end of it there will be a total on one side of stoppages and on the other of time occupied in actual travelling.
Now, it is this time of actual travelling where the motor vehicle scores, and I think it will be found that the type of motor which could deal with the loads taken by the horsed outfits of the firm would be capable of a speed which will work out, approximately, at three times that of the °Wet form of traction. Horses take their loads more slowly up hills, and so do motors, and both types of vehicle have to
take their share of traffic checks, but the motor can pick up speed, as well as stop, a great deal more quickly in proportion to the actual speed travelled, and the lighter the loads, in either case, the higher will be the average speed. Anyway, by simply comparing time in this way, the nature of the road, which, to a certain extent affects both equally, can be ignored. 'By, therefore, dividing his running time at the end of the day by three, the investigator can say, with very fair accuracy, that two-thirds of this running time will be saved on the day's work, and seeing that, whilst his horses may be probably used up, the motor vehicle can load up and start out immediately for another journey, he can avail himself further of the power of the motor, if the calls of his business dictate, or have the services of his men for that amount of time for other needs.
The Trouble Involved.
All these ascertainings mean, of course, a little trouble and a little painstaking work; but, if the prospective investor will take the trouble to carry them out as suggested, I really do not see why he need put either himself or the maker to the trouble of a practical demonstration. Having ascertained the figures of his requirements exactly, let him give the manufacturer upon whom his choice rests his exactly-specified requirements, and let him make it a part of the contract that the vehicle, when delivered, shall be able to demonstrate its ability to fulfil these requirements. He will then be quite as safe as if he had had a week's demonstration of the vehicle's performances—or even safer_