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Other aspects of this emphasis on the specialist nature of
Page 68
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commercial vehicle selling may be detected in the country-wide provision of pre-MoT-test facilities, the priority being given to building up the Quality and Reliability section's influence in design and production (which is examined elsewhere in this supplement) and the more recent introduction of a contract maintenance scheme, operated through the truck dealers.
Attention to individual users' requirements will obviously become even more important as Bedford moves—as it surely will—up the weight scale to at least the present maximum of 30/32 tons. Even without this, however. Vauxhall's thoughts are turning more and more to the twin goals of providing tailored specifications and designing for longer-lived major units on vehicles.
For instance, where one now talks of 100.000 miles between major engine overhauls, Bedford is assessing what it would mean—not least in cost—to double this life. On the same theme, increasing attention is being given to unit replacement; Vauxhall is not alone in believing that workshop labour will become rapidly scarcer and more expensive. Already, 4-96 Bedford truck components are available as unit replacements.
In exploiting unit longevity and simple replacement, Vauxhall is setting its truckselling sights on low cost per ton-mile. It sees this as perhaps the most important single criterion by which trucks will come to be consciously judged over the next decade.
In assessing Bedford's potential, there is also the important point that a move into the higher weight ranges would bring no costly headaches over engine availability. General Motors has well-proven diesels readily available for powers up to 400 bhp, and turbines at the road proving stage.
In the vast General Motors complex, Vauxhall Motors is but one member of Overseas Operations Division, itself one of 40 GM divisions. But to say this is to give an inadequate impression of the company's true standing. Vauxhall is the only GM subsidiary outside North America which designs and manufactures commercial vehicles—except for the light commercials produced by Opel. Overseas Operations has plants in Belgium. Australia, Denmark, New Zealand, . Portugal and South Africa which assemble Bedfords.
This, and the fact that Bedfords are sold in about 120 countries means that any new Bedford project has to be considered on a global basis from sales and servicing points of view as well as design and development. One result is that although General Motors Corporation believes in centralized policy and decentralized operations, in practice there has to be constant two-way consultation. Vauxhall advises GM of any major project which is planned, and GM will give its views. As the project gets under way, many areas of Overseas Operations will become involved.
Among the good reasons for this is the plain fact that other countries have raised their legal weight and size limits in advance of Britain, so the greatest pressure for uprating trucks now comes from overseas.
The liaison with GM in America would in any case be strong, simply because of the enormous facilities and experience which the parent company can offer. For example, if Bedford goes for turbocharging, then GM in the States caii provide a wealth of design, test and operational data on the subject. The North Atlantic air is busy with the to-and-fro of Vauxhall and GM executives.
Complicating the whole picture of design and development these days is the great tangle of legal requirements in which the world's transport authorities have enmeshed themselves. Virtually every model produced by an export-orientated company has to be engineered or modified to meet a host of different local limitations; and almost every populous country except Britain now has a type approval scheme. This accounts for a steady attendance at Luton and Dunstable of certification and inspection officers from all over the world.
On the marketing front, insists Vauxhall, there is not the GM-imposed "carve-upwhich so many people believe to exist. It is economic considerations, rather than any pre-arranged division of markets, which determines where Bedfords are sold.
On the engineering and design side, Vauxhall is very much an entity—with the provisos already referred to. (The company was bought outright by GM in 1925 and produced its first Bedford in 1931).
Vauxhall buys-in many of its truck components but its own facilities are extensive: as well as the Dunstable truck plant, the Luton car/van plant and the Ellesmere Port factory which builds complete cars and commercial vehicle components, there is a die-making works at Bedford and an enormous parts centre at Toddington, opened in 1967. The impressive engineering and styling building opened at Luton in 1964 is complemented by a test track at Chau! End, a few miles away, and the new 700-acre proving ground 18 miles north of Luton.
Who runs Vauxhall? An intriguing but amicable blend of American and British directorial talent. David L. Hegland, chairman and managing director, has been in charge for about four years: he is US-born but in a manner typical of GM senior executives has worked for the company outside the USA ever since the war. Other Americans on the board in an executive capacity are L. F. Coyle, a Kansas-born ex-Chevrolet man who is director a manufacturing: W. F. Harden, newh appointed production director, and anothe Chevrolet man; and L. W. Wright, directo of reliability and quality control, who for merly held a similar post with Buick.
The British directors are almost all long serving Vauxhall men. Chief engineer Johr Alden has been with the company since 1938: R. R. Hopkins is personnel director R. May is director of supply; G. E. Moore sales director; C. F. P. Waller is directo of materials and scheduling, and is Vauxhall ex-apprentice; and the treasurer D. A. West, is also a long-servinE employee.
Where does Vauxhall stand in the Ul< market ? For years now Bedford corn mercials have enjoyed between a quarte and a fifth of the total sales in the UK Following Ford of Britain's determine( thrust into the truck and van field ir 1964-5, these two wholly US-owner companies have come to share almos half the total commercial vehicle market numerically. Yet, interestingly, they h avi had very little obvious effect upon on( another's sales. Marketing strategies Ix either side have, it seems, accepted tha in launching a new model little will be los to, or won from, the other. It is othE parties who seem to be affected.
At the upper end of the market a new batth is waiting to be fought. The establishe heavy makers are consolidating the designs and expanding their production and the medium-weight producers, havini already moved up to the 22/24/28-to ranges, are assessing their chances in th heavy league which may (though nc yet) open up to even higher maximur weights. For some, Britain's entry into th EEC, and the opening up of much biggc markets for top-weight vehicles, ma prove the crucial factor in deciding t take the plunge.
It is going to be a fascinating decade This special CM supplement will, we hop( give readers a clear, frank picture of wher Bedford products stand at the start of th Seventies. B.C.