Hauliers Should Repair Their Own Vehicles
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Outspoken Criticism of Our Leading Article in the Issue of
By E. B. Howes,
July 13, 1945, in Which fee Expressed the Opposite View Director, A. ,Saunders and Son (Harpenden), Ltd.
FOR the first time, I believe, in my experience o" The Commercial Motor "—and I havebeen a. constant reader for very many years—I find myself at variance with its editorial policy. I am of opinion that-in the views expressed in the leading article in the issue dated July 13, 1945, the
journal is incorrect. •• disagree immediately with the sub-heading, which suggests _that the balance of the argument, as to who should service commercial vehicles, is " in favour of the motor trade." • On the contrary,. it is entirely , in the opposite direction, as I shell•ehow.
, I do agree. with the criticisms, of much of what the N.A.R..T.G. is proposing to do, :particularly in respect of balk. buying, and have given expression to that view in many articles which Lhave written on the subject.
I shall shortly take the opportunity to give public expression 'to my views on that, and on grouping problems generally, at a general meeting of the Saunders (Harpenden) Group of Hauliers, to 'which I shall invite the Press, and especially S.T.R. It is my intention, at. that meeting, to
disclose •details ofthe working. of that group'; and to explain
its simple constitution,, which haS remained unaltered from the date of formation, nearly 10 years ago. • The proof of the pudding is in the:eating, and the facts that the Harpenden Group has been an ontAtanding success and has never mice' looked back throughout the whole of its existence is, I maintain, an unanswerable argument in favour of ,the principles of its operation.
But the main part of this leading articles and the part to which, with all due respect to the Editor; I take objection,
is that which suggests that the haulier shciuld entrust the servicing of his vehicles to the local motor agent. I assert, with little or no fear of contradiction by anyone of know ledge and experience of the subject, that any haulier, whatever be the size of his business, who enlists outside help for servicing and repairing his vehicles, will soon be out of business.
There are three parties to this affair: the vehicle manufactmer, the.motor'agent and repairer, and the haulier. In my view the rilaker-is the principal offender. About 80 per . . cent, of the maintenance and repair cost of hauliers' vehicles is the 'outcome of weaknesses in manufacture, due, -in the main I must admit,. to the fact that licensing, especially _licensing, for operation under the Road and Rail Traffic Act, i9 hased upon unladen weight. That, and the limit of speed to --20 m.p.h, for vehicles weighing more than 3 tons' unladen, are aethe bottom of Most of our maintenance and repair troubles.
A little latitude in this respect, a diminution effalong the line of the heavy ,burden of taxation we have, to hear, so thai. an additional few hundredweights on the chassis would
'not involve heavy increases in taxation, would give our' manufacturers more latitude, thus enabling them to Make things easier for us in respeet of such matters as those,-aYith which I will now treat. .
Cylinders should be lined, and the liners so fitted • that they Can easily be removed and replaced. Jeicidentally, at least'one manufacturer of 'oil engines ha e already taken that step, 'Or I am informed that the Perkins P6 engine-is so designed. The practice should be universal, for reboribg, with its expense Mid risk' of failure, is one of otir principal lergbears. Braking systems could be improved. Of the many systems in use it should surely be possible, 110W, for manufacturers to agree as to which is the best and least troublesome in operation, arid tp standardize, it. I have niy own view
on the subject, but refrain-from mentioning names. .
Manufacturers are to blame in another respect tiao. They are not even yet in agreement as to the policy to be followed in appointing service agents; the result is that there isan unnecessarily large nutiabeiof small repairers, many of them inefficient, scattered all over The country. • As for the service 'agents :themselves; their standing in • this matter can best be judged by hauliers who have had major overhauls or major repair jobs carried out by them.. They will tell you that the service man is much more skilful (or artful) in his method of making eel. his invoices than he is in carrying out repairs; Most of them appear to have been well educated 'in that respect' and, what is more,. judging by the similarity of their work in this connection, they must all he entitled to wear the seine old school tie.
It has apparently been suggested to the Editor that hauliers are in the habit of limiting the discretion of the repairmen by being specific in their instructions, and cornplainiaz if the repairer goes beyond them. I should think that such cases are rare and so\ exceptional as to prove the rule that the hauliers' usual attitude is to !tell the repairer to " do the job." No haulier with any common sense could do otherwise, for he can rarely tell, frothobserved symptoms, the nature of the trouble or the extent of the requisite repair. Further, I should think that the number of repairers who would accept Orders on sun limited turns most be small, for those who do so are very foolish indeed.
The cost of maintenance is much -too big an item in a haulier's expenditure for him to treat it lightly. It is, in my opinion, so important, in relation to his potential profits, and the future of _his business that, if he hands the work over to a repaiittr instead.of -doing the work himself, and paysthe charges usually asked by repairers, he will have no profit left. A haulier, to be successful, must be lawyer, business man, accountant, cOmmereial traveller, driver, engineer, mechanic,blacksmith and coachbuilder