Where Van Delivery Does. Not Pay B ECAUSE of the labour
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cost involved in packing loose goods, van delivery services to customers' homes are rarely remunerative. This is stated in a survey of the Dutch grocery trade by Dr. S. C. Bakkenist and Dr. D. E. Beutick, reproduced in a special issue of Productivity Measurement Review, published by the European Productivity Agency, 3 rue Andre Pascal, Paris, 16, France.
Far less labour cost was involved in delivering packaged groceries, but although these needed no weighing or wrapping they still required the same degree of clerical labour when orders were being taken and assembled.
On balance, in a consignment of both
kinds of commodity, the losses in handling loose goods were not offset, and of 17 middle-class shops only five showed a profit on van deliveries, whereas the others suffered deficits of up to 14.6 per cent, of the total turnover of the shop.
Of 24 lower-class shops, only five made profits, but these were lower than those of the middle-class shops for which van delivery paid. Losses incurred by the 19 remaining lowerclass shops ranged as high as 22.3 per cent_ of total turnover. This was because the customers of the lowerclass shops bought proportionately more loose than packaged goods.