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21st June 1921, Page 34
21st June 1921
Page 34
Page 35
Page 34, 21st June 1921 — HINTSFOR HAULIERS.
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An Occasional Chat on Subjects and Problems of Interest to those Who are Engaged, or About to be Engaged, in Running Commercial Vehicles for a Living.

WE MAY now, after the little digression caused by having to devote some attention to the alteration of our tables involved by the sudden change in the price of petrol, revert to our main theme—the discussion of a proper means of recording the actual cost of running metor vehicles. In a previous article I have indicated that, of all the varions items which appear on our table of working costs, there are only three which call for daily records ; namely, fuel, lubricants, and maintenance. I have dealt at scene length with the method of entering fuel costs, and, at the dame time, indicated how oils and greases would have to be recorded. The methods adopted in the case of these two were corn-. paratively simple. They do not call for much book • work, and one entry per day will do for each of them. The third item, however—maintenance—may not be dealt with so • eepeditiously. This department of running coats includes, as I have frequently pointed out in. the course of these articles, a large number of small individual items. They are so many that it would certainly be absurd for us to attempt to provide a column for each in our form. What we shall have to do will be to have a single column for maintenance, in which the total cost per day only will appear ; the items themselves will have to be enumerated " off," as it were.

It will be of advantage to discuss this matter at some length., not only for the purpose of making clear the method of recording Maintenance costs, but also to the end that. the reader may gain a more thorough appreciation of the real meaning of this item in the balance sheet, for it has been made quite clear to me that it is very tardy, indeed, that any commercial vehicle owner fully appreciatee the term. see , I will imagine that I am talking to the owner of four vehicles, and we will just consider that. the following are the items issued from the stores to those four vehicles in the course of a single day :— • The driver of No. 1 comes along to the office—shall we say, cap in hand, or, for convenience sake, on his heed—and reports that on the previous day the porcelain of one of his sparking plugs had cracked ; • that he had used his space and wants another one to replace it. Moreover, he appears to have had a regular run of ignition trouble, for he •reports that the platinum tip has worn right off the magneto contact serew, and :that. he wants a new one for that. lie has lost the cap off the grease cup for the onside steeling pivot, and takes a replacement for it, as well as a length of wick for his lamps. These assorted items, together with the petrol and oil, which are recorded already, complete the require, ments for No. 1 lorry. The driver of No. 2 takes s half a pint of paraffin for his lamps. He also reports that he has boat his pliers, and asks if he may have a new pair. We may take it that he gets these, accompanied by a little homily as to the necessity for taking care of his own tools. No. 3 ha.S been doing a little running repair, and wants three split pins. No. 4 lorry is. not going out at all, but has been partly dismantled for purposes of overhaul. The requirements here are pretty extensive. A Fallon of paraffin for cleaning, as well as some cleaning rags, are required as a preliminary. The driver • takes a new 'clutch liner, a set of side-brake liners, our sparking plugs, a complete set of high-tension wiring, two exhaust valves complete, and four exhaust valve springs. He takes 72 bolts of various sizes, with their accompanying nuts and springs, or

plain washers. He takes a couple of &gen split pins, four No. 2 grease cups, one No. 1 ditto, as well as half a dozen assorted grease cup caps. He asks for a compression tap to replace one that has unfortunately received a blow in course of dismantling, which has had the effect of breaking off the shank. He takes four new piston rings, three springs for the locking gear of the gearbox, a new second-speed wheel and a, ball bearing, as well as a new leather cover for one of the universal joints.

A mere perusal of the foregoing will suffice to indicate the scope of that item—maintenance. I am not suggesting that this expense will occur daily in connection with a fleet of four lorries. The long list of items for lorry No. 4 is obviously a special one, and would not recur more than once a. year. Even in the case of the other three, it is fair to state that the run on the stores on the particular day we have chosen is an unusually heavy one. The point that I am at however, is that these are the sort of things that have to be charged against maintenance. It is for the recording of these items that we require to make some provision, and we have to consider the matter from two aspects. First of all, how is the owner going to keep track • of these items? Naturally, this will depend lamely on circumstances. Generally, however, nothing

elaborate will be necessary. As a rule, the stores will be quite a small one, and the best arrangement is one in which access to it is only obtainable through the office, so that locking the office door locks the stores. Drivers will, of course, be forbidden entry to the office, and in that manner the stores will be safeguarded against petty 'pilfering.

As regards actual entries, the simplest way of recording the stores issues will be to keep one book about the size of an ordinary exercise book, in which each page would be divided into four vertical columns, one for each lorry, and each column again ruled for cash entries. In order to simplify matters still further, it would be preferable to allocate one page, or perhaps half a page, a day, closing each page or half-page after transference of the total to the main table of running expenses. In this book will be entered, under the column appertaining to the lorry concerned, the actual stores given out. For example, under No. I lorry will be entered, on the particular day we have in mind, one sparking plug, 5s. 6d. ; one platinum-tipped screw, 4s. 3d. ; one grease cup cap,

one lamp wick, id. The items given out to the drivers of the other lorries will be entered in a similar manner, and for this partievlar day the page of our rough .maintenance notebook will appear as in the accompanying table :— THE .SKOTCH.

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