U.S.A. Conditions.
Page 17
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
I always thought New York was not in the earthquake zone, but this surely is an error, as at every street corner little or big earthquakes are continually taking place. Not a day passes on which, when walking down a street, a brigand-like-looking dago (Italian) stretches out a red flag and motions one with a grimy paw to go further back. One then knows that another earthquake will shortly take place. I should think that more dynamite must be used in New York to the square mile than in any other city in the world, but, in spite of this, it is quite a habitable place to live in. Rapid developments all along the line are very noticeable, at the present moment. Americans have realized that they must have good roads. Hence : to-day, a dirt track ; to-morrow, a macadam road ; the next day, asphalt.
The one element which seriously handicaps loads in this country is the snow-fall, which seems to eat into the metalling or paving so that, every spring, when the snow disappears, enormous holes exist. Although the repairing work is carried on most expeditiously, it takes weeks, and even a few months, to get the roads into a relatively-perfected state again. Large sums of money have been and are being granted by the Government for road improvements. I believe, last year, $2,000,000 was voted towards improvements in State roads. State roads are the main roads all over the country, maintained by the Government, between town and town, village and village, etc., but it is noticeable that., wherever these improvements are made by the Government, the villages do not keep pace with the time,, so that one may have a splendid road for 30 miles, and then run through a large village on the most-abominable and
vilest dirt track imaginable. Evidently, the laws want waking up, and it should be compulsory that the villages should keep their sections of the main roads on a par with the State road connected to it. inter town motor traffic to-day, with the exception of that passing on such lines as New 'York to Philadelphia, is, in the winter, an impossibility. Once the snow has left the ground and the road has dried up, it is just possible from June until December. MI this will have to be changed, and it is evident to me that in a short time, once the conditions get right all around, the States of all countries will deal more largely with commercial vehicles than any other.
To start with, one must examine as a whole the economic conditions which underlie the commercialvehicle proposition. What is the real value of the commercial vehicle against the horse-drawn vehicle ? The answer is economy and speed, the speed or more work effected creating economy. First in the items which go to make up the cost of running a motortruck comes labour. Dealing with this, one finds it to be, in the ease of a 50-mile run per day with a 4A-ton truck, the highest on the cost sheet, labour pay being $3.35 per day, equalling on such a run over Of cents.(31d.) per mile. A motor truck will effectively do the work of four horse-drawn vehicles, and, as the wages paid for a horse-drawn-vehicle driver are about $3 per day, it. will be immediately seen that. with a 13-mile run, which is the average day's work for a 3-4-ton horse-drawn vehicle, this item works out at about 23 cents. (Iqd.) per mile for labour only. This shows a saving per mile of 16i cents. or (81d.) on the labour item alone for the motor. Compare this figure of saving in England : take the wages of a motor driver at 30s. a week, or 5s. a day, and the wages of a carter at. 208. a week, or 4s. 4d. per day, and it shows the labour cost per mile on a motor truck at from id.to H. and the labour cost on a horse-drawn vehicle of 3d. Or
4d. That. English saving of, say, 20. per mile compares with saving in the States of aid. per mile, and it will be appreciated that the economy in this one item alone is greatly in one's favour when running such a proposition in the States.
All other items which go to make up the cost of running a commercial truck here are fairly reasonable, with the exception of the upkeep costs. Petrol can be purchased at an average of lict. per American gallon (approximately 6d. per English gallon, as the American gallon is only seven-eighths of the English gallon). Lubricating oil costs the same as in England. Tires average on a 4k-ton truck from 3d. to 4d. a mile, against lid. to aid. per mile at home. Depreciation should not necessarily be any greater than in England, provided an up-to-date motor vehicle is purchased and is kept in proper repair. The cost of upkeep, although reaching perhaps 50 per cent. more than in England, bears comparison with the cost of horse mortality here, when one realizes that the great heat kills off or renders useless such a large percentage of horses during the hot weather, and likewise during winter weather. These factors give the horse vehicle 50 per cent. efficiency, since they cannot carry more than one-half their usual load under winter conditions.
The above argument disposes of the statement on the question of economy, and, if readers would study the point a little farther, they would at once see what an extraordinary attractive proposition motor-trucking must be in a country where labour wages are high ; since the labour cost is the only item which becomes less per mile the more work one does with a motor vehicle, it is immaterial to a driver who works ten hours a day whether he drives 10 miles. 50. or more.
The other reason which goes to help out my statement is the population. In the States, one has the largest civilized and go-ahead population in the world ; they are peopled with a folk who take up things quickly, and who are not averse to spending money to effect business economies. I do not wish to suggest that they are quite such " scrappers " as one hears at home. America has got its tithe of obsolete machinery still running, but, taken as a whole, there is less antiquated machinery per capita than any other country hence, once this commercialvehicle movement ,gets hold, it will go without a doubt. The remark just made that the State does not possess so much obsolete machinery as other countries is possibly not because of their scrapping tendencies, which we have always understood to be abnormal, but because they invariably do not go in for new machinery or new propositions until Europe has practically perfected the apparatus. This does not apply to all machinery or movements, yet, on the whole, America is not a creator but a copyist, the reason here being more from a sound sense of the business equation rather than lack of enterprise. Citing, as an instance, the pleasure-ear business, there was a tremendous demand for the European product, which was purchased in comparatively-large quantities before the American manufacturer got bold of the game and started pushing it and, even to-day, there is still quite a percentage 6f Americans who prefer to buy a European motorcar to what they term a "domestic" product. The same is now taking place with the motor-truck, but, in the course of two or three years, one can readily see that the imported motor-truck. with a 45 per cent. duty added and the heavier establishment charges necessary to dispose of it, will be a small business, compared with the
damestic made " motor-truck. Hnvioe,