Insurance "With Profits."
Page 1
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One of the leading motorcar-insuranc3 companies, the " Car and General," has announced yet another striking departure. This is the adoption of the " with profits " principle, so that insurers receive the benefit of an interesting adaptation of co-operative trading. A positive guarantee is given that there willbe a cash return of 10 per cent. on the premium paid, as each policy falls due for renewal, and arrangements have been made with Messrs. Deloitte. Plender, Griffiths and Co., the well-known auditors and chartered accountants, to supervise and certify the special accounts concerned with these new " with profits " policies in this company's books. Our only regret is that. this scheme is not at the moment to he applied to business motors, but is to be restricted to motorcars in the hands of private or professional owners. The departure is none the less worthy of record in our pages, because we hope to see the advantages extended to owners of commercial vehicles before long. The matter of standard insurance policies for various types of business motors has for some time p9..st been occupying the attention of a special committee of tht. Commercial Motor Users Association. The work of this committee has, we understand, very nearly reached its final stage, and a number of leading companies will be afforded the opportunity to ouute for the cover of the necessary risks in competition. As the basic clauses of all the policies will b3 in identical terms, owners of commercial motors will know where they stand, and will themselves have merely to make a choice between rates which apply to exactly the same benefits. Any conditions, reservations or restrictions will be stated distinctly and separately, so that both their extent and nature may be rendered apparent at sight. No one &flee will be favoured, but the same principle will be followed as that which has given satisfaction in the east. or the lluyal Automobile Club : the adoption of a standard, coupled with equal opp(0.tinities for a number of reliable and substantial offices.
Battery-vehicle Hypotheses.
It appears to us that our battery\ chicle friends in this country are trying to run before I hey have learned how to walk. Assertions and expectations will not carry them through. Ascertained and cert itied working costs must. be produced, and these must not con cern only the charges for electricity. We hold the pages of THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR open to the advocates of every class of power for road-transport purposes, and we shall not hesitate to let the advocates of the battery vehicle have their say to the fullest extent, subject to comment when necessary.
A long communication will be found in this issue, from a representative of the Edison interests, but we doubt if it will carry conviction to the general body of readers, or will be found satisfactory if regarded as testimony or acceptable proof. The vehicles in the hands of English owners, or of parties willing to try battery vehicles, are mostly very new. It should not be necessary to visit a showroom to obtain proof of "all in " working costs, and we ask for the production of reliable vehicle-mile figures, from America or elsewhere, which can be compared in our pages with known results For petrol and steam. If our friends who advocate the battery vehicle do not make a conclusive response, we shall consider thatthey are unable to do so.
We are told that the report of the engineer to the Heston and Isleworth U.D.C., which was published at length in our is.tie of the 9th inst. (pages 1 12-144 ante), should be accepted as independent proof of the correctness of the claims which are so often repeated by electric-vehicle salesmen. We cannot accept that contention. The report, in our judgment, is largely hypothetical. We believe that a couple of years' experience may even cause the engineer to the authority in question to admit that his figures were based upon misapprehensions. For example, in respect of the steam wagon which his calculations show in an inferior light to the battery-driven vehicle, we are entitled to ask, further to our incidental criticisms of a fortnight ago (page 126 (Inte), when we pointed out that ii was sought. to expend an extra, 1:220 of public money on capital account at the outset, the following pertinent questions :
(1) Why was no allow.1-ee made for the ability of any ordinary five-ton eam wagon to haul a trailer with another three tons of material?
(2) Why was an absolutely-ridiculous charge put against the steam wagon by claiming that it would require to be "in dock" for two days per month, amounting to £48 16s. per annum for horse hire in substitution?
(a) Why was the energy consumption for the
electric vehicle based upon a hard-road and dryweather theoretic rate, instead of upon actualities which are applicable to an area which includes many miles of macadamized roads.;
The answer, as we forecasted two weeks ago, is probably found in the wish of this purchasing authority to put forward a " decoy" for other possible buyers in the neighbourhood, in order to encourage the sale of electricity for power purposes by its central-station undertaking. There is no reason why a "decoy" of the kind should not be adopted, but the object should be avowed.
It is perfectly legitimate, within limits, for a municipally-owned electricity undertaking to help to sell its own products. The point at issue is one of degree in some senses, but it may also become one of principle. Shall we shortly see, as in the United States, an organization, backed by the proprietors of power stations in this country, acting as an adjunct to the sales departments of battery-vehicle makers ? Apart from politico-economic considerations which may arise, qua this new aspect of municipal trading, we feel, from the user's point of view, that there may be some advantage. That has yet to be demonstrated, because we have not yet had submitted to us, as we have already indicated in this short article, acceptable and satisfactory proofs of lower working costs per vehicle-mile for any battery vehicles, compared with either petrol-driven or steam-driven vehicles.