Helping the Export Drive
Page 22
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
AN interesting little story lies behind a big order from overseas which was received recently in this country.
Some weeks ago we included in this journal two pages of pictures of various passenger vehicles. Amongst them was one illustration, and, incidentally, the smallest, showing a particular type of light bus. It so happened that an important executive of a big operator in West Africa was visiting Portugal, where he picked up a copy of the particular issue containing this picture, saw that the vehicle was just the type he wanted and almost immediately left for England to place a valuable contract.
An important point concerning this is that it is payable in dollars, for the reason that this particular part of the Empire appears to possess some small but valuable reserves of this currency.
This is only one of a large number of instances in which "The Commercial Motor" is playing an effective part in promoting our export trade, which is so vital to us, particularly during this critical period. As a result of a fairly wide-spread circulation of the journal in the Empire and foreign countries, potential buyers abroad frequently write to us for information concerning various products of the industry which we represent, or for the names of British producers. We have noted particularly that there has been an increase in these during the past few months. We are very glad to be of service to British manufacturers and, consequently, to the country, in this special way.
As a rule, we are able to give first-hand information regarding the suitability of particular vehicles for definite classes of work, because, in most eases, such vehicles have been road tested by us under full load and various road conditions. Admittedly, these may not be so severe as some that are likely to be encountered overseas, but they afford a fairly good indication of the respective merits of the different makes and types. For vehicles designed especially for what may be termed colonial conditions and where rough usage is likely to be the order of the day, more drastic trials may be necessary, possibly including a certain amount of cross-country running, but the majority of overseas sales concern types which vary little from those proved in Britain.
There is little doubt that in the commercial road transport field, the British-built vehicle for the carriage of goods or passengers can vie with any produced throughout the world. The recent war proved their capabilities in a manner with which no ordinary trial could compare, and of these tough tasics the famous advance from El Alamein was a striking example.
The more British vehicles go abroad, the better are likely to be our prospects in this direction, ,provided we continue to embody in our products the best of British brains and materials.