DEPARTMENT STORE AND ITS CUSTOMERS.
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Creating Goodwill with a Fleet of Smart Appearance.
DEPARTMENT stores, to the pub_Lille mind, are what their policies, their staff and their mechandize make them. To these necessary qualities, however, must be added their delivery system. Courtesy on the part of sales people, whether in -the store or from drivers of the delivery vans that complete the sale by delivering the purchase to the customer's door, is important, and equally so is the quality of delivery equipment that is employed.
Mr. N. Benson, superintendent of_ equipment for Messrs. Mandel Brothers. proprietors of a leading department store in Chicago, declares that public demand has played an important part In developing department store delivery systems into what they are to-day. He is fond of quoting a case where in the years when the firm's deliveries were entirely made by horse-drawn vehicles, a lady complained because the iron rims of the wheels made so much noise in going by her house. The result was the fixing of rubber tyres.
In those days smart equipages known " tally-ho's " served the better neighbourhoods, the vehicles having a crew of a driver and two footmen, all resplendent in silk hats, breeches and top hoots. To-day, howevel., virtually every customer is a motor owner who likes to see a handsome vehicle pull up at his door. In consequence, the Mandel delivery fleet is now entirely composed of vehicles having dis tinctive bodies mounted on high-class chassis, whilst twice as many. menare engaged in keeping bodywork clean and
the paintwerk in prime condition as are employed in the effibient mechanical maintenance of the vans themselves. Customers' influence has asserted itself in. other ways. As patrons settle in new suburbs, even farther from the centre of the city, they expect delivery service to follow them. As delivery routes push steadily outwards into the suburbs, so the necessity for fast and dependable, as well as economical, transport equipment increases in proportion. Moreover, customers are growing more exacting. From being satisfied with receiving to-morrow the goods purchased to-day, they now not only expect delivery the same day but even at a specific hour in the day. To meet these conditions the firm now has one zone, 125 square miles in extent, where deliveries are made twice daily. The outlying sections are covered once a day. Purchases made up to one o'clock are handed over the same day in the twotrip zone.
Keeping faith. with patrons educated to expect this kind of punctuality means not only good organization but the best mechanical equipment. The building up of the present delivery fleet of 125 units commenced in 1911, and some of the White vans then purchased are still in use, despite the high standard of performance and appearance that is demanded. Standardization, Mr. Benson
declares, has advantages both inside the garage and with the customers. The customers become familiar with the appearance of the vans, and every time they see one the same friendly impression is registered and they automatically come to think of the Mandel Brothers' store.
In the garage, standardization makes maintenance easier, more satisfactory and cheaper. Mechanics naturally become more proficient in the care and repair of one make than they can be with several. Parts are easier to obtain, and fewer need be carried in stock. Responsibility is easier to 5..K and a better morale among drivers is a direct result, for there is none of the feeling on the part of one that another has a better van to drive. All being familiar with the same make of van, too, it is easier and safer to change drivers from one Van to another.
Only four men, each a specialist, are employed on the mechanical staff. One is an electrician, one a lathe man, One an engine specialist and the other a chassis expert. :These men are employed at the South Side garage, where there is also a greaser. The maintenance staff at the North Side garage, six miles away, is composed only of a night mechanic and a greaser. In the prestandardization days the maintenance staff was much larger. With a multiplicity of makes, it was found that the fleet necessary had to be a third larger than when hut one make was installed. Other drawbacks were higher labour costs, delivery irregularity and money tied Pp in extra equipment.
It is not the practice of this firm to send out delivery vans straight from the store. Outgoing goods are sent first to the garages in heavy-duty lorries, and it is from these points that the operations of the delivery vans are undertaken.
On the returning of each van from the day's run, a report is handed in detailing the needs in respect of minor adjustments, and the drivers report mileage, petrol and oil consumption, the number of packages delivered and the number of stops made. By keeping these records, Mr. Benson can see at a glance, when making his annual review, how many days each van was in service, the mileage covered, the number of packages delivered for the year or per day, petrol and oil consumption, delivery station expenses, tyre cost per mile, per day and even for each package delivered by the vehicles.