LEAVES FROM THE INSPECTOR'S NOTEBOOK.
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Garage Men's Accountancy. Still Improving the Breed ?
• It has always been the custom to regard the plumber's bill as the last word in commercial cal/mu-Stage—I hate to use the word, but there is no adequate substitute of which I know. The plumber's bill, and, indeed the bill of any workman called to the aid of the householder, generally errs on the side of its abundance of ,detail and of the indefinite nature of its description. The only thing definite 'about it is the total, the/ sum to be paid. The householder spontaneously eyes such a bill with distrust. He is, as often as not,entiaely-at sea asito the details of the work which that much maligned craftsman states .on paper that he has founds it necessary to undertake. He is even worse confused as to the reasonableness of the charges made for these doubtful services. • There is some similarity between the reception acaiorded to this class of account, and to that now and then submitted by the man or firm to whom repairs of a motor vehicle have been entrusted. I have, in the 'course of my business, had submitted to me not a few bills of this kind, with the request for my o_pinion as to their reasonableness. And I Must admit that, inquite a considerable proportion of these documents, I have thought there was every reason to
suspect their soundness of compilation. I am, of course, excepting the better-conducted repairing organizations whose charges, although frequently appearing high, are generally based on actual services rendered.
The point that I am driving at is that I feel sure that, in far too few, cases, does the small repairer make the slightest effort to cost his work. His-charges more often than not are based on a guess on the part of the foreman or mechanic, or perhaps of the manager, if there be one as to "about what it ought to be worth "—in most cases • a very misleading estimate. Bills based on data—or even the absence of them—of this kind are more often than not 'the beginning of-considerable wrangling and ultimate illfeeling, with the result of discontinuance of custom.
However small the organization, it cannot be too firmly urged that all work so undertaken should be accurately costed. The plea for Accuracy does not imply the necessity for intricate and painstaking book-keeping, but merely for the application of rudimentary business principles only. Very much harm is caused to the trade by aninformed.invoicing in the way suggested. Very often such accounts are the result of the -merest 'guesswork, to the ultimate disgust of the victim, who is expected to draw his Cheque without demur. There is little doubtthat the owners of a large proportion of se-called garages and workshops make no effort whatever to base their charges on actual costs and reasonable profit.' That it is good bifsiness that they should do so is a sine qua non for the reputation of the industry.
Many an enthusiastic owner of a commercial vehicle, to say nothing of the so-called pleasure car, hashed his ardour seriously damped slay, the receipt of over generously conceived bills for repairs. •In the long run such disappointment reacts adversely On the repairer. It has Lobe remembered that, in all but a few cases, the' repairer's compiled bill will be received in a critical fashion and .very often grudgingly.. Ti .is therefore a very serious step to -take that wenld tend to aggravate such a frame, of mind. I cannot. too strongly urge that even the simplest of Organizations would serve their own interests infinitely better by basing their charges properly on eoFits, and not on guesswork. It takes no more time, but requires a little more thought and 'a little More orderliness in basiness rriethods.
Were an inquiry made, it would be surprising, to find how few' repairers and garage men know anything whatever of the 'costs oftheir work. They rely on a sufficiently generous estimate of the value of theif services and of the* of their assistants as well as that of the material Used, to. cover all risks of not making a profit. In that way, no sound.business is built up. There will be a great opportunity for a properly organized repair and .garage business awbea Peace time transport develops on the lines which this war has indicated, as' probable., It would be well if all those who are certain to inaugurate and develop business of this description would take care to do so on lines at which the user would have no. right to cavil.
Still Improving the Breed?
When I pick up my-evening paper, riot the least astonishing thing that meets my eye is the column or two of letterpress' devoted to " Turf Topics." To Me, it is an inconceivable thing that labour, money and transport should, after four years of war, still be wasted in Considerable quantities on this' so-called sport. *On inquiry from friends of mine-who are :supposed to know something of racing, I learn that the Government decided to allow restricted racing— whatever that may-mean—on the score that a certain national purpose was served by such action. 'This
• decision was reached, I am told, after strenuous efforts by representations from those who are interested in horse racing, and who were able to persuade the Government that racing is the only possible way in which the breed of horses can be ".impaoyed." This, to my way of thinking, is so futile An excuse that I am astonished to find that anyone could have had the assurance to put it forward at this late date.
Of all racing I can imagine few forms of less sporting A nature than that in which, horses, all Of the same pattern and capacity, are matched. The :deadly tiresomeness of the 'racing part of a day's racing and of the hour-long intervals point all too clearly to the fact that racing pure and simple is merely the excuse for the other well-known characteristics of such fixtures.
cannot iinagine that the horse, as a horse,. benefits' to any appreciable extent by such artificial tests—certainly not the horse that matters; the horse that we are all sobusy displacing.
Th,e industrial horse, to borrow an adjective so largely employed in our own businesses, haa surely been prodaced, without the slightest reference to data or statistics made available by horse racing. In other wards; there appears to be no more national need to continue to waste time, labour, transport and material by the continuance of horse facing than by the retention of' a showman's steam roundabotit—and :a good deal more harm. • •
The horse, from the utility point of yieva has improved not one tittle from thisapparently_ futile • method of test. If the motor industry had berinted
. no more than has the horSe industry from the trials and tests to which it has been subjected, the progress , which could have been reported would have. been nil..' If horse racing proceeds for another. fifty years, the horse will still only be capable of .pulling a light van, or, in team, a heavy wagon. for a certain number of miles per hour: its capacity is known ton, foot-pound, • and Newmarket and all its big-Wigs will not increase it by a solita,ry unit.