1917: The Agent's Year Article V.
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Premises, Equipment, and Sales Managers' Immediate Preparations.
By the Editor.
The third article of this series—one from a contributor having been introduced as the fourth—dealt at some length with the deficiencies of accommodation at private-car garages. This branch of our subjeat was treated from the standpoint of demands from owners of commercial „motors, and by their drivers.
Apropos the estimate of 21750 for the construction of a suitable building, in which to receive, store, and maintain notfewer than -50 large commercial motors, we have naturally received a few comments by way of criticism. The communications, so far as their purports go, about balance one another, for and against the accuracy of the average figure which we stated. Any reader who may be contemplating the erection of a depot will do well, we think, to be guided by a local architect or builder, or both, if he wants to arrive at a figure of east upon which there is pre-sent the intention definitely .to act. .
We know quite well that :al. per cubic ft. is an ample rate of expenditure to cover a very good garage building, 'with brick walls, concrete flooring, heating and ventilating, good lighting, and suitable provision' for washing and drainage----one good enough, in fact, to compare with the latest L.G.O.C. gatages in London. A. building-with 10,000 sq. ft. of floor area, and an average height of 15 ft., contains 150,000 cubic ft., and represents, on the foregoing estimate of cost, a total outlay of 21877. Our estimate of capital expenditure in Article III (21750) will prove, when peace conditions permit depots of the kind which we have indicated to be taken in hand for erection or completion, to be en the high side in a large number of instances. We wish to point out that the class of work that is covered by it-is f high quality, and applicable to a building in which commercial motors can be ." handled" in expeditious and thorough fashion! If nothing more than storage and revietualling is contemplated, less than half the money will suffice, Let the Motto Be "Get Ready."
One effect of war restrictions, for an indefinite time to come, is clearly to render the carrying-out of adaptations of existing buildings a matter of extreme difficulty, and the matter -of new building one of virtual impossibility. Those present circumstances, however, are no bar to the making of inquiries and plans, nor to the acquirement of land, buildings, or leases. Our main object is to impress upon the various classes of agents and agency organizations, which must come into effective being and bearing as soon as the war is .over, the urgency of their getting ready. • Agents and Agency Organizatipns Must Be Used.
It matters not what the Branch, Committe-e, Departnient, company or individual through which or whom the Government may hereafter arrange for the disposal,of war-used vehicles. The actual work of distribution will in fact be accomplished by such agents and agency organizations, the whole being in close contact with existing and potential Users. The more numerous the points d'appui the better. That portion of after-War trade which 'concerns war-used vehicles will be but a small and fleeting fraction of the total trade which lies ahead of such agents and agency organizations. They will, between them, have to achieve the absorption of an:. output of heavy vehicles from British factories which will total anything between 9000 and 11,000 per annum, varying with the date at which certain happenings do in fact take place. Smaller vehicles will be additional.
The big side to future business will. not concern the return to civilian work of war-used chassis, but very c22
distinctly the absorption of war-inflated output That is where agents and agency organizations will have an enduring place, in the United Kingdom in the first place, and all over the world by degrees, in the years after the war, We state the outstanding factors in the case, oven at the risk of being accused of repeating some of them, because we feel that they are of sufficient importance to be sent home to every mind which is applying itself to our present series. The year 1917 may not be the year of fruition. It can hardly be that. It is the year for the settlement of terms, the preparation of schemes, the initiation of new selling programmes, and the coming-together of manufacturers, agents and agency organizations under the dominating influence of that spirit of efficiency which must in future be our country's inspiration and trade salvation. Industrial Britain will, otherwise, fail in competition with America, Germany, Japan and other countries. There will beno place for small output or small methods hereafter. Labour must be kept by output.
Helping to Market and hlAintain 10,000 New British-made Heavy Motors Annually.
We are not concerned in this series with descriptive or illustrated articles, Others of that class will appear shortly. It is only for us to indicate, at the moment, the general principles which underlie the drastic changes and upheaving movements in which agents and agency organizations are about to participate_ We are, none the less, concerned with the general arrangement and equipment of any depot, and particularly with the probable expenditure upon it. The agent or agency organization will have the choice, as has already been indicated, between purchasing or erecting a suitable building and renting such a building, but it will only in exceptional instances be possible to acquire necessary equipment in position. We regard, writing in a broad sense, and concerning the scale which is calculated to bring the maximum amount of business, the following as essential equipment for a first-class depot:— (1) Overhead travelling and traversing crane. (2) Storage and measuring installation for petrol.
(3) Warehousing space—say, at least 2000 cubic ft.
(4) Two sliding gates of wood, or rolling shutters, one for entrance and one for exit, providing headroom of not less than 15 ft. from the ground. (5) 20-ton weighbridge. ,
(6) At least one pit (not less than 10 ft. in length by 31 ft. in width by 4 ft. in depth).
(7) Mess-room, and, if possible, six or more cubicles for drivers or their mates, with lavatory accommodation.
(8) Suitable store-rooms, with separate storeroom for oils and greases. (9) Repair bay, with power, machine tools,. and tools suited to the character of the business undertaken, i.e., varying in relation to the number of maintenance contra-eta, but in any event inclusive of a portable smith's-hearth. (10) Breakdown-depot lorry for emergency work. (11) Telephonic connection, with trunk-line facilities.
The Cost of Ee'ng Prepared..
The difficulty of allotting any definite capital sum in respect of the-foregoing 11 heads of expenditure will be obvious. It will probably never be lower than 21150, with the most-favourable arrangements in respect of the supply of a depot vehicle at a price approximating factory cost; it also allows for no specific charge in respect of warehousing space, sliding Ur roll-up doors, pit, structure of -the mess-room, or structure of the store-rooms, which five features are strictly on building account, not equipment account. If, therefore, a new building . is erected and equipped, those who are responsible for the project • must e'prepared to expend about £3000 on it, varying the detail at choice. If a suitable building can be found, already standing but vacant, the annual rental can only be assessed with 'a knowledge of the land value, but the agent or agency organization must be ready to lay down, for the class of equipment which we have summarized, anything between £1000 and £1500, of new money. That is the hostage to fortune to secure esteem as a first-class agency, and from that
• „esteem the rewards which appertain.
Care About Staff.
• One advantage of the proper planning and equipment of a depot is the high efficiency of the personnel in it. Adequate means of ingress and egress (with a " run through " if possible), facilities for the rapid loading, unloading, or transfer of goods, a well-considered disposition of the several departments, and the placing of the manager's office at a point from . which the whole of the work can be overlooked, jointly and severally contribute to the avoidance of delays or _ other difficulties which must cause loss of" time for everybody. Cleanliness, despatch, light and plenty of room go far to make a commercial-motor depot a success.
. The staff difficulty will solve itself as soon as the men of the M.T., A. S.C., or any considerable numbers of them, arc released from their military duties. That -may be anything between six and eighteen months from now, or even longer, -but the day of their return. is assured. The present shortage of suitable managers, superintendents, and foremen, will then end, .but nobody can honestly claim to postpone the settle-meat of a, comprehensive scheme for basic a-gent or ;agency-organization extensions, on the vital side of depot provision, Ws pretending that the staff will not :be in due course available. Such professed doubts-and we have heard them expressed—are worthy of a Spaniard.
One Man Now—the Sales Manager.
The staff that is required now consists essentially of one person per company, and he is the sales manager. Deprived of nearly all his normal pre-waraotivitios and occupations, the sales managers of the prin6pal British "commercial-motor companies have been in many cases -merely standing by. It is true that they have been given other work, and, as it is our pleasure to testily, work of a useful kind. but they hay° in a sense merely been marking time. They must terminate this tentative state of waiting, and strike out quickly ; they must crystallize their agency
schemes to the point of converting their boards of directors, and they can do so, we believe, with but little if any difficulty. Of what are their schemes to consist ? Certainly not of any considerable demands for staff at the outset.
The principal care about staff, at the moment, for the directors of any British manufacturing company in the commercial-motor industry, is that they shall possess themselves of a good sales organizer in the first place, and that they shall keep him on his legitimate work in the second. His legitimate work, in relation to present and prospective happenings, so far as we can ourselves judgei and in that conclusion we know that we are fully supported by the actions and intentions of some of the leading makers in the country, is to make arrangements to establish depots service depots': an office will not in future carry the business. That is step number one, but it is a step the correct making of which will take both thought and time, will involve a succession of negotiations with nu-menials pastiest, and will need to be closely co-related VI finance. The country must be divided up into areas, or into centres, by the revivified sales manager with a " live " company behind him, and he will certainly find it impossible—either in men or premises—to obtain all that he wants, in all the centres and areas into which it may be decided to map out the countryawithout study on the spot in each section. Them factors in the case all dictate a relentless decision not to wait. The makers who wait Will find themselves left,. as will the agents who do not show a preparedness to deal with agency proposals from new standpoints. Agencies will be established over their heads, if they do not give a lead themselves on new lines.
The principal members of the staffs of after-war agency organizations will be business engineers. We cordially endorse the view that there is no place in the salesmanship of commercial vehicles for the ordinary sales practices of private-oar salesmen. The successful engineer-salesman will also know something about traffic .conditions, the law of highways and locomotives, shipping and railway rates,. contract usages, warehousing customs, and germane matters. He will be a man with a sufficient measure of the judicial spirit to enable him to decide for or against, the engineering side of the business, when the traffic side is importunate, as may be necessary for the best conduct of the whole ; he will find frequent appeals made to him, as the result of this unending contest between the two branches of any transport business. It will be one of the earliest duties of the general sales manager to discover men who possess these qualifications, with a view to their being allocated to agency-depot control when the depots are ready. We trust, that agents as such will be given every chance, before the maker's depot is irrevocably arranged. As to this,' we must write more very soon.
It is not our intention to deal with the Minor staff in the present series. That will present no difficulty. It will, none the less,. be treated by us as incidental te the illustrated articles on the subject of equipment to which we have made earlier referenc& and which articles will be published by this journal later on.
First Indications.
Austin's " matter of import.n,nce," concerning which we have moreto say elsewhere in this issue, should serve to rouse a sense of appreciation in manufacturers who have not yet fermed a definite plan of action. The Austin eh.curnstances are in themselves unique, and in some ways in the nature of a preference. The position which has been created dees in any event give British buyers the chance to obtain 'British chaisis, and that will help both
These Sunderland premises may have a suitable area behind them. country and trade.