DISCRETION IN OVERSEAS TRADE.
Page 26
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By "The Inspector."
IT IS JUST in the nature of things that, when British manufacturers of commercial-motor vehicles are beset on all sides with difficulties of production, when they find it more than difficult to meet the demands from home sources for their products, the Overseas market should elambur as it has never clamoured before for British industrial models. Before the war most of us gave some thought, at any rate, to the possibility of exporting machines Overseas, but it remained for the novel circumstances which war brought in its train to render it imperative that we should tackle the Overseas,problera on a, proper basis, and most makers are', at the present time, issuing more or less elaborate revised particulars of what they call their Overseas _or Colonial models.
At one time we were all inclined to think that an Overseas model was, necessarily, a machine which could run in the cart tracks that did duty in so many places outside these precious islands of ours in lieu of roads. We had before us facts which went to prove that the underneath clearance of all machines must be very much greater than that to which we are accustomed at home, and that for a similar pur pose large wheels' were a. necessity. Woodwork must all be specially treated, and it were better, in most cases, if it were of material that would resist the red ant, polar cold, tropical heat—and its nasty sticky conditions. Radiators, circulation system, carburetters, 'gear ratios, final drives, • etc., etc., all required modification. All this came about very largely on account of the desire, in the earlier days of motoring, to produce touring cars for Overseas service which would be capable of running where there were no roads, and of being equally suitable for operating under any climatic conditions.
• And go well did we learn that lesson, although we did little to profit by it, that quite a number of us have in our minds transferred en bloc the whole of those requirements to the specifications for Overseas industrial models ; and, as a matter of fact, we had quite overlooked the circumstance that large numbers of industrial-motor vehicles are required for Overseas conditions, which differ in so very little from those existing at home. The number of cases in which it is necessary, or desirable, to run overland services of commercial models between townships unconnected by made highways is relatively small, although, of course, there is a certain demand for machines of this class, which demand may increase. Elsewhere haulage, in the new sense, is being rapidly developed on lines closely approxi.mating to those We know in and around our own big cities, docks and warehouses ; and, in such eases, the changes in our standard up-to-date commercial models for Overseas service necessitate little further alteration to standard chassis construction than modification to the cooling system where atmospheric conditions are, on the average, hotter than in our own temperate climate.
There will, of course, still remain the smaller demand for machines with high ground clearance, and with-bigger wheels, and one or two refinements of that nature; but generally speaking, our standard British models, designed, as are the best of them, on very robust lines, should prove to be quite suitable with very little modificatron for the larger and more important of the Overseas markets; 'and the fact that, in spite of restricted supplies at home, British makers are already sending quite a number of machines abroad that are similar, in all but a few trifling respects, to the models that did so well in war areas, is evidence of this contention. The great markets of the world for the industrial vehicle, for the next few years at any rate, will be where there are good roads, and, unless there are special military or other conditions rendering the cost of operation by no means the principal consideration, British manufacturers will do well first to see that they have a thorough hold on those great territories Overseas where roads are not unknown Wore they worry very much in securing business from districts where the road conditions are abominable.
A general scramble for anything in the nature of Overseas orders is not desirable for the proper and steady development of the Overseas trade in commercial models, irrespective of their chance of successful operation and of the building up of that reputation which is still and always has been, the basis of steady -British trade. The first order does not make such an appeal to the British manufacturer as thesecond one from the same source, and therein we are largely different from some of our foreign competitors. Long may it be so. An order for ten lorries for Timbuctoo is not so attractive as one for half the number, say, from Bombay.