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HINTS FOR HAULIERS.

26th October 1920
Page 56
Page 56, 26th October 1920 — HINTS FOR HAULIERS.
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

An Occasional Chat on Subjects and Problems of Interest td Those Who are Engaged, or About to be Engaged, in Running Commercial Vehicles for a Living.

IHAVE QUITE a bunch of interesting queries to answer this week. Some of them are good because they reveal the kind of information which is most in demand by readers, and others because they present new points of view. Of the former class is the following legal question, for, although the letter has two numbered queries, there is but one enquiry. My correspondent is thinking of establishing a bus service in a London borough, and is curious to know whether it is usual to obtain the permission-of the council beforehand! If it is usual, he wonders whether it is 'done as a matter of courtesy or as a necessity]

The answer is distinctly in the affirmative. Not only is it necessary to obtain the permission of the L.C.C., and to pay them a small sum annually for the licence, but it is also necessary to provide a vehicle which will meet the requirements of that council, and if their wishes.are not met in every particular, they may, and probably will, turn down the request.

The necessary licence is termed a "licence to ply for hire." One will have to be obtained for the vehicle itself, another for the driver; and a third for the conductor. The matter is, therefore, much more serious than it appears to our correspondent, and he will do well to communicate at once with the L.O.C. before going to any expense in the matter.

Hackney Carriage Licences. .

Another from a second London reader is not so simple, on the face of it. He is apparently a garage proprietor, who is in the fort-mate position of possessing a client who, when he does not require his own car, allows our friend to use`it for private hire purposes. My correspondent also possesses a landaulet himself, also used-for private hire work. He has not paid the hackney carriage licence on either of these vehicles, but has, instead, paid -the full licence duty, and does not, I gather, claim any rebate on the petrol which he uses. Is he in order in .so doing? The answer is in the affirmative, so long as the use is confined to private hire. The cars, however' mustnot be used as taxis, nor may they "ply for hire." The hackney carriage licence 'was instituted in order to allow a man, who was using his motor vehicle as a means of earning a living, to escape the payment of the otherwise comparatively heavy duties. Later, it was found that many people were evading payment of the full duty by registering private cars as hackney carriages, and in order to enable the police to trace any such misuse of the Act, the use of a plate was enforced. It was also considered that many who would, quite freely, defraud the Government in that way if there were nothing to indicate their actions, would stop at describing their cars as hackney carriages if they had to have them labelled as such by means of the plate. As a matter of fact, it would appear, in this ease, that. it would be illegal to endeavour to obtain a licence for the first-mentioned of these two cars, for it is, in the ordinary course of events a private touring car, and must stand:I-Ws:full duty as such Running Costs f;or d' Specific Job.

Another cheerful soul has evidently got a large contract coming. He wants to know the running cost of a five-ton 40 h.p. lorry, carrying its full load, for a distance of 15,000 miles. This is, of course, an 'easy question to answer.

030 First, as to petrol. Our friend does not actually state thatathe 15000 miles is to be run off without a. stop, and without such definite information I do not justified ustified in. 'making any _assumption to that effect. I will, therefore, consider that it is going to be run off in comparatively short hauls, but long enough at least for me to assume a, fairly economical consumption of fuel. I will, therefore, take it that he, does. not, consume more than a gallon for every five miles travelled. -At present, by the graee of the petrol magnates, he is paying 3s. 10d. per gallon for

that precious commodity, out of which he gets, if he is wise, a 'rebate of 2d, per gallon from the Revenue authorities. His. cost is, therefore, 3s. qd. per gallon, or 43.5d. Cost per mile, for petrol, 8.7d.

• Oil will cost at least 7s. ad. per gallon, and he will consume about one gallon of it for every 150 miles run. The cost for oil will, therefore, be 6.6d. per mile.

Grease will cost about one-quarter of that, say 0.15d. per mile, so that the total cost for lubricants will amount to 0.75d. per mile.

Tyres are easy,. and my correspondent can correct my figures for their cost,Pif he pleases. I arn going to assume that he pays 275 a set, and that each set lasts him 10,000 miles, which Works out very simply to 1.8d. per mile.

The next item on our bill of costs is maintenance, and this covers also a multitude of smaller items, such as cleaning materials lamp wicks, paraffin for lamps and cleaning, carbide for acetylene. lamps, or upkeep of batteries for electric lamps, bulbs for the lamps themselves, as well as the actual purchase of spare parts and general upkeep Of the chassis and body of the vehicletitself. It will, obviously, be im-. possible for me to enter into a discussion of this

matter here, if at all, sinee vehicles differ" in regard to maintenance costs. I shall, therefore, have to ask

my correspondent to accept my own figures, which give average results, as. correct. In that case he will expect to have to pay 2.5d. per mile.

Finally, there is depreciation. He has not told me what the lorry is to cost, and I must therefore make my own assumptions on this head. 1 will take it

that it cost him £1,500 complete with body, but without tyres. If•ao, and making the usual as:siimption that a lorry will last 125,000 miles on the average,

before it need be written off theibooks, then it has lost 0.12 of its life during the term of the contract, and the total depreciation will amount to 2180 for the whole distance or very nearly 3d. a mile. We will, for the sake ;•f simplicity, assume it to be M.

a mile. The figure is really near enough, since we are only working to an average after all. At least, it is.on the safe side.

We may now sum up. The costs are : Petrol, 8.7d. ; lubricants-, 0.75d.; tyres ; maintenance, 2.5d. ; and depreciation, 3d. per mile. Total, 16.75d. per mile run, and for the total distance, 21,046 17s. 6d. It is necessary to remind this correspondent that these are the •running costs only and not the total cost of working the vehicle. For that to be ob tained there must be added the driver's wages, the cost of garage, insurance, and interest on first cost. Their actual incidence may not be calculated until we know in what time-it is proposed to run off the 15,000 miles. and for that reason I do not propose to deal with, them here and now, but to defer their consideration till I hear from this correspondent again. SKOTCH.

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Locations: London

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