HINTS FOR HAULIERS.
Page 19
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Are Some of the Coach Fares, Now Being Quoted, Remunerative ? Do Coach Owners Realizethe Extent of Their. Costs ?
IT HAS been said that "one must be poor to know . the luxury of giving."' If my observation teaches me anything, it advises me that a goad many chat-a-banes proprietors are enjoying, to a considerable extent, the luxury of giving, and, moreover, that unless' they have private means which they do not advertise, they are likeiy in time to arrive at that complete enjoyment which only poverty can give. •
• -.For my sins I am compelled, just now, to travel this country of ours a good deal. My recent wanderings have taken me so far south as Kent and so far north as Lancaahire. (I have not yet been beyond the Tweed, and it may very well be that I shall find a different state of things there.) Now, in Maidstone, I saw advertised various.trips by chars-a-buries—day trips, half-day trips, evening.exeursions, and the like. Amongst the day trips was one to Landon; return fare, 5s. Quite naturally this caught—and held—my attention, for I had but a few hours before paid considerably more than twice that sum for corresponding facilities by rail, and although my nationality is not, as a matter of fact, that which is so nearly indicated by my pseudonym, yet I find, it increasingly necessary these days to keep a fairly -close watch on the bankers.. Accordingly, I wondered. Shortly afterwards I found myself in Wigan—a town beloved of the music-hall comedian—and again I studied the char-i-bancs advertisements. Again, too, I found the same generosity, the same ample scope as to style and extent of the trips advertised, and the same forgetfulness of self in the adjustment of fares. To Blackpool, for example, the Lancastrian's playground, the return fare for a day trip was also 5s. ,
. UnrernuneratiLve Coach Fares.
From llrlaidstone to London and back is 74 miles, and from Wigan to Blackpool and return is 68 miles, whereas 5s. there and 13aek is but 60 pence, whether one goes by rail or road. Which means that char-abanes owners, from Rent to Lancashire, are charging less than a penny a mile. The Maidstone man will get from a full load hut 27 (I am assuming 28 seats), which is equivalent to Is. Mid per vehicle-mile. His Lancashire fellow-philanthropist gets the same, total,
but in his ease the equivalent per vehicle-mile ie , 2s. Oad. ,
• Now, a char-.à-banes (I believe I ought to have been calling it a motor coach all this time) of the size named costs 9d. a mile merely to run, without even a driver to pay: it costa 29 a week for wages, licences, insurance, and so on, and at least another 22—most, likely more—for overhead charges, or 211 a week in alt. Even putting the very best face on matters, and assuming that our friends run a trip a day, covering approximately 500 miles in the week (Sundays ineluded), the standing charges work out at 5icl. a mile, so that the total operating and establishment costs are is. 24,d. a mile, and the profit per mile is Sid. to 101d., as the case may be, or from 217 to 221 per week, in round figures, which is excellent—while it
lasts. , A well-known and experienced user of ehar-amotor coaches. I mean, has estimated that the motor coach is filled to capacity for three months in the year, half-filled for another three months, -quarterfilled for another quarter of the yew', and isunemployed for the remainder: While his figures are not' strictly applicable throughout the country, it is probable that they represent average conditions. What they mean is that, whilst the user who runs such vehicles is put to full expense for nine months of the year and a not inconsiderable expense for the other three, he gets a full return for three months only and a moderate return for another six months. We can work it out in this way
For nine months the. machine is run for 500 miles a week, sometimes full, sometimes nearly empty, but averaging 28 passengers for three months, 14 for another three, and 7 for still another three. During that time its cost is 9d. a mile for running costs and 211 a week for standing and overhead costs. There is also, however, the expenditure for the three dead months to be reckoned with. This will be made up of interest charges and rent principally, withif, the vehicle is not used at all—a small amount for insurance and a charge for occasional attention—just to make sure it does not mat away in the garage! This amount will be about equivalent to another 21 a week 'when spread over the nine months—say a halfpenny a mile—bringing the total cost to is. 3d. a mile.
Now, for 13 weeks the coach brings in about 2s. a mile ;'_profit, 9d. or 218 15s. a week, 2243 15s. for the 13. For another 13 the return is but is. a mile; loss, 3d. or 28 5s. a week ; total loss for 13 weeks. 281 5s. 'For the third 13 weeks the return per vehiclemile is but 6d., the loss per mile being 9d., arid per 13 weeks 2243 15s. For the year's working, therefore, the total " profit" is a loss of 181 5s.
What are Coach Owners'. Associations. Doing?
I cannot understand it at all. There are motor coach owners' associations all over the country, the principal object of which, I take it, is the maintenance of fates at a remunerative level. In last week's issue of The Commercial Motor, for example, I read about the Stockton and Middlesbrough. Motor Coach Owners' Association, which is, apparently, able— amongst its members, presumably—to maintain fares at a minimum of lid. a mile, which is little enough. It is not the least 'uselosing money now in the hope of creating a demand.. That is emphatically the wrong way to go about business. The public: IS expecting prices to come down in the future, and anyone who is charging low fares to-day, in the hope of being able to increase them next season, is backing a sure and certain loser.
Is it, I wonder, that the average small coach owner does not realize the vast difference which that extra farthing a mile makes': In the year's working, on the scale named above, it is amply auffacient to turn loss into profit. It makes the profit for the good quarter 2406 as., eliminates entirely the loss "in the medium quarter, and reduces thn loss on the third to " 2203 2s. ed., leaaVing a total profit for the year of, 220:3 2s. Od., which, although not too good, is still a profit and one which, by careful economies, can probe ably be increased to 2250.
If only the associations could put their heads together and rake in the autstanding non-members, we might in time add another eighth of a Penny to the fare, when we should not waste a second's envy on pigs in clover. And that's that
I have been h-aving quite a lot of correspondence lately about all kinds of things. It has all been dealt -with by post, of course, but several points of interest have been raised, to which I hope to find space to refer at an early date. Meantime, as I have had several requests to continue my discussions of the clearing-house business, I am wondering if any readers would care to come forward and let me have some stories Of their experiences and their views. Tara SKOTCB1.