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TRANSPORT TIPS FOR TRADESMEN.

27th April 1920, Page 23
27th April 1920
Page 23
Page 23, 27th April 1920 — TRANSPORT TIPS FOR TRADESMEN.
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

Particularly Addressed to Those Who are Replacing Horsed Vehicles by Motors, or Contemplating So Doing.

ARE YOU in any way interested in the transport of goods that are either perishable, or very liable to depreciation of value if at all roughly handled in transit? If so, you are one of those who, if you have not already done so, ought to consider the advantages of motor transport immee diately. The only exception is in a case where the distances to be covered are so short that the return journey can very comfortably be done by a horsed vehicle in a very few hours.

Transporting Perishable or Delicate Goods.

Even then, and assuming that you are satisfied that the motor will cost more to run, you still have to take into account the possibility of loss of market owing to late arrival if %low-moving vehicles are used. Thus, for instance if you are transporting fruit or vegetables, the introduction of motors makes it possible to start the journey very much later— leaving more time for picking and packing—and yet • to arrive at the market in very good time, while prices are at their best.

Directly the 'distance of the journey to the market becomes so, great that the railway has hitherto been used, the advantage of the motor is still more apparent. For rail transport, the goods must be securely packed and loaded on to horsed vehicles for transit to the railway station. There they must be unloaded and loaded into the train, two handlings being involved, each with the possibility or certainty of damage to the goods. At the other end a the railway journey there are, again, two handlings before the vehicle carrying the stuff finally arrives at the market for unloading. If a motor be used a11these intermediate handlings are eliminated, and, in many oases; the Method of peeking can be modified beeause there is no fear of the packages being banged -about or being turned over on the way. Thus, we may often make cheaper and simpler packing possible, and, in practically every' case, the condition, in which the goods reach the market is so superior to whet it would have been had the railway been used that higher prices can-, almost certainly, be realized and the best class of trade done.

Expeditious Delivery of Drinkables.

There are some businesses in which motor transport most certainly ought to be used for reasons that, in other businesses, would carry little or no weight. Perhaps as good an example as any is to be found

in the brewing and aerated water trades. The consumption of long drinks is very fairly proportionate to the heat of the weather. .If p, prolonged heat wave is experienced, there is always a risk of retailers' stocks becoming depleted, as a, consequence of which „ deliveries to retailers must be expedited. Now it.is, of course, obvious that, when the weather is exceptionally hot, the mileage that can be covered by horsed vehicles without exhausting the animals has to be reduced. On the other hand, the motor vehicle, provided only that men can be found to drive it, can work 24 hours a day, and in emergency can, generally, dispense with the weekly overhaul it ought to have, and can do seven days a week for two or three weeks on end.

The same argument applies, though perhaps with rather less force, to all businesses which are more brisk in the summer than in the winter months. The only difference that a high temperature maltes to a well-designed motor vehicle is that the engine runs ■ rather hotter, the cooling water being kept somewhat nearer the boiling point. If the machine is up to its work, the water will never boil away badly, however hot the weather may be. Even, if there is some boiling, it is easy enough to keep the supply

up to the necessary level. Short of overheating, which should never occur on a good machine, the higher the working temperature the greater the efficiency obtained. The result is that, when the weather is exceptionally warm, a somewhat heavier load can be carried with the normal consumption of fuel.

Get Down to Real Cost and Real Benefits.

When you are first considering the advisability of putting motor vehicles into service, you will probably find plenty of friends and acquaintances who will be willing to offer you information as to their own experiences. Some of this information will be of value. some will be worthless, and it is not always easy to separate the one from the other. When a man tells you that he has tried motorvans, but that they were a hopeless failure, do not leave it at that, but make an endeavour to find out -why he failed. Often' on. inquiry, you will discover that he did not at all realize the possibilities of the new method. He tried to use his motorvans just as if they were so many horses and carts, merely replacing the old by the new vehicle, and not rebrganizing the system of his work in any way.

Probably his grievance will be that the motors cost -more to run. Very likely he has forgotten altogether to recognize that, while this may have been true, the extra cost in his-delivery department has been much more than balanced by the profits resulting from extra turnover in other departments. This increased turnover he may have ascribed to quite different causes. If you find that since he used motorvans he has been delivering goods over a bigger area and working up a new connection you may be fairly safe in concluding that the motors have helped him, though he has not realized it. He may have worked out his costs on the basis of so much for every parcel of goods delivered, regardless of the distance over which. they have been carted. If he has extended the area of his deliveries further from home, he must evidently expect the cost of delivery per parcel to have gone up. He ought not, thus, to blame the rnotorvan 'for the rise, but rather to credit it with the fact that he is making these new deliveries at all.

Equally, the careful inquirer will not be prepared to swallow everything that is told him by the man who is an enthusiast on motors. An exceptional success may have been due to exceptional conditions not duplicated in one's own business. Figures that are apparently illustrative of wonderful economy may be based on a quite faulty system of keeping records. Many of the records kept in the. past have been quite valueless one way or the other. Thus, it is not much good to know how much per ton it has cost somebody elseeto transport stuff, if you do not know approximately how far, on the average, that stuff has been carried. Here' again, incomplete records are more likely to have been unfair to the motor than to the horsed vehicle. Probably, the jobs involving bigger mileages have been given to the motor. Consequently, the cost per ten works out higher for the motor than for the horsed vehicle, whereas, if both weight and •(lista.nce had been taken into account, it would have been seen that the motor was really doing the work more economically.

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