HINTS FOR HAULIERS.
Page 25
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"The Skotch " Indicates his Intention of Delving into the Matter of Running Costs for the Advantage of Those Who Are Not Au Fait with the Subject.
ACORRESPONDENT, writing to the Editor, has expressed 'himself as being entirely in agreement with me when I state that much of the rate cutting which is indulged in by the small haulier is due to ignorance.
The man who has laboriously and painstakingly saved up a sufficient sum to enable him to buy a second-hand lorry outright, to pay the initial sum. towards the purchase of a lorry by instalments, or even, may be, with the help of a war gratuity, or an unexpected windfall in the .shape of a little legacy, to buy a new machine outright, rarely has much business knowledge, except that which comes, to a pertain extent, instinctively, to many of . us flows, days. Still more rarely has he any knowledge of accountancy, for that at feast does not come instinctively.
He sets out, therefore, with high endeavour, cutting his coat, as he thinks, according to his cloth, but making no allowance for hems and turndowns, so that his garment is sadly skimped when completed. His ideas of cost comprise only those things which are obvious: the unseen is to him non-existent. Such important matters as interest on first cost, depreciation, maintenance and the like, are but dimly imagined in his mind, and, at the best, are considered to be capable of circumvention by rough and ready means, as the need arises.
Overlooking Even Obvious Items of Expense.
A man who, acting on the assumption that his
• cests are completely covered by the three items petrol, oil, and wages, amounting in all, in the ease of a four-tonner, to not more than ten pounds a week, and who, therefore, charges about twelve pounds a week for its hire, is actually losing five or six pounds a week, according to the mileage he is running. Unfortunately, he will not realize it until he has to buy a set of tyres, or until he -basil° put the machine into dock for an overhaul, when he will find himself Without the .wherewithal to pay. for these little but essential attentions. Therein lies the nigger in his little wood pile of accountancy.
The same correspondent asks if the tables of costs and charges which are published from time NItime in these columns could be made a regular feature, of the C.M., and be reprinted week after week in the paper. The answer is "no," and I give it to him direct, . without even ,asking the editor for his opinion. The complete tables, as published in the " Outlook " number of The Commercial Motor last October, occupied, with a little explanatory matter, four and a half pages. Even those for motor coaches alone, republished last week in the special "Passenger Vehicle" number, took up a couple of pages, and it is quite impossible for anything like that amount of space to be given each week for the benefit of those who will not retain the special numbers in which the figures are given. It is of no use to abridge tables, for experience proves that the part that is not published is always the part that happens to be wanted. Nor can it be said that the subject is neglected Tor one-half the time, at least, this page is devoted to discussion and explanation of the one thing that really matters. the cost of running. I am going to try agitiii to drill the rudiments of the business into those readers who really want to know, but it is with a feeling that many of the others will say, "But we have surely read something like this before!' However, I am going to try a new tack this time. I am going once more to explain how one can arrive at running costs. I am then going to get out a new table, without figures, leaving the reader to put in his own, but neglecting none of the items which are essential so that no one can have the excuse that he did noi, know that such things were.
Now I am going to do all this without once slanting any particular size of lorry. I am going to make out a table that fits all sizes, and I expect my readers themselves to fill in the real 'particulars. We are going for a time to get back to the school-day period of our lives, when we had to think a good deal of the unknown quantity, the mystic "x." The value of our " x " will be different for almost every reader, and I want it to be understood that I am quite willing to check over and correct any solution which may be sent on to me. There is no charge for this service, nor will there be any publicity given to the matter of it, without full permission.
The Use for Tables of Average Costs.
Now, there is no easy road to this knowledge of your own costs. Even the method advocated by our friend, the flattering suggestion that a man may know his costs merely by reference to our tables. is unsafe. No right thinking man would be satisfied with that.As well might he expect to draw his money on a horse he has backed, by the result given in the forecast of the race the day before it is run. Our tables only say what, on the average, it costs to run motor vehicles. They do not tell any than what he ought to know—what his own vehicle is actually costing him.They are intended as a guide to the beginner, who does not know anything about the matter, and who cannot possibly know what his mat-thine costs unti he has been running it a year.
They are also valuable because,. indirectly, they advise the reader that there are, as a matter of fact, other items of expenditure in connection with the running of a motor Larry than those of fuel, oil, and wages. The complete tables go further. They direct his attention to the fact that there are expenses, over and above the working 'costs of the lorry, which must be taken into account before a right estimate of the proper charges for hire can be made. Finally, they are also of use to the man who knows to a halfpenny what his lorry is costing him, for if his costs are greater than those given in the tables, then it is clear that his lorry is costing him too much, and that it is time he overhauled his organization.
No, I repeat, there is no easy road to a knowledge of the cost of running a motor vehicle. The only safe way is to keep a careful, painstaking and accurate account of every halfpenny which is spent on it, whether directly or indirectly. Not a single item must be overlooked. Petrol, benzole, coal or coke, oil, sparking plugs, lamp oil, lamp wick, cleaning rags, paraffin, tips, odd bolts, springs, grease caps, split pins, even the pot of paint for touching up the bodywork, all must be accounted for, roughly at first, but subsequently more accurately and formally, if the truth is to be discovered. In this, as in other things, it is the most absurd folly to deceive oneself. I cannot in any way reduce the actual number of items which must be noted. All that I ca-n do is to outline a. aimpIornethod whereby the reader may keep track of his expenditure, and subsequently, make proper use of the information, with as little need for expert knowledge as possible. I can reduce the number. of entries we need make, and that is what I propose next to do. THE SKoTcH.