Public-service Vans.
Page 6
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By Henry Sturmey.
From a recent Editorial article, I learn that someone is proposing a most impractical idea, to wit, the inaugurating of a service of taxivans. This is the first I have heard of such a chimerical scheme, and I hope no one will be persuaded to put money into it, for, unless the originator of it has a vastly different plan of working than appears at first sight, it is inevitably bound to be a dismal failure. This would both be disastrous to those who invested and would frighten capital away from supporting more feasible propositions in the van line. The investing public is very scary," and apparently quite unable to differentiate between good and bad proposals, and a van service that failed would inevitably damn all other schemes for such services for many years to come, just as a signal success with one would secure capital support ad tibitum for a score of wild-cat enterprises connected with vans. It is quite certain that the taximeter, as we know it to-day, can never be employed successfully for van work. Successful as it may be for cabs, the whole conditions of service are different. Cabs are dealing with a maximum load unit, and with loads of a class which will pay for the exclusive use of the vehicle even if the unit be less than the maximum, and the payment is based on mileage and time, load being to a large extent ignored. There is not one parcel in 10,000, the rapid and immediate transportation of which is of sufficient importance to the owner to justify the monopoly of an entire vehicle and the payment of its entire running charges, on a profit-running basis, both for time and distance. It is true a tradesman owning a motorvan, and having a single parcel to deliver in a particular hurry, would probably send it by his van, even if he had no other goods to deliver in the seine direction, but such work forms only a very small proportion of the work of a privately-owned van, and when so used the vehicle would probably be only using up time which would otherwise be standing time. Thrown in, therefore, with its other work, the cost of such a journey would be small, and would be justified by the wish to oblige an important customer, but payment by taximeter on anything like the cab basis—and it could not be done by the taxivan company at much less—is " paying through the nose " for such work, and rare indeed would be the occasions when such an expenditure would be justified. To be of any real utility to the trading community, taxivans would be of but little use, unless the vehicles were on the road in sufficient profusion to be as immediately and certainly available as a taxicab is, or even, let us say, as it was a year ago, and I am sure there would never be sufficient call for their casual services to justify this. The idea of running motorvans like taxicabs is farfetched and ridiculous, yet it does not at all follow that a well-organised system of public-service vans should not prove a paying proposition, and a very useful institution. I believe it would, and that a company with a wellselected series of vehicles, covering a wide range of load requirements, carefully organised both mechanically and commercially, and doing regular contracts as well as what might be termed casual work, could be made to pay and pay well, and that its vehicles would soon he found of indispensable value to the commercial community. Such a concern would require well-equipped garages and engineering shops in different commercial centres of London, with one central head office in telephonic communication. with the stall at the several garages, and its first or main. line of business operations would be regular contract work.
There are, to-day, two principal factors which retard the movement for the use of motorvans by City firms, and these are: first, the necessarily-high first cost of the vehicles; and, second, the ignorance of the trader on motor matters, his feeling of uncertainty as regards upkeep and running charges, and his disinclination to "dive into the unknown." Most of the work of horse haulages in the City, to-day, even for large firms, is done by contractors, who supply specially-painted vans, with horse and man, at fixed inclusive prices per diem, the contractor undertaking all responsibility, and, in the event of sickness of the horse or damage to the van regularly used for the business, having another on hand to do the work, sothat the hirer has nothing to think about but payment for the work done. I find that many firms, for the abovementioned reasons, hesitate to set up motorvans for themselves, although fully convinced of their desirability, and these would readily enter into such contracts with motorvan owners, at remunerative figures, were such available. The plan of operations, here, would be to have, not only the vehicles in regular contract use, but a proportionate number of spare vans, with interchangeable panels, for use in cases of breakdown, and during overhauls.
Worked in with an organisation for the running of vans under regular contracts such as this, a selling department for new vans could be made a profitable adjunct to the business, for there are many firms which, whilst not deterred by first cost, are yet held back by the second consideration, and which would readily purchase vans if the firm supplying them were prepared to undertake all the expenses and trouble of running at fixed charges. A company organised fully and efficiently to cover these fields. of work would, I feel sure, if properly managed, prove a sound commercial undertaking, and to it could be added a branch of work which has not yet been attempted by any motor firm so far as my knowledge goes. This would cover the ground which, I take it, is sought to be covered by the taxivan proposition. It is this :— It should be possible to organise a series of regular daily" out and home" routes, with vans which would cover them at stated periods, picking up calls advised per 'phone. to the head office before the hour for starting, and any others by personal " hail " or by pre-arranged signal, such as the display of cards in the window, though this latter form of notice would hardly he so suitable for use with the rapidly-moving motor vehicle as with the crawling horse van. Anyhow, here is the outline of a branch of public-service van work which might be worked up into a paying and much-appreciated service, although the taximeter would be of no use in this connection. The charge would be most probably at "per lb."—a fixed poundagecharge for delivery anywhere along the route—and the system, too, could no doubt be further elaborated by trans-shipment at terminals to other routes. This is, I think, about the nearest approach to a service for the collection and delivery of casual parcels commercially possible, and, of course, vans could be always kept on hand for the casual work of customers who notify per 'phone their occasional need for half-load or full-load delivery.