RUNNING COSTS OF MOTOR COACHES.
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Differentiating Between the Summer and Winter Seasons. Fares That Should . be Charged to Secure a Reasonable Profit.
By "The Skotch."
IHAVE SHOWN that it is not the easiest thing in the world to establish a scale of charges for the hire of motor lorries. When we come to consider the motor coach in the same way, the conditions are discovered to be a good deal worse. The lorry knows no seasons. It is just as likely to be doing a good mileage in December as it is in June. In the one month it may be carrying Christmas produce, in the other materials for road repair, and, as a result, it does lend itself to a reasonable system of averaging its costs, and the charges which are based on those costs. The motor coach, however, is in a different category altogether. It is generally overworked for six,rnonths of the year, and practically idle for a similar period. During the summer it may run •almost 100 miles a day,liseven days a week : duringl the winter its mileage for a week may hardly be the equivalent of a day in the season. It was because of this peculiarity of the motor coach that I did not attempt, in compiling the scale of costs which appeared in my weekly page of "Hints for Hauliers" in the issue of The Commercial Motor for February 15th, to give a total working cost per mile for different mileages per week. rf such working costs had been wrongly applied, as they might easily have been, the deductions drawn therefrom might have spelt ruin to some innocent haulier. . Another difficulty, too,-which arises in regard to this matter, is that, while some motor coaches may be used during the summer for passenger work and during the winter as lorries, others are used solely for the former class of service, doing a good business during the' season and pottering along during the winter with an occasional load of footballers or the like. Owing to the fact that, in the former.case, the vehicle is continuously employed, its average of total working costs per mile may, possibly, be less than the other. It does not necessarily follow, however, that this is so, since the owner who does,not use his vehicle very .much during the winter will, naturally, make provision against a continuancesof unnecessary expense. In order that I may make this matter clear to my readers, I propose to take an example of'motor coach use. I will take the case of a thirty-seater ehar-a-bancs which is not used for any purpose other than that of carrying passengers. I will assume that it has a six months' season, and a six months' "off period," during which it is only occasionally used, generally at'week-ends.
The first thing to realize is-that the working month of the char-a-banes will not be 30 or 31 days. Owing to the fact that it. occasionaIly`rains in this country, we have to calculate on there being a few days each month during, which, on account of the weather conditions, it will notebe practicable to take out pleasure parties. As a matter of fact, since your holidaymaker is not easily deterred, this is not so serious as it sounds, and a, fair assumption is that each month will provide 24 working days. We will also assume that on each of these working days the vehicle travels an average distance of 80 miles. (I have taken a moderate figure, I know.) The total mileage during the period named will be 11,520 miles. This will be covered in 26 weeks, which is equivalent to approximately 440 miles a week.
Referring to.the table in the issue of February 15th, the running cost. of such a vehicle is given as 13.62 pence per•mile, whilst the standing charges for the vehicle alone are 2,346 pence per week. Dividing the latter figure by 440 we get the amount of stand C44 ing charges which have to be debited to each mile. Tnis is 5.34 pence, and the total running cost for a char-a-bancs covering that distance per week is, therefore, 18.96 pence a mile, say, is. 7d.
Now about establishment charges. These will be somewhat similar to those given in the issue of March 1st for a lorry, except that the expenditure on telephone calls will be heavier. Instead of an office assistant, it will be necessary to have a booking clerk, while advertising charges will be much heavier. Telephone calls will amount to 10s. a week ; the, booking clerk will be 23 10s. a week, and advertising will amount to at least .E1 per week. The total establishment charges will therefore be
£6 10s. 6d. Per Mile (pence).
Working cost of char-a-bancs ... 19.00 Establishment charges as above, spread over 440 miles ...
Net cost of running vehicle and business... 22.56 Contingent expenditure, say ... ... ... 3.30
During the winter season, I take it that, since the char-k-al
nes only used occasionally, a driver will
only be needed for a day each week, or something to that effect. Presumably, a driver for a. trip like that would require XI. A little advertising, arrangements for booking, and sundriesonay amount to 5s. a week, but, apart from that os., there would not be any heavy establishment expenses. The 15 per cent per annum depreciation on typewriter and furniture would still have to be reckoned in, but that would be all. Moreover, since contracts would be entered into almost on the hand to mouth prineiplet there would be no probability of having to hire an emergency vehicle to replace that of the coach proprietor in'the, event of it having to undergo repair. The following table would, therefore, represent the winter charges and the charge accordingly: Running cost of char-a-bancs P. .e. r M e. (p1e3u6c20, These give the charges per vehicle per mile. As it will not alwayii be possible to ensure a. full load of passengers, the motor coach owner will have to cal,culate his rates per passenger accordingly. He will find it better to base his. rates on an average load of 20 passengers per journey. On this basis, the fares during the summer will be 11d. per passenger per mile, and those during the winter 2d. per passenger per mile.
In eases where the motor coach is used during the winter for carrying goods and during the summer for passengers, two sets of calculations will have to be made in order to arrive at the charges. The one for the summer may be made as above ; the one for the winter as was given last week and the week before.