Let the Operator Advise the' Maker
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Vehicle Manufacturers Have Had Time to Diiest Many Views From Users and Now Come Out into the Open in Strength to Submit Their Opinions op This Subject, Which is of Such Vita! importance to the Industry and the Nation
Co-ordination Healthy and Encouraging,
By A. F. Palmer Phillips (Director of Sales, Vauxhall Motors, Ltd.) SHOULD commercial-vehiele operators tell manufacturers what they want? That is the theme of a very interest
bag discussion which has been going on in The Commercial Motor " for •severalweeks past. .
The Editor began its by Suggesting that there should be set up some representative body a operators which would be empowered to collect together ideas from all their contemporaries; to sort out those ideas,, and then .present them to the manufacturers in co-ordinated form. Most of those who have contributed to the discussion are, in favour of the suggestion. I and, I feel sure, all my" colleagues in the industry, would be very interested in such a proposal.
May I say, however, that as I read the various expressions of opinion that have been published, I became a little • disturbed at the " angle" some of our operator-friends are taking! In his original article (Septembei•24) the Editor admitted that sources of information had. always been open
• to the manufacturers, but felt that " it would be more helpful to co-ordinate opinions." In other words, the . question was not, "Do the manufacturers want operators' ideas." but 'rather, " How can those ideas most helpfully
be presented? " • • • • borne of the operators who have written on the subject, however, have shown a tendency to regard it as an entirely • new departure for a manufacturer to be given a chance of learning what the user wants; they have implied that in pre-war days the manufacturer just made a truck which satisfied his own artistic yearnings, and if operators didn't like it they could jolly well lump it.
• One correspondent so far. forgot himself as to say that all the manufacturer cared about wat profit—the operator did not matter. But is it not the first rule of sound business • to give the customer what he wants? Surely I have heard, somewhere, the saying, " The customer is always right So far as we are concerned, and I feel sure that this is true of other manufacturers, we have always endeavoured to keep a finger on the pulse of what might be called " useropinion." We employed a staff of field engineers whose job it was to keep in constant tonal with operators—fleet users and small firms—and with our dealers, who, because of their number, received more criticisms than did our own men. Special forms were provided upon which suggestions and criticisms could be conveyed to the factory, and, periodically, those field engineers attended meetings with
• our design engineers.' Incidentally, the same work is going on even to-day, and although our contacts are mainly with a new 'type of operator (RM.; Forces) we have by no means lost touch with our peace-time customers and our dealers. • There is such a wide field to cover, however, that We can never hope 'to do more than obtain a cross-section of opinion, and as all operators, like the manufacturers, are , human beings, their opinions naturally differ quite a lot. It follows, also, that very many of the suggestions We receive cancel out one another. So our job at the factory has been to review all the ideas that are put. forward, sort them out and then strike a balance—trying to work to the political principle of the greatest good for, the greatest number. I „can imagine nothing more helpful than a comraitteZ which would help to do this sorting out for us.
I could get into some longish discussions about some of the points which have been raised by correspondents, but I feel that to do so would serve no good purpose. At this stage, surely, we need not concern ourselves with whether there should be a wider range of vehicles or fewer types and more standardization; whether the ideal be lower first cost and more simple vehicles, or a higher first cost and " more for your money." It would he the job of the committee to make recommendations on such points, and the only question to be considered now is whether such a committee should be set up. •
Quite apart from the essential soundness of the suggestion, the .mere fact that it has been made is, to my mind, a healthy and encouraging ,sign, It 'shows that operators are alive to the need not only of being articulate—they have always been that—but of speaking with one voice. I hope that the members of the proposed committee would do more than send us written recommendations from time to time. What I would like to see a very close, personal contact, so that not only could the operators 'speak with one voice to the manufacturers,' but that, at appropriate moments, the entire industry, operators and manufactureth, too, would speak with one voice to the whole Nation.
This is in my opinion one of the greatest needs of the transport industry.