Problems of the
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HAULIER and CARRIER TT is the duty of every busi ness man to ...watch his alarkets.—A haulier's market is, as I have pointed' out many a time, the other man's business. By Watching -the rise and fall in the • activity :of various branches of industry he can learn where his services are likely to be wanted. The haulier, too, like most people
in business, can learn much by studying the methods of others engaged in the same trade, and particularly those who have been successful and who, therefore, may be presumed to know something about the subject.
That information can usually be gathered by. systematically and thoroughly reading The Commer cial Motor. Take the issue, for example, which I happen to have before me at the moment, that dated May 14th. The first of these hints is found on the first editorial page, whereon the Editor deals with the situation in the coaching industry. On page 452, in one of those little paragraphs under the title "Loose Leaves," the haulier is advised that there are signs of a revival in the steel industry.
That also is a useful hint. On page 457 are some figures for haulage rates in Ripon.
A little farther on in the same issue is a description of a new model of a popular low-loader. The development of this type of vehicle for haulage work is to be accelerated soon and wide-awake hauliers are keeping in touch with what is going on. _ A new 4-ton chassis constructed by Halley Motors, Ltd., is the next item of interest, and again, after that, there is reference to a new design of self-tipping gear which cannot fail to be of interest to many of those hauliers who are concerned with the conveyance of road materials and 'similar loads which can be tipped at the point of delivery. There are other items, too, but I want quickly to 'reach" a particular reference on page '488, tlifs being entitled News of ' the 100-ten Scamrnell." .
A 160-ton vehicle is not Suitable for employment by every ' haulier, and it may be that most haulier readers, seeing the title, have skipped that particular article. In that they were wrong, for there are other matters of interest in the article besides references to that unique road vehicle. This is one of those occasions when the haulier has a chance to learn from others, for most of the article is actually a summary Of an address by Mr. E. C. Marston, who is the principal of Marston's Road Services, Ltd., a successful north-country concern.
"I am not," he said, "a believer in operating a transport contractor's business on the basis of cost per ton per mile."
There is in that remark strong support for a recommendation of mine which I have been endeavouring to drive home for years to readers of this page. Reading Mr. Marston's words reminds me of an incident which occurred only the other day. I was paying a visit to a well-known expert in commercialvehicle costing, lie met me with the remark that he had "a bone to pick" with me. I gathered that he knew that I was responsible for these articles and found that he was under the mistaken impression that I was in favour of reckoning costs and charges with the ton-mile as a basis, which, he said, was emphatically wrong. I hastened to reassure him and was myself gratified to learn that this expert so strongly endorsed my own views.
Mr. Marston corroborates what I have been writing frequently of late, namely, that in most cases the best way to assess a charge, taking The Commercial Motor Tables of Operating Costs as a basis, is to add the standing charges, establishment costs and profit together, obtaining from those a regular figure for the charge per hour for the vehicle. It only remains then to add the cost of running for any particular journey and a complete figure for the charge for the job is obtained.
For example:—Take a 4-ton lorry mounted upon pneumatic tyres. The standing charges amount to £6 6s. per week. The establiShment costs and profit, as assumed in the Tables, amount to 16 10s. The total of these, £12 16s. per week, is the minimum which the haulier must make in order to show him the profit enumerated, and that before the vehicle has turned a wheel. At 48 hours per working week that means that the charge for time dmoiints to 5s. 3d. per hour. The running costs from the Tables, corrected for the increase of 21d. per gallon in the price of petrol which took piace since the Tables were compiled, is 61d. per mile.
Suppose that a day's work is offered, involving a run of 70 miles. Allow nine hours for the day, multiply 5s. 3d. by nine and we arrive at the basic charge of £2 7s. 3d. The 70 miles cost, at 61d. per mile, 1.1 17s. lid., so that the minimum charge—the sum of these two—is £4 5s. 2d. That is the lowest figure at which it will pay the haulier to accept the work which is offered, and even then he will only make the profit specified in the Tables if lie keep his vehicle at work for 48 hours per week.
There is another feature of this method of quoting for a job of this description. The contractor will naturally stipulate that if for reasons beyond his control, such as delays at termini, the work take longer than it should, he will be permitted to charge extra, according to the additional time involved. Assume that in this ease 11 hours are taken' . The two extra hours, charged at 5s. 3d., bring in an additional revenue of 10s. 6d., most of which will be clear profit, there being only the extra expense due to having to pay the driver overtime money for those two hours. That would be so because there would still be left 37 hours of the week in the other 41 days for earning at the regular rate specified. S.T.R.