HINTS FOR HAULIERS.
Page 23
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An Occasional Chat on Subjects and Problems of Interest to Those Who are Engaged or About to be Engaged, in Running Commercial Vehicles for a Living.
IN THE ISSUE of this journal dated September 21st, I discussed at some length the various items which have to be considered in endeavouring to arrive at the cost of working a commercial motor vehicle. I did not, however' in that article deal with the actual figures of cost, but only considered the
matter from a general point of view. It was in tended that the article should be the first of a series written with the object of presenting, for the benefit of readers, new and revised estimates of the cost of working the various types and-sizes of vehicle. Subsequently, however, for reasons ,beyond my control, the programme had to be varied slightly and the series was temporarily suspended.
However, the opportunity to continue my discus sion of this particular matter, cost of working, now recurs and we will, therefore, carry on. In view of the lapse of time which has occurred since the last article, it will be as well to recapitulate the various items which I then defined in detail and at some length. They were (1) Interest on first cost.' This must be charged against the lorry so long as the owner has it, and whether it is working or idle. We agreed that a fair charge would be 6 per cent. per annum.
(2) Rent and rates of the garage or shelter in-which the vehicle is housed.
(3) Insurance and driver's wages. These items are all peculiar, inasmuch as they are not affected by the number of miles which the lorry runs per week.
They are still the same per week or per year, whether the lorry runs 500 miles a week or only five.
For that reason they are known as standing charges. It will be realized that it is impossible to state, with regard to any lorry, that its standing charges are so much per mile unless, at the same time, one states the mileage covered per week.
Then there are the other items :—Cost of petrol, lubricants, tyres' maintenance, and an allowance for
depreciation. All these vary in ordinary circum stances according to the mileage covered by the vehicle. If it stays at home in the garage, no petrol or lubricant is used and the tyres do not wear, no expense for maintenance or repairs is involved and, provided its period of idleness is not too long, the lorry does not depreciate. All these items are generally referred to as actual running costs and they can definitely be stated at so much per mile run. They do not alter, whether the lorry runs five miles per week or 500.
We will now consider a concrete example and will take, for thia purpose, a Ford van which has a nominal capacity of 7 cwt. The first cost, complete with body and a few accessories such as a spare wheel or rim, will amount to (shall we say?) in round figures, 2290. This is the price complete with tyres.
It is not: however, the capital cost which we must consider in. arriving at -the charge for interest on first
cost. The cost of the tyres. which is covered in another item, must be deducted. We will assume that the price of a complete 'set of five tyres and
tubes is 240: the capital cost of our van, therefore, may be taken to be 2250. Interest on 2250, at 6 per cent., is 215 per year: or 6a. per week (in all these calculations the year is presumed to be made up of 50 working weeks).
The rent of the garage and the rates involved— water, rates, etc.—will vary considerably according to circumstances in which the owner is placed. In this ease, I propose to assume an average cost for
rent and rates of 5s. per week. The owner who pays more, or the fortunate haulier who gets his accommodation for Jew than this, can make the necessary correction to my figures accordingly: Insurance of the Ford van is 215 or 216 per year, atty Oa. per week. The driver's wage will amount to 23. per week. The total of these items is therefore 23 17s. per week, and this continues, as I have said, whether the lorry is working or idle.
The running costa are made up as follow :-,Petrol,if we assume'20 miles per gallon, is 2.18d. per mile.
Lubricants, assuming 300 miles per gallon of oil, at 6a. 8d. per gallon, is 0.27d. per. mile. Grease. will not be morethan a twentieth of a penny per, mile, and, the total is therefore 0.32d. per mile for lubricants.
Maintenance, 0.9d. per mile.
Deprec..ation, assuming the Ford to last 100,000 miles and reckoning on the first cost, as above, 2250, is 0.6d. per mile.
For pneumatics, and bearing in mind that there are five tyres to start with, the average mileage for a set of four of the covers can be taken to be 4,000,
while the tubes, with a reasonable amount of care, should last 10,000. Assuming that four covers cost 130, this is equivalent to 1.8d. per mile for covers and a fifth of a penny for cost of repairs, vulcanizing, etc. ; total, al per mile. The actual cost of running this Ford -an, therefore; is the summation of the above and amounts to 6d.. .a: mile. The total working cost, however; can only be calculated by adding to this 6d., the proper proportion of the standing charges, which proportion depends entirely on the number of miles covered per week. If the van only runs five miles in a, week, that 'proportion. -is 239 17a, divided by five, or 15s. 9134. so that the working cost per mile is 15s. aid., jilt's' 6d. or 16s. 3d. per mile. If, howeven'the mileagebe 560 in a *week, then the proper proportion of. standing. charges is 23 17s. divided by 500, which is 1.85d. per mile, and the total cost of.working in that ease is only 7.85d. per mile, which strikingly indicateMe importance of keeping up the useful mileage run by the vehicle. In order to emphasize this point still further, I append a diagram showing how the total working cost varies with the number of miles -covered per week and, with this. I will conclude this week's article. Next week I propose to take one or two more examples of cost and, in the following week, -this page will be occupied by a set of tablesJgiving the running costs for every type of vehicle.