Ton-mile or Vehicle-mile ?
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Some ton-mile calculations are simple and quite straightforward. They have, as we indicate in the course of an article dealing with certain aspects of the applications of parcelcars and light vans, which article appears elsewhere in this issue, nothing more than an • academic interest for .many owners and prospective owners. Thousands of traders in this country do not individually deal with a ton of deliveries per day, to customers who require their purchases to be sent by cycle-carrier, parceIcar or tight van: It is too often forgotten that large percentages of the sales which are made by numerous traders are purchases over the counter. The tonmile possesses neither attractions nor terrors for these traders. They consistently, and not improperly, ignore it. It neither makes appeal nor conveys anything to them. They merely have no use for it, and we do not blame them.
The ton-mile. calculation is not to be dismissed altogether from commercial-motor records. The owner of a. mixed fleet often finds it useful, for comparative purposes, in order to establish relative values as between his vehicles of different load. capacities... This is probably one of the instances where it may be usefully employed. When the journeys and loads are regular, the number of separate calculations is not high, but it must not be forgotten, by any parties who are desirous to retain the ton-mile for reference purposes, that the unbroken load. for each trip, or the mean load if deliveries are made at various points en route, must be multiplied by the mileage for that particular journey, if other journeys are over different roads and are of different lengths. There can be no " Jumping together," and it broadly becomes a question of ..whether the extra amount of bookkeeping is reflected in the value of a greater knowledge of detail ceStS. We may recall, if it is of any use to help sorne readers to come to a decision, that Our great railway companies adhere to the trainmile. There. Was a. very determined effort, a few years ago, amongst a portion of the shareholders of the L. and N.W.R., for example, to force ton-mile records upon the management. This was successfully resisted) and the speech of the chairman, on that occasion; gave adequate reasons for the company's adhering to train-mile records.
We haVe at' all time's,. apart from the generic exception -i.t,Ifich we have eXplained above," declared' our preference for the vehicle-mile record. It is easy for an owner to book the total mileage daily, and to sum these 'daily totals weekly. His consumption and cost recards, with Wages included, and with apportioned weekly sums added in respect of interest on capital, depreciation, rent, rates and taxes, and reserve for maintenance, provide 'a total weekly cast which can readily be divided by the total weekly miles. The cost per vehicle-mile, so obtained, is a check upon his driver, or any employee, if such there he, who is charged the ciDty of 811perviion. Insurances, too. , must be charged proportionally,. and manageinent where It is provided for a fleet.
The work done is, comparably, the means of providing a check for the owner of his own or his dispatch-manager's organization on the delivery and traffic side. The value at the work done can be expressed in the total of the expenditure which is replaced by the use of the commercial motor, such as cartage and railway charges. Expenses on packing and packages should also be added. in numerous instances, seeing that motor delivery Saves them. All substituted expenditure of these kinds, which the possession of a commereifil motor renders unnecessary, represents the effective earning capacity of the vehicle as it is utilized. Let that weekly total be divided by the weekly mileage, and the owner can set the figure so obtained against the " all in " cost per vehicle-mile. He then. knows where he stands, it will be noted, of course, that the fitting of a mileage 'recorder is a condition precedent. We repeat our old view: cost per vehicle-mile is the best check on the engineering side; earnings (or savings) per vehicle-mile are the best cheek on the efficiency of the traffic side.