Advertising Brings Business
Page 72
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A Newcomer Faced with the Problems of Fixing Rates and Finding Traffic Puts his Case to S.T.R., who Surprises the Operator with a Schedule of.
Overheads
IT will come as a surprise to most readers if I state that the haulier really has only two problems, one the determining of rates, and the other obtaining business at those rates. Generally, the latter is much the more difficult.
Those hauliers who read my articles will be inclined to think that I have used many hundreds of thousands of words in dealing with no more than two problems. The answer to that is twofold. First of all, the variations of the two problems are as never-ending as this series of articles. Secondly, there are always new readers who are just as unaware of the difficulties that they will have to face as "those who read the first of this series 35 years ago.
The worst of it is, of course, that every new haulier is at once faced with both the problems simultaneously. Thai was the position of a man I met recently. We had been talking about costs and rates and I had got so far as explaining to him the meaning of establishment charges. He had never even heard of them, let alone appreciated how important they were as an element in the matter of rate fixing.
I had shown him that, even in his case as the owner of one 7-ton vehicle, he would have to pay at least 10s. per week for rent of premises, 18s. on his telephone bill, 8s. for lighting and the same on heating. making a total of 44s. per week for those four items alone.
"And those," I continued. "are by no means all. You will want some billheads and; although it is possible for YOU to get a 1,000 for a few shillings, I think you will he better advised to spend a little more and get something reasonably attractive and, therefore, more effective. A billhead, or a letter heading, as I would prefer to call it, is a much more important item in business that the newcomer imagines, and, for that matter, so is everything connected with correspondence generally.
"I am of the opinion that a letter heading is a valuable form of advertisement. I think no man should object
.4 conveyer belt feeds sand, gravel and cement into a 6-cu.-yd. transit mixer mounted • on a Thornycroft Trusty 2 heavy-duty 6.x 4 chassis. The vehiclewas supplied to 0 -Y Ready Mixed Concrete Pty., Ltd., Australia, who hove two similar machines on order. The company hire it to Mr. G. F. Wrench, . of Naremburn, New South Wales. Mr. Wrench uses six vehicles of this type. The gross weight, with a load of cement, is 21 tons.
D32 to spending a little more on the design of a good heading, and he should not be afraid of Making use of it."
" What do you meart by making use of it?"
" Well, think of it in this way Even the tidiest business mart will have a small heap of letters at one side of his desk and continually under his eye, if you take frequent opportunities to write to a provective customer about one thing or another you will be sure that one of your letter headings will always be before him, and in that way your business is constantly being advertised to that customer."
" But he won't necessarily-always have my •letter on the lop of the pile."
"No, but he probably looks through that pile of letters half a dozen times during the day. and every time he does so he sees your name and couples it with your business, If he happens, on one of those occasions, to have in-his mind some job of haulage he will, on seeing your notepaper, say In himself, Ah, that reminds me. There's that consignment of apples that needs fetching from the docks. This chap Jones might just as well do it for me.' And in that single order there may be enough profit to pay, not only for the extra expense of having good notepaper printed,but of keeping in touch with customers by means of the simple method, of, writing, a letter. about some aspect of your business."
• "But what has this to dia with fixing my rates? "
Surprise Cost " Only this, that your expenditure on stationery and postage is the next item I want to consider in connection with the establishment costs I am talking about, which you say you do not incur. It is my experience that few-of you people who do not keep books have the slightest idea how much you spend on, say, postage stamps, for instance. Notepaper and envelopes should cost you at least £2 10s. a year,
which is about 1s. a week. Stamps will run you into a year, or 2s, a week. Then there is the cost of telegrams, which I can safely put as another 2s. .a week. That makes 5s. per week for letters and telegrams."
" Well, I should never have thought it was as much as that. I shouldn't have bothered about it at all if you hadn't mentioned it."
"There you are. That is just what I had in mind, and it is because I know that most men have quite wrong ideas about this matter that I want to impress upon you its importance.
" Now there is your office furniture: you will have to make son-le allowance for that. Even if you consider your typewriter alone, and, by the way, all your letters should be typewritten. The all-in cost of a typewriter, including its maintenance, will be about Vt per annum, which is approximately Is. 6d. per week.
"Next I come to an extremely important item of which vou have probably not thought about at all."