Our Technical Department.
Page 2
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
The Inspection and Trial of Second-hand Commercial Motors.
We inaugurate from to-day a scheme whereby many owners of commercial motors of all types will be brought into satisfactory touch with possible buyers—an opportunity which has never hitherto been provided by any agency. .% decided want exists, and is very keenly fel: by business peoph: who are not connected with the commercial motor world, for competent engineering inspection and advice on a moderate scale of charges. There are numerous owners who are willingto dispose of commercial motors which they have found unsuitable for the particular work required of them. This does not imply that the vehicles are in any way inefficient; in some cases we would rather say that they are insufficient for the growing uses their successful running has engendered. To give an example. A firm which had been using a four-ton w agon might find that increase of business rendered further capacity necessary, and, sooner than purchase another similar machine, would buy a larger wagon instead if it were possible to find a market for the first, which, though too small for their traffic, is most probably in a good state of repair and is a really useful vehicle for many purposes. Yet it is " second-hand," even if only a few months old, or if it has been run a few hundred miles, and difficulties sometimes arise in satisfying any likely customer as to its real condition and capabilities. A secondhand commercial motor is undoubtedly looked upon with suspicion by most people, for unless the intending purchaser is a mechanical engineer he is completely in the dark as to the suite of the machinery, and equally so as to its fair value; and many possible buyers, rather than risk the ills they know not of, stand aside, and their abstention prevents openings for the sale of further new commercial motors, by reason of the owners finding no market for the sale of those they already possess.
Now the scheme that "THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR "intends to carry out for the convenience and assistance of its supporters is this. We have established a department, in sharge of an engineer, experienced in road haulage, whom we can send to test and report upon any vehicles which may be offered for sale by our readers. The advantage to the seller will be that the expert will make a thorough and independent examination of the vehicle on sale, and give advice
as to the repairs necessary to put it into good running order; and when these are completed he will make a test oa the road and give a certificate as to the general condition and running powers of the vehicle. On the other hand, on behalf of the buyer, our expert is prepared to inspect the conditions of service in any district, and to say whether the vehicle it ts proposed to buy is best suited to the work required of it. Should [here be several machines on offer, help will be given to enable a correct selection to be made. We undertake that there shall be no unnecessary delay, and all who avail theneielves of this scheme may rest assured of impartial and sound advice, for which the charges will be in every sense reasonable. We realise that by starting this department we shall not only be fostering a genuine demand for second-hand vehicles, but we shall at the same time very materially benefit the manufacturers, inasmuch as would-be purchasers of new motors will not feel so chary of laying out capital in this direction when they know that there is a market for the disposal of their discarded commercial motors. The free market in horses is a condition which must one day find its equivalent in motors. This method of moving on motors into the lower spheres of work at present monopolised by horse traction can have but one effect. It will contribute to an increased briskness in the commercial motor trades It must be clearly understood that we do not propose to act as salesmen or brokers. There is no doubt that as our certificates will only be given after the strictest inspection of any commercial motor, they will be regarded as a guarantee of the reliability of the vehicle in question, either in England or elsewhere, and we are prepared to make any necessary extensions that may be required in order to render this scheme of greater value from year to year. The foregoing arrangements cover both steam and petrol vehicles, but we are aware that the largest calls will be made upon us in respect of steam lorries. A number of these which were built under the 1806 Act will be replaced by larger machines constructed under the Heavy Motor Car Order. Country carriers, farmers, local contractors, country builders and others will find paying uses for these older vehicles even with loads of only two or three tons.