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THE LURE OF THE LORRY AND THE C AR The Need of the Industry . for Greater Discrimination in the Acceptance of

30th November 1920
Page 12
Page 12, 30th November 1920 — THE LURE OF THE LORRY AND THE C AR The Need of the Industry . for Greater Discrimination in the Acceptance of
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

Young Talent.

By the "Inspector."

IAM SADLY afraid that within the next few months we shall hear of quite a number of failures to make good in the various branches of the motor trade ; failures which, although primarily attributable to the by-no-meaxts reassuring financial condition of the country at the present time, must also be accounted for, in the writer's opinion, by the fact that so many people have continued for a long while past to regard the motor industry in all its many branches as a happy hunting ground in which it was quite possible to make a lucrative living, and a by no means unpleasant one, even although there was an absence of individual suitability, to say nothing of training, that in other industries is always considered an essential to success.

It is surprising how often, for instance, sons of well-to-do fathers plump for the motor industry as their choice of making a career. Money is forthcoming to establish them, and there are visions of endless days on the road, of pleasant meetings and gatherings, and practically no consideration is given to the absolute necessity of hard graft, constant application, and natural technical ability or training, As a rule, this influx of newcomers affects the emall garage and the sales side of things more than it does the production establishment. The latter represents a less known field of operations,-and suggests the possibilities of too great a demand being made on the abilities and the application of the individual, very often: but there are no such claims in connection with the small garage, the repair business, the haulage concern, or the sales organization.

Since the war, of course, the trade has suffered more than ever. The aircraft industry brought in tens of thousands of young and other people and associated them with petrol, and this has suggested to large numbers of them the possibilities of pleasing and, probably, remunerative post-war occupations, with the result that is known, arid that need not be laboured on this occasion.

The next few months will undoubtedly see the weeding out, on a very large scale, of many of these newcomers, a result which must very largely be attributed to the entire unsuitability of many of the candidates for occupation in the industry. The motor world will be all the better for this drastic amputation. The production and manufacture of motor vehicles is an industry which calls for the very highest skill in all directions: in design, in production plans, costing and accounting, salesmanship, and also in publicity. There is precious little room, if business is to progress as it should and must progress, for half-timers or for amateurs.

Almost every boy thinks to-day that the motor industry is his calling, just as in the generation past every boy thought he had been born specially to occupy a prominent position at a. later date as a locomotive superintendent. Generally, his decision was promoted and encouraged by his parents, who had cI8 noted his interest in compiling lists of the numbers and names of locomotives passing the end of his back garden, and his whole career was moulded on that simple deduction. • Reasons but little less fantastic than that have promoted the encouragement, by parents and guardians and others, of boys to be shovelled into one or other of the branches of the motor industry. In many cases, the payments of considerable premiums have not alarmed those responsible for. the family finances, and, generally, there has not been the proper care exercised in obtaining expert information as to the suitability of the youngster for entering that particular line of activity.

Not everybody can be a salesman, by any means; it takes a different sort of salesman to sell a car from the man who can sell a lorry, it is admitted, yet both of them require skilled knowledge and tactics. Not everybody can be a haulage contractor ; it has to be a very special type of man with extreme business acumen, a hard head for costs and figures, a keen getter of business, a capacity, for very hard work, and continuous spells of it. Not everybody can be a. successful garage proprietor and agent ; there are thousands of them who are more or less useless to themselves, to the trade, and to the customers. It ie a great field for amateur endeavour; the numbers of first-class agents are easily counted, as are proprietors of garages and repair depots which are worthy of the name.

Not everybody can be a so-called motor-vehicle engineer and there are many types of him. He can be a production man, a designer, a machine-shop superintendent, a jig and tool man, and so on, and admittedly only those who are born with inherent capacity in any of these special directions are likely to turn out brilliantly, if a decision is reached to train them on these lines.

The motor industry is, at present, in the middle of an anxious time, as are, of course, so many other businesses in this and other countries. It calls for the very best man at the steering wheel to-day, and only tho-se businesses so guided will Eve to see the relatively early return of prosperity. Large numbers of people who are something in the industry. now will be nothing in the motor industry in a few months, and it is better that it should be so. People of that kind should get back to their proper callings. Only in a few eases is the lawyer, the stock broker, the hairdresser, or the draper's assistant, who, by association with petrol during the war, conceived his capacity for assuming new responsibilities on these lines when war ceased, likely to be able to prove that he was a hairdresser wrongly or a draper by mistake in the first place. It is better for him and better for the motor industry if he takes up the old job on the old lines. The industry has suffered very materially by these ineursions, and it is not helping that, at the present time when the very best men are required, assistance of this type is to be relied on in so many directions. The present crisis will help matters considerably in that way.

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