Problems of the
Page 68
Page 69
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
HAULIER and CARRIER
Further Discussion of the Seven-seater Coach Problem, and an Idea for a Stand-by Vehicle of that Capacity for Use in Emergencies
MY previous article on this subject did not exhaust the topic of the seven-seater coach—not by a long way. It has several phases and only one of them was considered in that article. Take, for example, a criticism that I have already received : that the concern which is running the service between Edinburgh and London is doing so for a fare considerably less than the £3 which I stated to be the minimum necessary to show a reasonable profit.
There is only one possible way in which a lower fare could be justified, and that is if more than five seats could be guaranteed to be taken by passengers , on each journey. ,
The figures for cost which I gave in the previous article will stand any criticism. They are correct. In them I showed that the minimum operating cost of a seven-seater coach covering three double journeys between London and Edinburgh, each week, was £73. That is the bare cost of running the vehicle. It includes an allowance for administrative expense, establishment costs, provision of terminal facilities, agency discounts, or matters of that kind. I said it was improbable that the service could be operated for less than £80 per week and I added £10 per week per coach for profit.
High Fares Necessary.
If there be anything wrong with these figures they fall short of the actual totals. Agency discounts, for example, might be as much as 10 per cent, of the total and that alone is 19. It is more than probable that the cost would be nearer £100. Even if it were only £96, that is £16 per single trip, involving a fare of £3 4s., if five seats be occupied ; £2 13s. 6d., if six seats be filled, and £2 Os. if the coach be full.
Juggling with return fares will not in any way help. The only object of a reduction for a return ticket is to induce passengers to use the coach in both directions, instead of returning either by rail or by the vehicle of a competitor. The total sum of 196 must be earned, and a reduction for a return ticket can be made only at the expense of an increase in the rate for a single. The minimum price for a return ticket must be twice the lowest that I have set down for a single, namely,
c46
£4 12s., and on that basis the single fare will have to be at least £2 10s. to make the return fare comparably attractive.
And that only if the coach is going to be filled every day for six trips per week !
It may be that my figure for depreciation is too high. I have taken the usual basis, namely, 150,000 miles of life. Possibly that is short, especially in view of the heavy appropriation on account of maintenance. Let me take it that the vehicles would be sold at the end of two years. They might fetch' £200 apiece. The loss would be £1,300. The amount of use, in two years, would not exceed 90 weeks-216,000 miles.
On that basis the depreciation becomes equivalent to lid. per mile instead of 2id., thus reducing the running cost to 5d. The saving per week would be £10, reducing the total of £96 to £86 and making the single fares £2 18s. if five passengers were carried, £2 8s. for. six and £2 Is. for seven persons. The minimum return fare, calculated as above, would then be £4 2s. and the minimum single, say, £2 5s.
Costs for a £700 Vehicle.
The one big item of operating cost which is subject to diminution is that of the first cost of the vehicle, which I have set down as £1,500. Let me assume, for a mo:uent, that it would be possible to run such a bervice as on the London-Edinburgh route with a car costing in the neighbourhood of 1700. That would mean first of all that the item "interest on first cost" would be reduced from 30s. to 14s. per week. Depreciation, previously assessed at 2id. per mile, will not be affected to the same extent. A fair figure will be id. per mile.
The running costs may well be higher. Poorer tyre equipment will put up the cost per mile; the more rapid depreciation will affect the consumption of petrol and still more that of oil. The maintenance cost may be unaffected, 'that being taken care of by writing down heavily the value of the cars and selling them off quickly. The figures for the various items will average: petrol 1.00d., lubricants 0.15d., tyres 0.80d., maintenance 2.00d., and depreciation 1.50d.; total 5.45d., say, W. per mile. The weekly standing charges will be: licence 5s, wages 18, garage £1 5s., insurance £1 and interest 14s.; total £11 4s. per week.
For six single journeys per week the total will be £66 4s., which is £6 16s. less per week. If the establishment costs and profits are to be taken as before, the total will be NO per week in round figures and the fares will have to be: when five passengers are carried 13, for six £2 10s., and for seven £2 3s. The minimum return fare must be £4 Os. and, with that return fare available, the minimum single ticket must cost at least £2 7s. 6d.
Further Examples of Fare.
I must again emphasize that these figures for return tickets are based on the condition that the coach carries seven passengers on every trip. It is fundamentally unsound toassume any such condition. My original suggestion of an average of five seats occupied is too optimistic, and is permissible only if the arrangements made include provisibn for abandoning the project if that expectation goes unrealized.
If in this case, too, the depreciation figure be amended, the result is, of course, affected accordingly.
'Actually lid. per mile is the amount included. If that be reduced to id. the difference is less than £1 leer trip. It as actually 16s. 8d., making the minimum fare for the five-passenger single trip £2 3s. 4d., for the six-passenger journey £1 13s. 4d. and for the full coach £1 Os. 4d.
I am positive, however, that the low-priced vehicle will be a failure on this class of work, which demands the best of chassis to stand up to the hard going. Moreover, in order to attract passengers, it is necessary to have dignified and well-finished coachwork, luxuriously upholstered. At least, if there be two concerns in the field, one with fresh, clean vehicles and the other with second-rate coaches, the former will take the cream of the custom and will be carrying his seven passengers when the other is taking only four or five—or even fewer.
• Faultless Service Essential.
Again, the service must be delay-proof. A short series of breakdowns resulting from over-stressed cars will drive away all confidence in the particular service involved and custom will accordingly be diverted.
So much for the London-Edinburgh service, and for others of the same kind which involve weekly mileages around the 2,000 or 2,400 mark. The other class of proposition with which I dealt in the previous article, involving daily mileages of 200 or so, is much simpler : the demands on the chassis are much less exigent, and although, in competition, the most comfortable and attractive coach will undoubtedly have the advantage, there is not the same need for extravagance in initial outlay.
In such a case, taking a less expensive coach, the running costs might be reduced to 5d. and, with standing charges as before, less 16s. in the way of economy in interest charges, the total per week can be reduced to, say, 18. On a weekly mileage of 1,200 the total weekly outgoings will 'be £33 (that is only the operating cost) and, with establishment costs at about £10, and an allowance of £7 per week per vehicle for profit, the minimum revenue stands at £50. For that sum there will be 12 trips, and the fare revenue must, therefore, be £4 4s., which, for five passengers, is 17s. single—say, 35s, return fare and £1 for a single ticket.
A Seven-seater as a Stand-by.
There are other phases of the use of seven-seater coaches, however, not in any way included or even indicated in the foregoing notes. One came to light rather surprisingly, the other day, in conversation with a coach-owner friend. He started by asking me if I had considered the peculiarities of this problem. As it happens I had that morning prepared the previous article and, therefore, had some of the information ready to hand. Unfortunately none of that information was of any use. He was thinking on different fines altogether. What he wanted to know was whether it would pay him to keep a seven-seater handy for those occasions when, a journey having been announced and arranged for a bigger vehicle, only six or seven " fares " eventuated.
Using a £200 Chassis.
Now that question, as outlined, raises a good many points—too many to consider here, nearly at the end of an article. I did, however, discover that his idea of a seven-seater coach is rather different from mine, and it is well worth a little publicity, pending discussion of the larger problem.
He proposed to buy one of the popular types of 30-cwt. chassis for about £200. It was to be equipped with larger low-pressure tyres, and to have the springing modified. Then, equipped with a comfortable seven-seater saloon body, it would, he thought, make an ideal stand-by, involving little in the way of standing charges, yet presenting a useful help in time of trouble such as he had in mind, S.P.R.