ates Are justified
Page 21
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DETAILS OF INCREASING COSTS, AS COMPARED WITH ONE YEAR AGO (The figures are "per hour") Again, if you have had ato engage fresh staff, because your old hands have joined the Forces or left you for other reasons, you have most likely had to pay wages higher than you were paying before. Am I right? "
" Yes, you have scored there, too. Indeed, I must admit that this lithe talk has opened by eyes considerably, but even now I can hardly imagine you are gping to show that the increase is as much as 15 per cent."
" Wait a minute. Let us just finish assessingr the items. We have not agreed as to the extent of the increase in establishment costs. I suppose it would be rather a long job to go through your bills and accounts, item by item, and find out how much these establishment costs have increased. " To save time, although I should advise you to look into the matter and get exact figures, so soon as you can, I will make use of some information which I have already
obtained from another source. According to that 'we should allow lid. per hour for this addition to your establishment costs in connection with this 5-ton vehicle.
" Now let us see what we have: id, for tyres, Id. for maintenance and repairs, spares and labour, 3d. for depreciation, 2e1. for wages, id. for vehicle insurance, lid. for war damage insurance, and lid, for establishment costs. That is 10d, altogether—I0d. an hour. " Onto that you must add your ordinary percentage of profit and at 20 per cent. that is 2d. per hour, making a grand total of Is.
" What were you getting per hour last year for your 5-tonner? "
" I was obtaining 6s. 03d."
" So that your tender this year should be 7s. 3d. Now an increase of ls. per hour on 6s. 3d. per bout is actually 16 per cent. so that, as I said at the outset, the proposal to add 15 per cent, only to last year's rates is a modest request.'' Well, I am most surprised. And, as you have been good enough to explain the matter to me so far, I am going to ask you if you will assist me in drawing up a schedule on these increases in connection with my four types of vehicles. Would you mind? "
"Not at all; we will do it right now. It will not take long."
And we proceeded forthwith to assess the increasing costs, taking the rate per hour as a basis, and as a result obtained the figures which are set out in the accompanying table. S,