TRANSPORT TIPS FOR TRADESMEN.
Page 16
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Particularly Addressed to those Who are Replacing Horsed Vehicles by Motors, or Contemplating So Doing.
ALTHOUGH the design of motor vehicles is now fairly settled, one has to recognize that, the industry is still a young one, and that there are many people who look for further progress in the shape of revolutionary reforms.
The Attraction of " Freak " Designs.
Perhaps it is not fair to describe vehicies which embody such attempts at revolutionary change as " freaks." One must recognize that the "freak " of to-day may quite possibly be the standard of tomorrow. At the sanie time, the user of commercial
. vehicles cannot afford to make his delivery department into an experimental -ground for new and untried ideas. We can safely thrOw the onus of this sort of thing on to the private motorist, as we have . done in the past. In the very early days of the development of the privately owned motorcar, the sa.de motor vehicle was unknown. Some years elapsed before it began to he used at. all, and the same applies to the motor omnibus. Even the motorcab was unable to make its debut until the long life and reliability of the private motorcar had been amply proved. There will always be found private individuals willing to risk a certain amOunt•of money for the pleasure which they get in trying out a new idea, which perhaps embodies something of their own conception as to what an ideal motor vehicle should be.
On the whole, even among private individuals, this country does not produce a great number of experimentalists. Anyone who visits the motor shows, both in London and in Paris, will realize at once how much more readily the French public respond to the suggestion that they should try something new. One sees, at the Paris Show, vehicles which would be ridiculed at Olympia, but are apparently taken quite seriously at the Salon. These "freaks " are less common in the commercial vehicle than in the private. ear section, but are not completely absent oven from the former. In a sense, their inclusion is to be depre--cated. There is so much to be said about them on account of their quaint individuality that the visitor, and, still more, the reader of the show report, are apt to get an exaggerated idea of their significance. It is not suggested for a moment that commercial vehicle users should go out of their way to ridicule attempts at originality, even if these strike one at first sight as being rather crude. The more original ideas put on the market and tested the better ; but the purpose of the present note is, primarily, to suggest that the commercial vehicle buyer should leave the process of _testing such things to others.
Relation between First Cost and Running Costs.
Seine very interesting figures of operating cost have recentlybeen published in this column, being used in support of the argument that the lowest-priced proposition is not always the cheapest. It may be worth while now to take some fairly typical figures of running costs of, let us say, a two-tonner, with a view to assessing, roughly, the relative importance of the various items of expenditure. Let us assume a mileage of about 70 a day. The standing charges per mile may then work out approximately as i'ollow :— Pence. Depreciation ... 2.00 Interest on capital .50 Insurance ... .25 Rent ... .25 Wages ... 2.00 — . Total standing charges ,.. 5.00d, B16 Running costs per mile :— Tyres ... Pence.
Petrol ... ... 1.0 Oil, grease and sundries . 4.6 . .5 Repairs and maintenance . . 2.5 Total running costs ... ... 8.5d.
In. all eases, round figures have been taken for ease of calculation. These figures are, however, fairly typical of what may be expected. We may group together the figures for depreciation and interest on capital, since both of these are dependent upon the first cost of the vehicle. We then have costs resulting from purchase of vehicle, 2.5 pence per mile. It will be observed that the biggest item of all is the fuel bill and that, in fact, almost twice as much money is spent on petrol as is spent on the purchase of the vehicle that uses it. A 10 per cent. saving in the petrol bill is, therefore, almost as big an economy as a 20 per cent, saving in the first cost of the vehicle. In other words, if by paying 20 per cent, more for the vehicle we could get a more efficient machine which would cover anything over 10 per cent. more mileage on a gallon of petrol, the extra first cost would represent a sound commercial investment.
Efficiency and Running &or: only ti e Most Important.
Again, it will be observed that repairs and maintenance may involve an expenditure approximately equal to the vehicle's first cost. We are justified in paying 20 per cent. more for the vehicle if the result is to reduce the bill for repairs and maintenance by 20 per cent. In actual fact, we should he more than justified, because the repair bill bears a definite rolathin to the time spent by a vehicle in the garage when it might be on the road. A big repair bill thus means a reduction in the average mileage covered, which, in turn, means an increase in all the standing charges per mile run. The order of importance of the various items is, therefore, as follows :— (1) Fuel.
(2) Repairs and maintenance. (3) First cost of vehicle.
(4) Wages. • (5) Tyres.
The minor items need not be scheduled.
If we were to consider a lighter class of vehicle running on pneumatic tyres, the order of importance of the items would probably be :— (I) Fuel.
(2) Tyres. (3) Repairs and maintenance.
(4) Wages. (5) First cost of vehicle.
It is quite an easy matter for efficiency in respect of fuel consumption to fall off by 10 or 15 per cent. without the fact becoming patent, unless reasonably accurate records are kept. If a vehicle is capable of doing iv niin-s to the gallon and, on account of faulty carhurettei adjustment, only averages nine miles to the gallon throughout its working life, a loss is involved just as serious as the payment of ,1,000 in the first instance for a machine which ought to have cost only £800.
In all the above remarks no account has been taken of the probably longer life of the higher priced vehicle. It has been assumed for the moment that the extra cost has gone, not to the improvement of durabilita• but rather to the improvement of efficiency.