NEGLECT IN PUBLIC AND PRIVATE GARAGES.
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Whilst there are Exceptions of Which the Industry Should be Proud, "The Inspector" Claims that the Average Owner does not Give His Vehicles the Chance to Which They are Entitled.
READERS of The Commercial Motor owe quite a lot to the thoughtfulness of its Editor for the enlightenment he has afforded them on the various practical aspects of the all-important " Repairs" question. During the past 12 months the columns of this journal have included a considerable number of very interesting articles on workaday repair methods and the means of keeping financial account of them. There may still remain, however, a few words to be written on this subject—ever im-, portant to the user.
No owner of a single vehicle, or of but one or two machines, can, as a rule, aspire to the dignity and utility of a properly equipped repair shop. He who owns or runs a fleet of any considerable dimensions ha,s a very great pull in this direction. With proper organization the owner of a fleet is certain to achieve great advantage on maintenance costs and in regularity of service over the man who has only a vehicle or two, unless the latter is fortunate enough to have available the services of driver-mechanics of more than average capacity. Surely it is a subject for remark that so many vehicles run with regularity and in other ways satisfactorily for which no provision whatever has been made for maintenance other than perhaps a draughty, dirty, unheated shed, barren of tools or equipMent of any kind. There must be thousands of vehicles all over the country that are literally run to death—run to a standstill—until something serious actually happens. This is a wonderful tribute to the commercial vehicle of to-day, and not only to the machine of well-known brand and regulation.
How comparatively rare it is to find a. fleet of even any pretensions housed in anything better than a so-called garage, of which. the principal characteristics are dirt and muddle. Again, hew comparatively rare it is to go into a general public garage and repair shop on the wayside and find anything but mess and muddle—an entire absence of system or method, and precious little indication of any more appreciation of the difficulties, and complexities of the job than a considerable keenness to collect payment for petroliand oil and the shillings and halfcrowns for garage pure and simple, or services confined to allowing a car to stand for an hour or two in aorowded, covered, and very often dirty yard. Similar services to those you expect in the open air from a kerbside idler for a few coppers.
It is not sufficiently often, I venture to write, that one finds a garage organized for the job and showing evidence of it. There are very noteworthy exceptions, however. Most big towns boast one or more nowadays, and their-outstanding efficiency is made the`more remarkable by the average nastiness of the others. Just as these conveniences have so often the minimum of technical. help available—very often no more than that of two or three untrained, self n20
sufficient lads who are prepared to pull anything to bits and to chance getting it together again—so one very often finds that the owner of a commercial vehicle or two, obsessed by the cares of his own drapery or greengrocery or milling orconfectionery business, knows nothing of, and cares little more for, the conditions in which his valuable industrialvehicle plant is housed.
In marked contrast to the dirt and inefficiency
• of the wagon sheds of so many owners, one can recall instances of outstanding merit. Take the garages of Shell-Mex, Ltd., of Lyons and Co., of Carter, Paterson's, of Mitchell and Butler's, and, of course, outstandingly, of the L.G.O.C., and the many fire-brigade stations threughout the country. There are, fortunately, a number which could be named, and it is to be hoped that the very excellent educational work being carried out by the C.M.U.A. in this connection by their parade inspection systems will ultimately effect great improvements in this matter.
" Repairs " are looked on by ton many owners as evidence only of breakdown, of bad running. So often no attempt is made systematically to forestall the need for " repairs " ; regular inspection and overhaul are not attempted. The principle adopted is to " leave well alone," and to "let sleeping dogs lie." This is all wrong, for money spent on care of the machines and on adequate garage 'facilities is money well spent. Cleanliness, which is unattainable in dirty, neglected surroundings, is a wonderful insurance against heavy repair and replacement charges. Show me the dirty lorry—show me the bad and neglectful driver. Show me the garage heaped with scrap and piled with dirt and grime and grease —you can show me the owner who will not appreciate 'that valuable machinery must be well cared for if its depreciation is not to be unreasonable.
It is not sufficient to offer to some .owners tabulated statistics of what their vehicles ought to cost them; what is wanted is a. great crusade to persuade all owners that money and time are well spent in continuing suitable .maintenance and garage facilities for all machines. Dirt is no evidence of efficiency or of hard work. -Far too many people imagine they are capable of running commercial vehicles who have no practical appreciatio.n of the comparatively simple problems involved. Let the New Year be one of endeavour to secure better treatment for machines in service—more rational appreciation of the values at stake. What may be good for the farmer's agrimotor—left out in mid-field, perhaps partly covered with an old tarpaulin—is not good enough for the high-grade, high service capacity lorry or motervan„ Many a good lorry is spoilt for the lack of a ha'porth of care. Education in the matter of maintenance will sell more lorries to interested, properly informed, and satisfied owners.