HINTS FOR HAULIERS.
Page 27
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
Establishment Charges: What They Are and How They Total to a Substantial Weekly SuM, Even in the Case of the One-lorry Owner Working From His Private House,
I .
'-N THE previeus, articles coastitOting this series : .1 have thadeselear the proper system of classify,
. . . . ; mg costs--arad, if I may say so, the method of discovering •costs,aad T have dea•lt with the best
means of recording the different figures.I. do not think it is neceasary:for me to suggest any 'special means for keeping tally, of the expenditure which comes Under the heading of establishment or over head charges.
A' small notebook with -ordinary cash rulings will'
answer the purpose of the •small haulier—by which term I mean the man in a, small way of business, having Only one or two lorries and, therefore, no
inclination and (if the truthbe confessed) very little need for elaborate schemes of bookkeeping.A page may be set apart for each week, and all expenditure during during that, week catered on that page, the total being written at the bottom, for purposes of easy•
reference and cornparisen and to assist in the ultimate calculation of average weekly expenditure. At the end of the year all these weekly totals should be added together and divided by 52, so as to ascertain what is the amount of average establishment, charges per week.
In completing each weekly 'page, the necessity for entering up a proportion of the house rent and of gas ancl Coal bills, too, must not be Overlooked; that is, if the haulier happens to use his residence as bilsinesa headquarters and as office, which is most frequently the case. If he has a separate business establishruthit, he will naturally experience the expenditure. direct, and will record it.
Now, since it is net wise to take establishment charges week by week as a basis of estimating rates, and since it is necessary to have an average figure to that end, and a year must elapse before the haulier who has hitherto kept no record of this expenditure
can arrive at such an average, I must endeavour to give him a lead in the matter—making a good many assumntions—so that he will have .a figure to go upon daring the coming year.
The Costs of the One-lorry Man,
In. order to effect this, it is necessary, first of all, • -: to. differentiate between the one-man-one-lorry business and that in which one man owns two or three machines, one of which he may drive himself. I will deal with the, former case first. ' Referring back to a previous aiticle of this series and dealing with the items of establishment charges 'as: they were there outlined; the first Which occurs is rent and rates. In this case, I think we may take it that the business will be conducted from the : haulier's own house and that an alloWance Of 58. per .. week will be sufficient., . •
. A telephone, at present rate, wilt cost about 12 a year, say, about 55s a week. Insurance will not exceed la. a week at the outside and may be only trd. The lighting bill should not be a great item— say, about Os. £1, quarter, or 6d. a week. Heating will cost about is. a week during the winter. say, or 6d. a week average throughout the year. The management and upkeep costs of the office should include, I think, postage, stationery, and telegrams, which items were not specially referred to in the schedule drawn no in the previeus article, as well as upkeep of office fittings and furniture. The latter would involve about 1s. 6d. a, week. • Stationery, pastages, and telegrams might easily add up to as a week, so that for this item we must take a total of 58. 6d.
The amount spent on travelling will vary consider ably, according to the class of work upon which the haulier is engaged. . Some. :men never, go: far away from home ; othets are known individually to .their chilctren as "a man who comes to thehouse on Sunday." The travelling expenses of the foraner may be only a few shillings a -year; those of the -latter as many shillings a 'night. The average man, -going away occasionally only for the night, will spend about 105. a week all the year round under this head, and that is the figure which I am putting in my iniaginary schedule. Although, however, I have inserted 10s. a week under that heading, it, is only, as one might Bay, for the purpose of putting something in; There is really no useful average.for this item, which must be checked by each reader according to his Circumstances.
. Small Items Often Overlooked. .
The amount of money which the haulier lirnSeU 8hpuld spend in law costs is not likely to be large. It is, in any case, even more difficult to estimate than his expenditure on travelling •I propose to allow only a nominal sum of is. a week in the schedule, hoping for the best. The income tax-of the haulier, earning about 1400 a year as the total of his wages to .himself as •driver and the net profit on the working of his lorry, will be, making a suppositious allowance for children, life insurance policiea, 'etc., about, 5s. a week. '
If an office boy is employed, or if some member of the family carries out such duties' as would fall to an office boy, at the expense of a 'corresponding gaatuity, that amount should be entered accordingly. I am not putting anything down for it here, because my experience is that most small hauliers manage
without. .
We can now see what a one-man-one-lorry haulage contractor driving his own vehicle may spend a week in establishment or overhead charges:—
This iS, to all intents and purposes; a standing charge: that is to say, it goes on weekin, week out, whether the lorry is working Or not ; it does not vary with the mileage run. When calculatingrates, it must be reckoned in just the same way as we did with the standing charge which is a part of the operating cost of the lorry. Taking. again, the example given in the previous article,. Which appeared in the issue for June 12th, and calculating on a basis of £1 a daystanding charges for the lorry and is. a mile running costs, the total costs to the haulier of operating his vehicle.including the overhead expenses of his business as such, would be, per week, 16 for the standing charges, plus •Ei 1,3s. for the establishment -charges, phis is. a.mile for every mile run during the week. Assuming, therefore, a mileage of 200, the total cost would 'be £22 ps. a week, and the cost per mile
1st 6.12d. Sacsrefa.