THE SOLID TYRE BUSINESS AND THE AGENT.
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How Press Service will Bring Business.
EVERYBODY SAYS there is going to be an enormous increase in he number of motor-propelled vehicles as soon as the war -.Pis over. Every circumstance-conclusively points to it, not the least being the increased number of lady drivers brought about by the fact that so many ear owners and drivers have joined the Forces in one capacity or another.
To support the argument, facts and figures concerning the wonderful growth of motor development in the United States are advanced, oblivious of the circumstance that conditions are so vastly dissimilar. In America the hay and oats driven buggy has given way to the light speedy vehicle, not necessarilyt from choice be it noted, but .because this popular car offered the solitary means of enabling the rural'resident to keep pace with the world's progress. Still, no one can deny that motoring, upon the conclusion of peace, both for pleasure and commerce, is certain to undergo a rapid and big development in these islands.
If this hypothesis be accepted, the motor agent is destined to have a particularly big part to play, not only in dealing with the pleasure vehicles, but even more so in handling light and heavy motor vehicles re' quired f or commercial purposes.
And here will be found two or more distinct classes of customers who will demand different treatment. The man running vehicles in connection with his business is a person who is accustomed to get special treatment in connection with a large number of his purchasers, and the bigger buyer he is, naturally the more consideration he •considers himself entitled. to. How, then, is the matter going to be arranged as between the ma,nufactuier and the agent on the one side, and the agent and the ultimate purchaser on the other?
Agent or•LDealer ?
With all this big business coming along both in vehicles and in accesseries,la new conception of the word "agent" is needed. There is all the difference in the world between the word " agent " and the word "dealer," and it is in the proper application of the meaning of the word " agent " that the solution of these difficulties lies.
An agent is described as "one authorized or delegated to transact business for another," and, in the future, this is the function that every agent will be called upon to carry out.
In proportion to the increase in business, there will undoubtedly be a considerable increase in the number of agents up and down the country, and competition between agent and agent will become more acute. So it will result in this—the agent who gives the best service, first of, all, to the user, and, secondly, to the manufacturer, will be the man who will win the business. The man who does not interpret his function properly must go to the wall when he is faced with the opposition of the man who does.
And this brings me to -the exceedingly important question of solid rubber tyres for heavy cornotercial vehicles. Many an agent to-day has not taken any interest whatsoever in the solid-tyre business. Some have argued that the majority of the business is done direct with the manufacturer' and there is no room for the agent in it. Or again, the pressing on of solid rubber tyres is a matter with which they were acquainted, and they have not the facilities either for thc purchase of a tyre-fitting press or, alternatively, for its operation if they decided to purchase one. Therefore, they have stood on one side and left the business alone.
But this is short-sighted policy. Very ,considerable opportunities for doing solid tyre business are available even to-day, and, as has been shown before, the increase after the war will be enormous. Many an agent has to day private customers who to-morrow may be using commercial vehicles, in addition to those commercial customers already on his books, and, if the agent is not in a position to move along with his clients, he will lose those clients eventually as surely as night follows day.
More Presses Wanted.
The number of tyre presses at present installed throughout the country is relatively -small, and difficulties of obtaining additional presses at the present time are insuperable, unless very special circumstances can be made out arid the Ministry of Munitions be persuaded to grant permission. There are, nevertheless, a sufficient number of presses available for the business in hand. Most of the large tyre firms have presses installed at their depots, and some of the agents themselves have undertaken this expense. The agent who has established his own press is, of course, one of the few men who have already made a big bid for the solid tyre business, and his foresight will of necessity reap its own reward.
But for the agent who has not a press and cannot at present get. one, there is still a volume of business to be done, and if this agent refuses to handle the solid-tyre business which is actually brought to him now, he is in a much worse position than the man who, having no press of his own, makes an arrangement with a neighbour who has, whereby the latter presses on the tyres which belong to the former's customer. For, in the one case, the customer will take his vehicle to the competitor of his own volition, and the chances are that all the business.will follow. On the other hand, the agent who handles the solid-tyre business through the medium of his competitor's press keeps his grasp on his customer, and, before the client can be won away from him, he is able to put up a stiff
fight. _ And another point: let us suppose that the agent who has not a press at present succeeds in retaining his client who has to-day only one vehicle running on solid rubber tyres; that client is the potential owner of three or four vehicles, and the agent who sticks to his man under the difficult circumstances which exist at present will receive a full reward when in the fullness of time he establishes his own press and the owner of that one lorry has a fleet of four or five.
So far as the solid-tyre side of the business is concern,ed, there is a reasonable margin in it for the agent, and the margin is, of course, progressively better as the volume of business increases ; and above all this is a business wherein an agent with reasonable care and the development of proper business acumen can gauge his requirements to a nicety. There is very little of the " stray business" in solid tyres, and the fact that these tyres are bulky need not deter the agent with small premises, for he can order from the manufacturer exactly the quantity of tyres and in the sizes his clients will be needing. A little intelligent anticipation will tell him when replacements of his clients' tyres are likely to become necessary, and he can order accordingly. So taking the businessall round, there is no room for doubt that a wide-awake agent has got a big thing in his hands. How big, only the future will show. That it must be an ever-increasing section of the upto-date agent's business, there is no possibility of doubt. HENRY NEYNOE.