Differing Working Expenses I NTRODUCING the subject of working expenses
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per vehicle mile, and the wide differences in such expenses between transport undertakings; Mr.
B. England (Nottingham), quoted Mr.
C. T. Humpidge, who in the paper he presented to the conference last year said : What alarms me is that there is a wide divergence of cosi of operation by Corporations of as much as 8d. per mile."
Mr. England maintained that whilst differences in working expenses ranging from 23d. to 37d. per vehicle mile seemed large, the nature of the transport industry made divergencies inevitable. Such divergencies resulted from differences in the size of the area of operation, the average speed attainable, the traffic characteristics of the district, the age of the fleet and variations in specification, to choose a few.
Mr. C. T. Humpidge (Bradford) reminded delegates that organizations such as B.E.T. Federation, Ltd., regularly compared the costs of different companies within their group and those with higher costs had to cut them. Such comparisons were particularly important in the present period when there was a danger of being priced out of the market.
Mr. T. P. O'Donnell (Ashton-underLyne) suggested a study group composed of managers of undertakings to examine this whole question.
Mr. G. A. Cherry (Birkenhead) felt that whilst Mr. England's points were all true, the process of finding reasons for variations in costs tended to introduce a complacent attitude of sitting back and doing nothing about the, increased costs. Courage was needed to effect certain economies as, for example, reducing staff.
In his reply, Mr. England goodhumouredly rejected any attitude of complacency on his part. He reiterated that as far as managers were concerned many working expenses were ineradicable.