MAKING MOTOR DELIVERY PAY.
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Our Contributor Claims That Agents Can Help Their Customers to Save Up to £150 a Year on Each Vehicle.
By " Vim."
ALL USERS of motor vehicles are keen on keep. mg their running costs as low as possible. I do not pretend that this is an. original discovery of mine. Somehow or other, it seems very familiar to my own ears ; but there is no harm in repeating it, any way, if only because one might be inclined to doubt it if one trusted solely to the evidence of one's eyes.
There -are many ways of minimizing the cost of motor delivery, starting with buying the best of vehicles, going on with employing good drivers, and finishing up with fitting &a,dgets for getting the last puff of power out of petrol, guaranteed, to effect a saving in fuel consumption of at least 25 per cent. But the most potent factor, the one that can cut the Gordian knot of expenses in a trice, while others are fiddling to unravel it, is making use of the advertisement value of a van or lorry. This also, I am aware, is not a. discovery of mine. It was hit upon a long while ago by some of the earliest users of motor vehicles for business purposes. Much has been written about it, then and ever since. Rut I fancy that few would believe so if they judged by the majority of the trade cars that one now meets in the streets. Probably the Ford van has had a greatinfluence towards degrading the, motor vehicle as an advertising medium. Shelled peas require the inspiration of a genius to add the touch which will make one look different from another ; and when the peas are falling out of their pods thick and fast, the supply of inspiration is apt to run. short, as it has done in the case of Ford vane. Nowadays, the average owner of business cars regards them simply as motor vehicles and nothing more. I want, if I can, to impress on agents the importvoice of persuading their customers to make their vans and lorries travelling advertisements. A hundred; or even three hundred, extra pounds spent on a special body may prove the best investment a. firm ever made, although it is not essential that anything like such heavy sums should be spent in order to turn an otherwise plain goods conveyance into a bringerof-business as well. It costs very little more, often no more to paint a standard type of body in a distinctive colour scheme and to have the oame and description of the owner written artistically, than it does to dress in any old colours that the coachbuilder happens to think suitable. Moreover, without constructing a special bodY, it is possible, at no great eigienditure of money, to add some novel feature that will always attract attention to the vehicle as it passes along the .streets.. The main object is to attract attention ; not a mere casual, glance. but real attention. Having achieved this, and the owner's name and style of business being plainly legible, every mile that the vehicle travels will increase the number of people who are aware of the existence of that owner's business, and, his trade must in clue course swell, always provided that he serves his customers properly. If our Editor will extend his grace so far, I will attempt in my next ,article to give three or four useful suggestions for novel features, which agents could put before their commercial customers, both to illustrate the value of publicity and to assist them to obtain publicity value from their vehicles. For the moment, we will return to the subject of cutting down running costs. There are two ways of Making a profit out of a, business undertaking You can either reduce the debit (or purchase price) side of the account, or increase the credit (or selling price) side; or, prefer
ably, you can do both. In dealing with motor delivery, the same rule applies. When discussing with a prospective buyer of & commercial vehicle the'
amount that it is likely to cost him per annum, it is usual to show hirceon paper so much for petrol, oil, insurance, garaging, repairs, interest on capital, tax, driver, etc. and he is generally left to imagine the credits. Ay view is that the proper course is to show him, the credits first; to induce him to assess the pecuniary advantages he will derive from the convenience of having at his beck and call a tireless and rapid means of collecting and distributing his goods, with a limitless range of action ; and, if the "prospact" has the courage to put down a figure to represent that, next to ask him to state what he considers to be the value of a travelling, display advertisement that must be seen by scores of thousands of people during the course of a year. Ascertain the selling price of motor delivery, say I, before you worry about the cost—afterwards will be time enough for that—and if the inquirer . has allowed anything approaching reasonable figures for " convenience " and advertising, there need be no fear that a substantial profit will not be shown.
And if a user comes to you in your capacity as his
repairer, and asks your advice on the best way to cut down expenses, the chances are ten to one that you can put him on the track of doing that so extensively as to astonish him, when he sees the point. Show him how to earn money with his vehicles by turning them into real advertisements. I do not say that the debit side of his &recount for transport should not be investigated, because there may be heavy leakages there, but unless it is clearly excessive, the quickest method Of converting the losa into a profit is to direct attention to the credit side. What is the advertisement value of an attractive motor vehicle to the firm that is employing it? It is no more possible to answer that question than it is to state the value of a paid-for announcement in a newspaper, of a circularizing campaign, of sandwich men, of, indeed, any form of publicity. So many factors lia.ve to be taken into the reckoning. The drawing power of the " copy" is, perhaps, the chief point, and, so far as motor vehicles are concerned, this means the attracMveness of the vehicle. Then there is quality of circulation—that is, advertising to people who want, or ought to, want, the goods advertised—which counts heavily in favour of a tradesman's van, because it circulates mainly in his own -district. Then comes consideration of the cumulative effect of publicity ; another advantage to the motor vehicle, because it is constantly reiterating its message.
With the three leading factors in effective pub
licity all possessed by an attractive trade vehicle, in my opinion it is not exaggerating its advertisement value to put it at from 21 to 23 a week, according to its attractiveness, they quality of the neighbourhoods through which it has to circulate when collecting and delivering. goods, and the regularity with which it makes its appearances in the streets. To save, by paring down running costs, from 250 to 2150 per annum takes oome doing. If it can be done, by all means do it; but do not neglect to boost up the earnings by giving full power to the factor of publicity. If, by any extraordinary chance, you as an agent should come across a business man who says that he does not need to advertise in these days, you can safely recommend him to eliminate, the cost of his motor delivery by taking to pack-mules.