Give the Motor Dealer His Due
Page 37
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A Plea for Operators' Co-operation in Obtaining a Square Deal for Traders who Can have a Most
Benevolent Influence
lkAOTOR dealers, particularly those "Iwho sell commercial vehicles— which represent about 40 per cent. of motor-trade turnover—form a vital part of the road-transport industry, and their organization, or lack of it, should command more interest from the operator. After all, their Motor Agents Association is a subscribing member of the B.R.F. and of the Motor Legislation Committee, which bodies are far from being solely concerned with the privatecar side of the trade.
TI operators be interested (and a case will be stated here and now as to why they should be, as well as a statement of the benefits which the agents and their association have already given to operators) , then it is right that vehicle buyers should cooperate and not oppose attempts to regularize selling.
Those Material Benefits.
What are the benefits? It is obvious that the motor trade, by establishing service garages, petrol stations, spare-parts stores, breakdown-ambulance arrangements, and the like, has done a service that alone has made long-distance haulage possible.
Furthermore, you buy petrol and Oil at the same prices (or thereabouts) in the Highlands of Scotland as in the city or port. Tyres, springs and spares generally, even the labour charges in the case of urgent repairs, are to a great and increasing extent standardized. The dealer does not hold the operator to ransom, even if, on occasions, he is known to wish that he had done so. One of the latest benefits is credit facilities for repairs and supplies, on an organized system sponsored by the motor trade.
Before making complaints, let any dissentient count the many unrecognized blessings covered in the above assertions. Let him consider on how many sleepless nights the motor agent and/or his staff have deputized for him.
Black sheep there are in the trade, but day and night, all over the country, it confers enormous benefits.
Why are the popular makes of vehicle popular? Mainly because the trade service has made them so. It has meant capital, initiative, untiring effort, organization and, if the truth were known, incommensurate profit. More capital, more organization and more effort will be forthcoming to give even greater benefits if encouragement be given.
What is there in return? Is it too much to ask from the operator, in return, that he should not only buy his new vehicles from recognized motor traders, but that he should, when doing so, treat the trader fairly? The average deal for a new vehicle is a part exchange, and many buyers must think the dealer is a parasite, judging by the way they treat him, rather than the benefactor and Good Samaritan.
When purchasing one of the popular makes, how far from your main centre will you not go to get a better allowance for the old vehicle? Do you really think that your old vehicle has a definite value, or one that can honestly fluctuate so widely? Are you a barterer, a highwayman? It is not the dealer's own affair.
Stabilizing Allowances.
Just as haulage rates will have to be stabilized and honestly maintained to relieve the road-transport industry of certain of its losses, and to maintain its prestige, so will allowance prices for old vehicles have to be stabilized. Just as the consignor of goods will have to take or be made to take a more moral view of the haulage-rates question, so must the buyer of a vehicle take a more moral view of transactions with the motor trade.
The exchange allowance and the haulage-rate question are inextricably bound together. What happens to your old vehicle when the dealer gets it? If he has made an honest allowance to you and there has been no squeeze, he can afford to "do it up" and sell it to a sound operator who will get good service from it and pay his way without cutting.
If, on the other band, you insist on an over-allowance, you barter and you get £25 or even £50 more in your bank. Possibly, but not probably, you get a new vehicle of the
same value as you would have done, and certainly you get less chance of service.
But the matter does not end there. The dealer has a too-highly priced vehicle on his hands; if he "does it up" it is still higher in price, and, "done up or not," he cannot sell it at a legitimate profit (which alone will allow him to continue to give good service to all operators).
Eventually, he may have to depend on guaranteed hire-purchase to a man with a licence and prospects, but little money or stability— a class of road operator which even the Salter Commission Report, of evil memory, condemned. The old vehicle soon becomes the means for haulage rates being cut to your detriment.
Direct Selling Wrong.
The " heavies " are mostly sold direct, at present, and it is admittedly the dealer's affair to convince the manufacturers, if he can, that the custom should be altered. It is inconceivable that there will always be this gulf between the popular and the heavy type. One type, it might be said, is keenly costed in production. .keenly priced and efficiently salesmanaged, whilst the other is still costed as in the lush times of long ago, and sometimes priced on the "think of a number" principle, sc. that, in selling, most fantastic allowances can be made and attractive hire-purchase can be arranged.
Many of the manufacturers of heavies do not, perhaps, go so far as this, but all could probably save on their selling costs by using the motor trade, and that without losing sales.
Too much of the competition today, as commented on above, is little short of crime. This must be eliminated and the operator is one of the parties concerned. By association, the dealer can, and is; doing much; his relations with the manufacturers and price-protection organizations were never better, and, with More co-operation from operators, there is no doubt at all that more and more benefits will accrue to all users of commercial vehicles.
This is the way to healthy road services—that operators should support those who have helped them so greatly in the past, are helping them now, and will help them increasingly in the future if given a square deal.