Operating cost assessment
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Merc 16265
TO the price of £13,650 (including fifth-wheel) given in last week's road test of a Mercedes-Benz 1626S/30 artic tractive unit the sum of £3,000 has been added to represent the price of an average semitrailer, as the basis of an operating cost assessment.
The fuel consumption given in the road test was 7.1 mpg and using this year's fuel price of 47p a gallon this represents a running cost of 6.62p a mile.
The cost factors have been taken from the 1975 edition of CM Tables of Operating Costs shortly to be published.
Interest, fuel and depreciation have been calculated on the figures given in the road test.
The depreciation factor is calculated by subtracting from the whole vehicle price (E16,650) the price of a set of tyres (£1,478) and 10 per cent for residual value and dividing the remainder by 240,000 which represents the mileage life of the vehicle. The mileage life of the tyres has been assumed at 60,000.
On the basis of this Table the marginal cost of a vehicle averaging 1,000 miles a week can be calculated as follows. Standing cost (£130.61) divided by weekly mileage gives a standing cost per mile of 13.06p phis the running cost of 20.96p gives a marginal cost of 34.02p. Adding an allocation of 20 per cent to cover fixed costs (overheads) gives a total operating cost of 40.82p a
mile. J.J.