The Roads for Commerce. Article IV.
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Motor Advantages v. Rail Transit.
By Manchester Trader.
Rubber Tires on Steam Lorries.
Before leavingthe steam lorry, it may be noted that there has been a decided tendency of late years to use rubber tires on these vehicles. This means an increase from 5 to 8 miles per hour in speed, for a motor lorry shod with rubber on the four wheels; • where a trailer is used, the speed is again reduced to 5 miles per hour.
Apart from the saving in wear and tear on the whole machinery of the lorry, the rubber tires, whilst adding to the initial and running costs, may be taken as more than earning the expense on them in the increased mileage obtained, which should be nearer 300 miles per week against the 200 miles per week on steel tires. For instance, taking 250 miles per week (60 miles for 5 days), or 12,500 per year of 50 weeks, this at Is. per mile as running cost (which is a high figure) gives a debit of 2625. This adds, pro rata, about two tons more per day carried, or, for 250 days, 500 tons. Add this to the 1250 tons on steel tires, and the result is 1760 tons. This 1750 tons, at 10s. per ton rail charge (Class I), gives earnings 2875, running costs 2625, and balance 2250. This balance is a respectable figure, and one quite sufficient to indicate the possibilities with the higher classes of traffic. The extra mileage, in fact, adds nothing to the cost per mile over all, compared with the cost on steel tires.
For the lighter load-carrying steam lorry, at three to three-and-a-half tons net load, rubber-tired (as speed is the main factor with the lighter the load), a good 300 to 350 miles per week should be expected as normal running capacity. The standard running cost is about 29 10s. per week for a motor vehicle of this description. For 50 weeks, at 300 miles per week, we get a yearly 15,000 miles. At the estimated running cost of 8d. per mile, the total is 2500 per annum : for increased costs due to war, a figure of 9d. per mile (2562 10s. per annum) may be taken. The average day's run should be 60 miles. Traffic for this lorry; for two single loads per day, would have to be based on Classes 3, 4 or 5 of the railway classification, such as drapery, machinery, furniture, glassware, drugs and chemicals. With decent organizing it would be quite possible to do two journeys per day, to a point, say, 18 miles (nit, but let us take an outward journey of 16 miles, or 61 per day. For 16 miles, the rail rates would be approximately :— Class 3. Class 4 Class 5.
12s. 6d. ... 14s. 2d. ... 15s. 10d. all collected and delivered. Six tons at 12s. 6d. per ton (Class 3) yield 23 15s. The running cost (on 50 weeks) is 22 5s. per day, leaving a balance of 30s. per day on Class 3 traffic alone exclusive of return loads, empties, or possible round trips.
Class 4 traffic yields a profit per day of 22 Os. Class 5 traffic yields a profit per day of 22 10s. Where three-and-a-half tons may be carried with safety on the lorry, the profit is, oi course, correspondingly greater.
Satisfying One's Customers.
Availability, utility, and adaptability are three words descriptive of motor-vehicle carrying. Day in, day out, the vehicle or vehicles form one of the factors in a business which may be regarded as essential. To take a load here or there, not necessarily, a railway 'journey, and to be sandwiched in, in the day's work, in servioe hitherto unthought of
al8 these points, as assets, as money, must be considered. No claims for breakages, no delays, door-to-door delivery, absence of doubt as to collection or delivery, lighter and cheaper packages for goods (as railway rough handling is eliminated), the fitting of bodies and lorry tops specially designed to carry a particular class of goods—all these and many more points represent money ! Perhaps 'the chief asset is the satisfaction of customers, who also are saved heaps of 'irritation and „ toss. Think what it means to a business trader, or carrier, in actual money saved to customers in a year, by 'their knowing that their goods are going to be collected and delivered from or to their doorstep, and no fuss!
Indicated Openings.
-Drugs and chemicals, furniture glassware, machinery, amongst many other goods m the "classification," offer a huge field for either the ownervehicle or the carrier-vehicle. ,Enough indication is shown above that the latter, with increased cost as against the owner-vehicle, has safe ground upon which to begin operations. All the above goods are so bound up by the, railway companies in restrictions, such as (1) owner's risk, (2) special packages, (3) the relieving of the railway companies of all liability except proved wilful misconduct of their servants (and to endeavour to prove this may render one liable to prosecution for trespass upon the companies' premises), that it amounts, to-day, to a matter for astonishment, that the trader or other road-carrier permits one ounce of such traffic to be handled, or mishandled, by the railway companies !
"Dangerous" in Company: Safe on the Independent Road Vehicle.
It is interesting here to quote the railway cornpanys' terms for the privilege of allowing their rails and wagons to be used for "dangerous" traffic :— " The company do not undertake or incur the liability or duties of common carriers in respect of goods received or conveyed under this agreement, nor are the company to incur any risk or responsibility in respect of the loading, stowage, or unloading, nor in respect of any loss or damage arising in or by reason of the loading, stowage, or unloading thereof ; nor are they to be answerable for any loss or damage, actual, or consequential, nor for discrepancy in the delivery as to either quantity, number, or weight, nor for the condition of any such goods, nor for over-carriage of the goods, nor for detention, or delay in, or in relation to the conveying or delivery thereof, except upon proof that such loss, damage, misdelivery, delay, or detention arose from wilful misconduct on the part of the com
pany's servants." . . "Senders of dangerous goods omitting to give notice in writing of the contents of packages containing such goods are liable to a penalty of 220.". . "These regulations and conditions are applicable throughout the entire distance over which the goods are to be carried, and none of them can be altered or dispensed with by any person whomsoever." Let the sender of frequently-thisclassed " dangerous " goods bear in mind that the element of danger most often arises by the inevitable grouping of goods in transit, either as part of a train or a. truck, or of a depot (yard), or a warehouse contents. The'railways cannot avoid these inherent disabilities in
regard to " dangerous " goods. There is no adequate means for them completely to segregate the consignments, so the trader has both to pay extra and accept unknown risks.
The railway companies, raising the plea in the High Court—as a "get-out " or subterfuge—that certain charges made by them were in the nature of 4` deterrents " i.e., to deter the trader from endeavouring to perform the services himself, have surely, here, an object-lesson worthy of their argument. Not one, or dozens, but fleets of motor lorries are needed all over the kingdom for this work, an& it is a safe opinion to express that, while there is room for every, single trader-owned or carrier-owned vehicle, the men with capital and eyes open for a safe venture have before them one of the foundation stones of the general problems of road carriage. Motor transport has, as yet, only begun to revolutionize the carrying trade of the whole country. It • has a future almost without limit