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The Day of the Agent is Not Yet.

7th January 1915
Page 2
Page 2, 7th January 1915 — The Day of the Agent is Not Yet.
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

By the Editor.

The day—of the agent—is not yet, but it will come in respect of heavy motor vehicles. The time of its coming depends, apart from present abnormal conditions of the industry, as much upon those who seek to be agents as upon anything. The agent or wouldbe agent who can render service to the local customer possesses the open sesame of the problem. He cannot force the hands of the manufacturer until he is able to adduce definite proof of his ability to render a service. The manufacturer, then, wants no forcing. Agents of that calibre and class are known to exist ; the many who do not render a service constitute at the moment a clear majority.

We have argued the case for the agent from the earliest days of this journal, beginning in the year 1906. We look back with satisfaction, for example, to the correctness of the anticipations as to necessary methods and qualities which were put forward in a leading article entitled " Room for the Middleman " in our issue of the 13th April for that year. Again, later in the same year, we devoted a special issue to explaining " Where the Middleman Comes In." (We may remark, parenthetically, that numbers who came in have since gone out.) Those 1905 issues are now largely matters of ancient history. We turn from them to refer briefly to two occasions of more-recent date when the same unsettled topic again came under review. We took the opportunity to deal at length with the query " Shall There Be Agents ? " in November, 1912. That was within a few days of a dinner of the Agents Section of the S.M.M.T. at the Holborn Restaurant in Olympia week, and by way of comment upon a speech to one of the toasts by Mr. Arthur Spurner. We recognized the undoubted unpopularity of agents, which had arisen on the commereial side of the industry, and which assessment by some makers we know still to exist, and pointed out that it was largely due to the willingness of the average agent to absorb 10 per cent., or other rate of commission, and to do little else. That fact, whilst an unpalatable one, remains true in very many instances to-day. Men of large resources have not been attracted in numbers, whilst few who have essayed the task have shown the degree of tenacity, the breadth of capacity, or the particular class of versatility which experience of agency dealings on our side of the industry proves to be requisite. On the other hand, we have seen correspondence which proves shameful disregard of agents' efforts. It cannot be denied that there are grounds for bitterness and soreness of feeling on the agents' side. Reconciliation and mutual regard will be brought about but slowly. Motorcar agents as a body continue to knock at the door of the heavy-vehicle manufacturer for their appointment and recognition on generous terms, but they are seldom in a position to prove a state of preparedness to the satisfaction of the manufacturer at whose hands they seek appointment. Substantial agents are, none the less, wanted as much to-day as at any previous stage in the industry, if not more so, subject to the peculiar conditions which have been brought about by the war, but which conditions are temporary. The situation, at the moment, differs very little from that of two years ago, so far as the intrinsic claims of the strong agent are concerned, or the scope for his collaboration. The small man has but little chance, unless with parceIcars and the smaller vans. These facts are made clear, we would point out, by the excellent summary of the pros and eons of the case which emerged in the course of thediscussion of last month, at the Royal Automobile Club, which discussion we have fully reported in our last two issues. Correspondence is resulting.

D8 The second of the two recent occasions to which we would draw the attention of our readers, and particularly of the large number of new readers who ara considering the placing of orders, arose for attention at our hands in the summer of 1913. We felt called upon, at that date, to examine the broad question, from the point of view of the buyer or intending buyer —" Where Shall I Deal? " We then repeated our inclination to favour dealing through agents, except in cases where it can clearly be shown that the men who profess to act in that capacity render service to nobody, and, strictly speaking, fall within the category of blackmailers. We urged that no bona-fide agent, who has his capital and future at stake, can rightfully be classed with the man, of no definite occupation, who seeks to turn to account, for his own fleeting benefit, inside and advance information concerning definite intentions of friends who have resolved to purchase. Such men, writing generally, are of parasitic tendencies ; they harass all sections of the motor industry, and they are a veritable curse. That article was recognized to be so fair a statement of both sides of the case, for and against the agent and people who seek agencies, that Mr. J. Stafford, the Secretary of the Motor Trade Association and now of the Agents Section, Ltd., circulated a reprint of it to his entire membership. We cannot go over the whole ground again, but the references are available for those who have personal interest in them—issues of the 7th August and the 18th September, 1913.

We dissociate ourselves from the view, prevalent amongst some heavy-motor manufacturers, that no agent can be any good. We equally dissociate ourselves again from the other extreme view, prevalent amongst some agents, that every manufacturer should deal through them. The conditions of business in commercial motors render any general ruling quite inad, missible, certainly for some years to come. Trade practice remains against the agent for the time being. We confess that it has taken longer than we thought it would, for the agent to come into his own in the industry and movement to which we are devoted. That he will come into it, steadily and irresistibly, in future years, and at an accelerated pace when the accumulated orders with which the year 1915 opens have been met, is our conviction. The older makers may be able to do without agents, as some of them avowedly and within their own rights wish to do, for a longer term than others, but the newcomers to the industry will not be able to adopt that attitude of independence. They will not, as a matter of fact, be able to build up entirely through their own organization and their own staffs, as have certain of the older makers, and their only alternative will be to work through agents. Evidence of this line of action is not wanting at the moment. Agents are being fostered and protected.

It is notorious that our largest and wealthiest insurance companies, in the earliest decades of their work, preferred direct business, and did not encourage agencies. Nowadays, almost universally throughout the insurance world, the agent is the man who gets the business, and above all who is capable, by his personal efforts and connections, of transferring it from one office to another. It may take time, it will take time, but the, agent will come into his own hereafter for the sale of all types of commercial vehicles, from the parcelcaz to the five-tonner, and not excepting the steam wagon and tractor. The essential and first qualification is the getting-together of an organization_ and resources which will satisfy the local customer that he is better placed by dealing through such an agent than direct with the works. The buyer has the final say. He is the arbiter. He pays.


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