TO ENTER THE HAULAGE AND COACH INDUSTRY.
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Our Contributor Suggests Another Way by Which Non-capitalistic Garage Proprietors May Become Part-owners of Goods and, Passenger Vehicles.
By " SINCE I WROTE my article en the subject of buying lorries and motor coaches by deferred paymeats, I have been told of a plan by which the proprietor of a small garage in a seaside town was able to participate in the thriving motor coach business without having actually to put up any hard cash of his own. It has struck me that, although this plan may be, for all f know to the contrary, in use elsewhere, it merits brief description here. So .many garage proprietors of my acquaintance are yearning to have a finger in the pie that no passibility of giving them a. clue to the solution of the problem of "what to do when all your money is locked up and you want to buy something," must be let slip. e As a anatter of fact, this plan was nothing more wonderful than the taking cif a partner, who had enough money to purchase the requisite vehicle and ability to drive it. The garage proprietor's share of the joint undertaking is the provision of skilled: labour to maintain the vehicle in good repair, office organization to handle the bookings, and storage room to accommodate the vehicle. They divide the spoils "fifty-fifty," as the Americans nay. This division may seem rather unfair towards the man who has aupplied the capital, but, in the particular instance Of which I have knowledge, the capitalist really understands nothing whatever about. business or mechanics and) beyond his Army experiencein driving and his money, he brought nothing to the marriage. So, while it is true that his motor trade partner could not have bought the essential vehicle (it is, of course, a motor coach) without the cash, he himself could not have attempted to run a service en his ownaccount without coming a cropper. Therefore, the advantages of the partnership were considered to be equal, and the profits are also divided equally. The proyider of the money, by the way, takes a like share of the profits of the original garage and repairs businesS, but it cannot amount to much, as the premises afe in an out-of-the-way spot, and are not niuch patronized
for that reason: .
I cited the adage that "he who :goes a-borrowing goes a-sorrowing" as an argument-foe caution when deliberating the question of buyinglY instalment, so, in the present connection, it ia-fit that,-We should dig up that other maxim, which says: "'Fake a partner, take a master." How accurate both these proverbs are most men that have put them to the test will affirm. Exceptionally fortunate circumstances have, sometimes, rendered the applicable rude inoperative, but, in the main, both are safe to go by. I would not take the responsibility of recommending anyone, however hard Pushed for capital, to go into partnership with somebody else solely to get money; least of all when the object was to acquire a perishable piece of
machinery. ,
A scheme *at is infinitely Superior to taking a partner, with all that a partnership brings in the way of legal liabilities, is to form a small limited liability company, ekpressly for the purpose of carrying on the' business of motor haulage .contractors and proprietors of motor coaches. The formalities are few, and the protection afforded is, immense. The company could be :conducted as partand parcel of the ordinary business of the garage, so long as the accounts of • the trade done were kept separately. Certain revenueraising and vote-getting regulations act rather harshly on young concerns of this nature, but---well, there are methods of easing their harshness, which are sufficiently well known to obviate the necessity of repeating them here! Hundreds of ex-officers who have £1,000 or £2,000 behind them are wandering what to do for a living. Quite a number of them are dabbling in the buying, and selling of touring ears, but the ,gilt is wearing oilf.that ginger-bread and the occupation is -beginning to pall: No doubt, some of these gen-tlemen would be glad to entertain apraposition of this kind, for, not only does it offer them adequate control of their money; but the prospects of creating a good thing out of the venture are reasonably sound. Very few of them have enougli practical experience of Maintaining commercial vehicles to enable them to launch out independently as. owners of goods or passenger-carrying vehicles, without the support of a competent motor trader. I have not tried, but advertising sheuld be effective in bringing garage proprietors who may think there is something in the scheme into touch with these capitalists.
The personal factor must not be overlooked, because the close association of such an -alliance requires that the characters of garage proprietor and capital paovider ,shall be mutually congenial. This, however, is a. matter that no amount of impersonal article-writing can possibly settle, so I will,leave italone.' The trader can easily trange that 'interference with the management of his existing business will be impossible, whilst giving the man who puts up the Money full scope to exercise control over the affairs of the new concern. For both parties the limited liability company plan has indisputable advantages over a partnership, the lengths and depths of which are usually ill-defined.
-Preferabry, in order to ,keep expenses down, the person who furnishes the capital should be willing to drive the first vehicle. The occupation is not, arid should not be cansidered to be, beneath the dignity of an ex-officer. Most certainly the work is honest, even if it is arduous ; and, to a man who likes an open-air life, it presents many favourable aspects. The handling of a lorry is hardly so enjoyable, from that point of view, as driving a motor coach, because there is a good deal more labour than scenery in connection with it ; but eVen that has its attractions, especially when one knows that one's own money is in. the vehicle and that every ton it carries represents so much profit for oneself. As to sitting behind the steering wheel of a coach, there is nothing to preventthe driver from enjoying himself almost as heartily as
his passengers enjoy themselves, particularly if he is intelligent ntelligent and educated persoa, with a taste for studying the features of historipal interest of the places he visits. Friends will be made on every trip, and his turnout will be patronized when rivals are *cancelling journeys through :naufficient bookings.
We are rapidly approaching the end of the holiday passenger traffic, but that fact need not deter a pro gressive garage proprietor from taking thought now for next year's season, while, if it is the haulage trade that he wishes to enter, this time is as propitious as any other. I do not suggest that the scheme for financing the undertaking, which has been outlined above, will appeal at all to a trader who can get hold of the money by any other means, but; to those who are in a comparatively small, thaugh.secure, way of business, it is worth weighing up. Failure to attain success would'riot be.an absolute-disaster, as it might be under an. ordinary partnership, which is usually entered into in a very happy-go-lucky fashion, owing to the rosy light that shines on projects that are dear to us, forbidding us think that anything but success is possible.