B ASICALLY the function of a commercial vehicle is to convey

16th September 1966, Page 192

16th September 1966

Page 192

Page 192, 16th September 1966 — B ASICALLY the function of a commercial vehicle is to convey

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goods or passengers as economically as possible at the appropriate level of service required. Unfortunately, right at the outset some confusion can arise as a result of this latter qualification. This in turn stems from the fact that transport is a service industry. Standards of service may not be so readily definable as standards of commodities, but it is misleading to dismiss the existence of variations in service standards as though they did not exist or at least were of little account.

It is important to reiterate this aspect of providing a transport service when the selection of a new vehicle is under review. Inevitably, because the goods or passengers moved are the very reason for the service being performed, likewise the variables in service standards largely depend on the particular goods or passengers moved. The obvious example relates to the very substance of goods as contrasted, for example, by sand in a tipper or foodstuffs in a box van. But superimposed on this type of variable, or similar ones of lesser degree, are the factors of urgency and availability.

Theoretically, the provision of an adequate maintenance service hould do what the term—maintenance—implies, namely to keep :he vehicle in its original condition. In practice this is not so and t is accepted that ultimately the vehicle will have to be replaced.