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GETTING RID OF PAPER WORK
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Page 91
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Do you begrudge the time spent on keeping those important cost records? Then one solution may be a part-time secretarial service
DAPER WORK is anathema to many transport operators. Many of the small units which comprise much of the industry cannot justify the full-time employment of even one office worker to specialize on such work.
Inevitably, therefore, even where records are kept the ownerdriver is compelled to do the work during the evening or at weekends often helped by members of his family.
In many other cases record systems are inadequate and many operators have no real knowledge as to their level of profitability, even if they do just manage to meet successive bills as they come along. In turn this has the effect of depressing the level of haulage rates generally in the operator's area even though the other nearby firms may be fully aware of their true costs.
This is why it is necessary to make sure that whatever form filling is done is essential—and to understand its purpose. Unfortunately form filling, particularly in large organizations, has grown so much in recent years that many look upon the whole exercise as, at best, a necessary evil. To do so is to confuse the use and abuse of form filling and ignore the vital information it can provide in the right circumstances.
More convenient Getting down to bedrock, the devising and subsequent use of any form is only justified if it provides a more convenient means of recording information than any other method. By definition a form indicates standardization in the method of recording, and consequently if data is to be recorded only very occasionally then a form, however well devised, may well be no more help than a blank sheet of paper.
In road transport operation a distinction has to be made when applying a record system between information which is required concerning rapidly changing situations and that in connection with more competitive work. In the former case there will be the need for information on fleet location and utilization which is often best supplied by movable indicator pins on a diagrammatic board.
At the other end of the scale there will be hand written details on log sheets as required by law expanded, possibly, to include such additional information as individual operators think fit. An understandable request by some operators new to cost recording is for one comprehensive form. At first sight this might seem a commendable step toward simplification—but it could prove both confusing and expensive. The resulting form could be so complex that it would not only be confusing in use but also wasteful in stationery because only a comparatively small proportion of it might be used on any one occasion.
The main object To reduce paper work to a minimum it is possible to combine the statutory log sheet with the driver's time sheet. This is so particularly in small fleets where paper work is undertaken by one person, part-time or otherwise. In larger firms, however, this might not prove so convenient if the engineering, record and wages departments wanted the log sheet at the same time.
The main object of cost recording is to devise a realistic yardstick by which to measure current efficiency and provide a sound basis for estimates of future operation from which charges can be calculated. It is most important for small operators to realize from the outset of operation the significance of the distinction between immediate and deferred costs.
This particularly applies when the small fleet operator has been fortunate in commencing a new vehicle with the only immediate expenses being wages, fuel and relatively minor servicing for some months. But with every mile run the deferred repair and tyre costs will be accumulating.
Therefore an adequate accounting system should be kept up to date so that he is fully acquainted as to the true financial position of his transport operation.
Fully occupied But precisely because he is a small operator he may well be more than fully occupied canvassing, for, and subsequently moving, the loads which provide the livelihood of commercial vehicle operators. If the traditional ruse of passing any paper work on to some member of his family is not possible, what is the alternative?
Agriculture has a close connection with road transport operation in several respects and has a similar problem of who is to do the inevitable form filling to which small farmers are committed. And the road transport industry could well take a look at the NFU Services Ltd. secretarial service, sponsored by the National Farmers Union and designed to relieve farmers of secretarial worries.
Farmers putting their paper work into professional hands enjoy obvious advantages. Although staff provided by NFU Services may work for only a small number of hours a week for an individual farmer, they bring him the benefits of specialized knowledge and skill from full-time employment in this type of work.
Paper work problems that could prove a burden to some farmers are unlikely to baffle NFU Services farm secretaries who are accustomed to dealing with them daily.
Strictly confidential
More than professional competence is offered. Because it is a service sponsored by the NFU to meet farmers' needs, the charges are sufficient only to cover costs and all work is undertaken in the strictest confidence.
Much of the work undertaken by NFU Services has a parallel in the office of a road transport operator. NFU Services will undertake to relieve a farmer of his office work including correspondence, filing, payment of accounts and completing all necessary Government forms together with the preparation of wages, PAYE records, pensions, etc. Financial records and specialized farm recording work is also undertaken.
What does it all cost? Some of the work will involve regular visits to a farm but much can be done in the local offices of NFU Services. The charge for travelling to and working on the farm is 17s 6d an hour but there is no charge for mileage. Work undertaken at the offices of NFU Services is charged at 12s 6d an hour plus 2+ per cent for SET. According to the size of the farm visits range from monthly to weekly.
While it is already common practice for independent accountants to prepare annual returns for income tax purposes on behalf of road transport operators, there does seem to be the opportunity for the provision of secretarial services for small fleet operators. Thus relieved of such work operators would not be faced with the dilemma of deciding whether getting new business or knowing if current business were profitable or not was the more important.
Although this particular secretarial service is sponsored by the farmer's own trade association this would not be an essential prerequisite in its application to any other industry such as road transport. Given adequate leadership and co-operation there seems no reason why an independent group of operators could not evolve their own secretarial service on these lines.