Checks on the Wheel of Progress.
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By Henry Sturmey.
Although the use of commercial motor vehicles is steadily and surely progressing, it is not progressing at quite the desirable rate. Most firms are kept fully busy, but the rate of progression is not that which might be reasonably anticipated when the volume of enquiries received by the manufacturers, and the amount of interest thus shown to be existent, is considered. I have frequently heard the question asked, why it is that no single firm in so many towns in England has as yet taken to the motor vehicle, and how it is that self-propelled vans and wagons are not more largely used? There can be no shadow of a doubt but that this side of the industry will advance at a much more rapid rate before long, and we may well enquire into some of the causes which are at present holding it back, and these are many.
The Causes of Hesitancy.
First and foremost, at the present moment, we have the abnormally-bad trade under which the country is suffering. One firm told me recently that, whilst they were still interested in the question of motor transport, trade was so slack with them that they had had to sell one of their nine horses, as they had, for the present, no use for it. When times were better and their trade was restored to its normal condition, they said, they would go into the matter again. This is not an isolated instance, because I meet with expressions of the same import every day. " Trade is so had that we have not the goods to send, out which we used to have," was the remark of another trader in an important provinciat town, and this probably is the most potent factor in keeping business back. At the same time, the vast amount of enquiry and quiet investigation into the problem, which is being made at the present period, augurs well for the future.
Innate Conservatism.
Next to the above-named important factor, which is to-day keeping back many of the more i}rogressive, think the second most-generally-obstructive cause is to be found in the innate conservatism of the British people, and of the British trading community in particular. Conservatism and business caution combined impel many who are sufficiently favourably impressed with the idea of motor transport to ask questions about it, but to hesitate to go further. The trials, tribulations and the limitations of the horse are more or less of a known, or, at least, a recognised quantity. The commercial motor, to them, is otherwise. The manufacturers may present attractive facts and figures, to show its adaptability and economy in use as compared with the older form of haulage, but your suspicious investigator puts them all clown as more-or-less flights of imagination and special pleading. He has no experience of his own to go by, and, even when the names of firms are mentioned which are employing cars by the dozen, and the figures relating to their employment of them are quoted, they make little impression on him, because they are not under his own direct observation.
"His Particular Hill."
Just as, a decade since—and still to a slight extent to-day, the buyer of a pleasure car refused to believe that a car, which had, for instance, gone over a route such as that of the Scottish Trials, could possibly climb bilk unless he could see it climb the little t in to acclivity within a mile or so of his own town, so the local trader seems quite unable to grasp and realise what commercial vehicles are, or can do, so long as their capabilities are not ocularly demonstrated to him in his own neighbourhood. This is pure conservatism, and partly arises be
cause he knows that, if his horse goes wrung, lie can get another and hitch the load home. He has heard so many stories of trouble with motorcars, and—knowing nothing about them himself, and his men knowing malting about theme-he is fearful lest the employment of one should mean a constant hanging-up of loads by the wayside, and consequent failures in delivery. In other words, he as yet lacks confidence in the commercial motor as a commercial article, and is waiting to-day to have it demonstrated to him, not through the experience of his own business, but by observation uf the " experiments " of his neighbours! All these things, of course, will be cured in time; they may be termed " general " or " natural " difficulties.
Harm Done from Within the Industry.
There are other causes, which arc acting as " sprags " to the wheels of progress, and which are still very annoying and detrimental to those engaged in the industry. I think that many will open their eyes in surprise when I say that one of the chief enemies of the motor trade, in commercial vehicles, to-day is to be found within the ranks of the motor trade itself ! I refer to the manufacturer of pleasure cars slightly, and to the agent for pleasure cars very largely. The pleasure-car maker has a good bit to answer for in having, in the past, attempted to eater for the needs of the commercial community with slightly-modified touring-car chassis, and, unfortunately, he is stilt occasionally doing so. With these, the inevitable has happened, and the commercial user, knowing no better, blames the whole race of motorcars, instead of the type selected. Manufacturing his touring cars in quantity, the touring-car maker can nearly always offer cars of a kind at a lower price than can the commercialcar manufacturer, who works on a smaller scale and supplies a substantial article, and this lower price has been the attraction in most cases where such sales have been made.
The Inept Local Agent.
Happily, however, the great majority of touring-car firms have not attempted this damaging method of disposing of their surplus production, but the motor agent and garage man, half-a-dozen of whom at least are to be found in every town, has a great deal to answer for. With few exceptions, he is not an engineer. Ile is a commercialist and a seller of cars, and he has never given • any attention or consideration to a branch of the trade which presents little attractions to him. Ho knows something about pleasure cars in general, and rimy know a good hit about the particular make he handles, but of the needs, requirements and conditions of the commercial-car industry, and of commercial-car construction, he is absolutely ignorant, and he has not the grace to say so. When a trader begins thinking about a ear for use in his business, it not unnaturally occurs to him to make enquiries of someone who may be expected to know ROMEthing about it, and for this, not unnaturally, he goes to the nearest motor man. . Now, " Mr. Agent," as I said above, has but little knowledge of the subject, and, more than this, he is not an agent for any make of commercial vehicle. In a few rases, he will be wise enough frankly to tell the enquirer he has not had much experience with them, but he will make enquiries for him : he may then write promptly to one or two firms advertisin,g such vehicles, obtain the needful particulars, and do his honest best to secure business. Others, and they are, I am afraid, in the majority, will endeavour to put the enquiring party off the whole idea altogether, by telling him that the commercial vehicle is " not right yet," and by advising him
to wait, the object being to keep the order back until the movement is stronger, and until they themselves have been able to secure an agency for a suitable car. Such a man only retards progress. He is not by any means so great a danger as the one who, if the loads are not heavy, promptly endeavours to sell the enquirer a touring chassis, for which he is agent, fitting it with a van body, persuading him to have pneumatic tires, and generally to invest in a totally-unsuitable vehicle. Or, if he does not do this, he at any rate sets himself out to " crab the deal " for the firm whieh has introduced the subject to the customer. " Mr. Agent " knows nothing whatever about the cars, or the firm, which the enquirer innocently mentions as being in his mind, but without more ado he commences to find fault with them, hoping thus to put the customer off his fancy, and he then endeavours to sell him something—anything—which he can get hold of to supply.
Szcond-hand "Crocks."
Even here the agent is doing less harm to the trade than when, as is so often done, his advice is not to buy a new car at all, but to pick up a second-hand one " cheap." He has, of course, one he can supply, or he knows where he can get one, and the result is a light flimsy car, already half worn out in pleasure-car use, whkh is fitted with a nice new van-body, and painted up for the occasion. This is bound to give trouble, but far too often the customer falls into the trap and becomes, for ■.ears afterwards, a stumbling-block for every other tradesman within 20 miles of him who is "looking into the question."
The Faddist Adviser.
Where the business firm enquiring into the motor question is a private firm, with its membership all under one hat, decision, as a rule, is prompter than otherwise, but where boards of directors are concerned, or where several sire engaged in the management of a business, it nearly always happens that there is at least one " wet blanket." He may be, and often is, the oldest member of the firm, who is too conservative in his ideas to move with the times, although I did once meet the somewhat unusual combination of an old man anxious to make the change, and a young one, after rating his father for being "an old fool," turning down the proposition I Oftentimes, too, even when all the members of a firm are agreed that something of the kind is desirable, one individual will upset all the tentative arrangements made by the rest, and plead for further consideration and investi gation, promptly going off then to a friend or friends of his, either in the trade or out of it, who are supposed to know something of these matters, and then, as a rule, the trouble begins. One " adviser " tells him, for instance, the car his firm is thinking about cannot be any good because it has not some particular constructional point which he fancies. It must have four cylinders, perhaps, if it has two; or, if it is a four-cylindered vehicle which is to be selected, then it must either have six or two—something, anyway, different from what it has. If the engine is not under a bonnet, it ought to be, and seeing that the firm will have to carry eggs—for instance—it is necessary that the 3ocwt. wagon to be employed must run upon pneumatic tires! Another will repeat the" tarrididdk " of huge upkeep expenditure and heavy running charges. A third will tell him a motorcar would be all right for pleasure purposes, but is a long way off perfection as a commercial vehicle ; whilst another will advise him not to buy a car at all, but to hire one, and, when he comes back to his board to re-discuss the matter, with all these theories and opposite opinions, and
perhaps one or two others obtained by other members of the board in the meantime, that deliberative body gets so mixed up in the consideration of the question, that it decides to do nothing at all for the time being, and the matter is postponed sine die.
Hypothetical Advantages of Delay.
In addition to all the foregoing, there is another potent cause which keeps things back, and that is the very strong impression which seems to exist, and which the enquirer is constantly being told when be talks about these things, that, if he waits a little longer, " prices Will come down." Regardless of the fact that the price of good commercial vehicles is steadily going up, and that even the pleasure-car makers are now in self defence advancing rates, this idea seems firmly rooted in the minds of the business community, scores of whom to-day are waiting—with the self-consciousness of being clever people—for that halcyon time when cars will not only be "perfect" but purchaseable at half their present figures.
These factors conspiring against us, is it any wonder that the movement is slow? That it is sure is, however, certain, because of the large amount of enquiry which is taking place to-day. One well-known member of the trade recently remarked to me in conversation that, if he secured one order for every TOO enquiries, his firm would be doing a big business, and my own experience is pretty much to the same effect. When I find, as I do all along the line when these enquiries are followed up, perhaps months afterwards, that the enquirers are still without a motor, it is plain that this spirit of dilatoriness and holding back is general, and that the small percentage of enquiries which is turned into orders is not an indication that any particular firm is offering something which is not acceptable, but that the whole question of purchase is being delayed. The entirely-different conditions which prevail in the commercialcar business, as compared with those holding good in the pleasurecar side of the industry, may be gleaned from the fact that, whilst the touring-car maker knows that, when
he is unsuccessful in securing an order from any particular customer in a month, if he follows the matter up he will find the order has gone elsewhere, it is the rule, rather than the
exception, for from six to 12 months,
and sometimes even longer, to elapse between the date of the first enquiry for a commercial vehicle and the placing of the order for any particular client's pioneer vehicle.