Hire and Haulage.
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Some Notes oi an Interview with the Manager of the Haulage Department of the London General Omnibus Company.
The attainment of an equitable combination ut various classes of employment for such types of commercial-motor vehicles as usually form the rolling-stock of a motor jobmaster, like anything else that is " worth doing," is a task that is fraught with some difficulty. The problems which daily have to be solved undoubtedly call for keen business perception, for the ability so to organize those services that are undertaken as to avoid, so far as may be possible, periods of " rush " as well as periods of slackness, and for the courage to refuse occasional business which will not tit into the mosaic of the more-regular dependable services.
It is, of course, not sufficient to purchase a fleet of machines and to sit down and wait in the office and book orders promiscuously, whether they be for the transport of Suffragettes on a Friday evening or for the cartage of coke on a Tuesday morning. Each job has, normally, to be made to bear some relation to others. Bodies must
not be changed more often than can be avoided, yet fish or grapes cannot be picked up by a wagon which has just delivered some tons of manure! A vehicle which has, in the morning, taken pianos to Hertford cannot, as a rule, economically be sent to Redhill in the afternoon to fetch back produce for Covent Garden. Times of the day and seasons of the year, the state of the roads, the choice of the best routes, the search for return loads, the suitable combination of miscellaneous loads and widely-separated journeys, the proper packing of bulky and mixed loads, and many other similar problems constantly clamour for solution at the hands of the man who essays profitably to run a " hiring and haulage' undertaking.
No business is worth doing unless there be specific difficulties to be overcome, and it is, in this connection, of considerable interest to have an expression of opinion from Mr. Lawrence Fenner, who has, for the past year, been in charge of the Motor Hire Department of the London General Omnibus Co., Ltd.. that difficulties, of the kind which we have suggested above, are readily ascertainable, and that, providing careful management. be brought to bear upon their solution, motor haulage can be made to yield very tempting profits. Mr. Fenner, with whom a representative of this journal secured a lengthy interview recently, has, of course, arrived at his conclusions as a result of experience—in and around the Metropolis—with machines which, although differing in pattern, are all of much the same type and capacity, viz., three-ton petrol-driven vehicles. Ere has, moreover, it is fair to conclude—although he is reticent on this point— suffered from the disadvantage of conducting a subsidiary department of an extensive industrial concern whose prin
cipal activities are pursued on other lines. In spite of limitations, however, Mr. Fenner is enthusiastic in his opinion that such work as that upon which he has been engaged is in all respects profitable.
Two Chief Branches.
The business of that L.G.O.C. department with which we are dealing has been divided by Mr. _Fenner into two branches, and these he, somewhat erroneously we would suggest, labels respectively " hiring " and haulage." " Hiring," according to his nomenclature, includes all jobs in which vehicles are paid for at a definite rate per mile run, irrespective of load carried, whilst " haulage" signifies only that class of employment for his vehicles in which goods are carried at rates which are primarily based on the weight of the load conveyed. It is permissible to suggest that the generic term " haulage " should rightly include the former classification, under which goods or passengers are carried on road vehicles, and for which a uniform rate per mile is obtainable.
In the L.G.O.C. nature of things, however, the jobmasters' private transport of parties of passengers falls under the heading of " hiring," and in very few in stances does any other class of employment ensure that classification.
"Live" Loads., It is this branch of the business about which Mr. Fenner proved to be so enthusiastic. Of so attractive a nature are the financial and other conditions under which private-passenger transport may be undertaken, at any rate in and around the thickly-populated area of Greater London, that goods haulage perforce occupies a secondary place in the programme of this L.G.O.C. department. The company's principal business, that of omnibus proprietors, is, perhaps, likely to predispose its officials in favour of passenger-carrying propositions in preference to contracts for goods haulage. It also must be remembered that the facilities which this company has at hand consist of one class of machine only—the three-ton petrol vehicle. Larger loads than three tons have been accommodated en occasion, but the company cannot conveniently tackle those classes of transport and hire work for which steam wagons, steam tractors and lighter petrol vans are adapted respectively.
One of the most-useful characteristics of private passenger-carrying work is the fact that, apparently, there is always a large demand for service of this kind in and around the Metropolis throughout the year. Although the motor haulage of merchandise by annual contract is steadily on the increase, a great number of the orders received by a jobbing concern in this branch of the business consists of isolated contracts at specified seasons only. The second point raised in favour of passenger transport is the fact that, in all cases, the rates obtainable are very ranch higher than those which can be secured for goods eartage, and, as a matter of fact, are very remunerative. For suitable employment, it is quite possible to secure rates for double-deck buses, in and around the Metropolis, at between 2s. and 5s. per carmile. Such rates open up all sorts of possibilities.
Typical Orders.
In order that our readers might more readily appreciate the differences in the class of work undertaken by the two branches of employment which we have mentioned, our request for typical instances of haulage and hiring contracts which had been carried out satisfactorily and to the financial advantage of the company, was readily acceded to. The following extracts, from the records of the department, of typical uses to which the vehicles have been put, will probably serve well to bring home to those who are interested in the subject the remarkable diversity of employment which is being found for suitable motor vehicles. During the past year, private motorbuses and vehicles temporarily requisitioned from the public services for the use of the contract department have executed all kinds of jobs : a large number of Territorials, together with their equipment, was transported from London to the various well-known summer camps in the country ; a bus, full of boy scouts, was taken to and from their camp in Kent; several cargoes of Suffragettes were carried about London as part of their advertising campaign; and passenger vehicles were kept busy throughout the summer, fulfilling engagements to convey race-meeting parties, beanfasts and such outings. Motorbus trips, organized by hotel proprietors, are becoming popular.
As illustrating the continuity of this branch of the business, Mr. Fenner instanced the employment of doubledock buses, in very many instances during the winter, for the carriage of well-known football teams, such as Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur, etc., from their headquarters to the grounds of their opponents; the conveyance of policemen to similar destinations; the transport of musichall sketch companies, such as the Brothers Luck, Joe Peterman, Lew Lake, Fred Karno, etc., with all their attendant paraphernalia, from one hall to another. In this connection, it has been found to be of considerable advantage to the performers that they can thus travel from one place of entertainment to another without the necessity of getting back into ordinary civilian clothes. A tremendous lot of work is carried out during the winter in connection with private dance parties, and very little consideration is necessary in order to realize the convenience of private transport to a party which required to be carried from Streatham Common through to Westcliffe and back, for a ball. Such an excursion, from door to door, would have been entirely out of the question, had any other means of transport been selected.
Last winter, it will no doubt be remembered, the Mechanical Transport Committee of the War Office hired 24 double-deck buses for the transport of troops from Warley Barracks to the coast during an " invasion " experiment. This, we are told, was a mileage contract, and the charges were based on the total mileage covered by the machines, which was no less than 2,100 miles for the one day's work of the fleet hired.
More recent employment for passenger-carrying veliiMes is instanced in the private niotorbns service which was kept at the disposal of the members of the Press Congress during their stay in the Metropolis, the transport of the " Daily Mail" staff to Lord Northcliffe's estate for their annual outing, and numerous private trips in connection with the Church Pageant and its rehearsals.
Road-borne Goods Traffic.
An examination of the list of goods-haulage jobs carried out during the past twelve months by this company further indicates sonic of the diverse directions in which people are surely experimenting with mechanical haulage. Undoubtedly, in some instances, where such contract ser
vice has been carried out satisfactorily, it will be found that the hirers will eventually appreciate that they can entirely employ suitable machines themselves; in other cases, of course, contract service will still be found to fill the bill more satisfactorily.
Last winter, a large farmer in Kent hired a L.G.O.C. lorry for November and December, during which time the machine ran over 1,000 miles, carting nothing but manure from the railway to farms in the district. The company is, at present, carrying out satisfactorily a year's contract to bring fruit up from Waltham Cross to Covent Garden, making two double journeys a day. Last Christmas, during the snowy weather, when horses were hors de combat, the demand for rubber-tired lorries was very great; the company, during that period, carried a great quantity of coke for the South Metropolitan Gas Co.
It was pointed out to our representative that it was frequently possible to arrange a haulage job, between a country district and London, at such rates as to allow the vehicle profitably to perform the other half of the journey empty, if need be. Any return load, which might then be securely, very nearly represented additional net profit. Thus, in the case of the cartage of hops from the Kent fields, it is frequently found possible to carry this produce up to London at railway rates—less the cost of cartage from the fields to the railway stations--and still to secure sufficient profit to allow for an empty down journey. Frequently, however, good return loads are secured, and, in actual practice, these have varied between loads of soiled sugar and consignments of cased pianos. Growers in many districts, it is found, are anxious to take advantage of motor-haulage companies' services. It only remains that careful working agreements may be settled, in suitable districts, between haulage contractors and local groups of growers. In many cases, acceptable return h,..ds can, undoubtedly, be secured by dint of systematic aed energetic enquiry.
Employment for Bus Models.
Mr. Fenner is of opinion that the most-suitable allround machines for a haulage company in and around the Metropolis are 3k-ton petrol vehicles, of approved make and provided with interchangeable double-deck bus bodies awl roomy wagon bodies. In his opinion, the ordinary double-deck bus body leaves little to be desired for general utility, so far as passenger-carrying service is concerned. There is, of course, nothing to prevent private-hire vehicles of this class from being fitted with canopies. Where one shilling a mile, he says, can be obtained for goads haulage by three-ton wagons, under good management, a fair profit may he realized. London presents an almost inexhaustible field for this class of work. At present, the man who employs horses is somewhat hard to convert to the advantages of carrying out his transport arrangements by means of mechanical vehicles, but this feeling is perceptibly diminishing. Two shillings a mile, as a minimum, for private-passenger carriage by motorbus, and a growing demand for such service, should surely make the mouths of horsekeeping jobmasters water!