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the costing column
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Historic or current trends
• Derisory comments are frequently made as to the futulity of "historiccosts. What operators need to know, the pundits insist, is how much their vehicles are costing to run today.
At first sight this would seem a rational and business-like approach to what, for every commercial vehicle operator, should be a most important factor of his business — the keeping of accurate and up-to-date records of operating costs.
But one has to be on one's guard, even in costing, against being over-meticulous to the point of becoming merely pedantic. This is because many operators with little time and less inclination for paper work could soon become overwhelmed with unnecessary details. Records would then become progressively more and more out of date to a point where they lost much of their potential usefulness. Worse still, the point could be reached when the operator got so far behind as to give up the unequal struggle altogether: So right at the start, when setting up a costing system every operator must decide for himself how much time he can reasonably afford to give to costing. Certainly, it is vitally important that he should know how much his vehicles are costing him to run. But, even here, there must be a limit to the time and money he can afford to spend on costing.
So one must ensure that time and money do not run out before useful results are obtained. To that end it is necessary to accept from the outset that, for all practical purposes, literally exact records of commercial vehicle operation cannot be obtained, still less maintained.
All along the line averaging has to be accepted. For example few, if any, consider it worth while to check the fuel consumption on every trip a vehicle makes even though it is known that the operating conditions on, say, a morning's deliveries are quite. different from those of the afternoon. For many operators a weekly average is considered accurate enough for the purpose.
Similarly, a reasonable attitude has to be taken when considering the time factor in relation to costing. By definition a record is a statement of something that has already taken place. To that extent all records are ''historic'. But if the record concerns yesterday's operation — or even last week's the majority of road transport operators would consider it to be a "current" record.
For normal purposes the frequency with which records and costs are compiled — eg weekly or monthly — determines whether or not they are considered to be "current" or outdated, Indeed, the period over which an operator decided to calculate his costs can be of 'significant importance as to the success or otherwise of his whole costing system. Experience has shown that keeping operating costs on a weekly basis has much to commend it.
ALTHOUGH there is an increasing interest in drawbar trailer use, so far trailer manufacturers have supplied them in only comparatively small numbers. However, the market is developing and trailer makers are expanding their ranges to meet the anticipated increase in demand.
Taskers, York Trailer and Crane Fruehauf the main producers to date — confirm that the main interest lies with dolly converters. The legal argument whether they should be regarded as trailers in their own right, which it has been contended might make them illegal when used to support the front end of a semi-trailer (because the semi-trailer also would count as a trailer), has not prevented them being bought in considerable quantity. The Department of the Environment has expressed no concern to the trailer manufacturers about them and, of course, there is no real reason why they should because drawbar trailers are useful pieces of equipment which offer great flexibility of operation to the user. In fact they would only be illegal if declared so by a High Court.
This issue aside, availability of drawbar trailer designs is steadily improving. Predictably, it is the larger trailer manufacturers that have given greatest attention to modifying and improving existing designs and adding to them. To date Crane Fruehauf, Dyson, Scammell, Taskers and York can be singled out as the companies most involved with drawbar trailer supply.