-The Case for Hiring
Page 28
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
rir HERE would. be less cause for complaint by the Licensing Authorities of the maintenance Of vehicles if more small C-licence holliers employed contractors to supply their transport. Greatest fault has been found with the mechanical condition of the type of vehicle used by retailers for local delivery. Some large contractors already specialize in this class of work, but there is scope for the energetic small haulier to engage in it if he can persuade shopkeepers of the advantages of contract service.
These are obvious. The contractor shoulders the whole burden of running and maintaining the vehicle, compiling records and undertaking all the other irksome duties associated with operating a commercial vehicle. The shopkeeper can concentrate entirely on conducting his business, and he is aware in advance of the precise cost of his transport. If it is essential that the driver should be the user's employee, a vehicle can be hired without a driver ancil operated under a C-hiring margin. In either case, the retailer knows exactly where he stands financially and operationally.
Operators cannot be blamed solely for the poor condition of many small C-licence vehicles. As The Commerciar Motor pointed out on October 2, most manufacturers have failed to produce vans that are adequate for the arduous duty of houseto-house delivery.
Moreover, since 1946, some 220,000 new Clicence operators have, according to official statis tics, come into being and 450,000 more vehicles have been introduced. This expansion came at a time when building licences were at a premium, and many vehicles have had to be left in the open and have deteriorated more rapidly than if they had been housed under cover.
Not being mechanically trained, shopkeepers have failed to realize that, generally speaking, the smaller the vehicle the more frequent the routine attention required. Nevertheless, they might have replaced their worn-out vehicles at a much earlier date if the cost had not been so great. Purchase tax is largely responsible for the high priceof new and used vehicles, and is a strong encouragement to operators to continue to run machines long after their safe life has been exceeded. The restriction on hire-purchase facilities has also prevented the more flequent replacement of old vehicles.
Purchase tax and hire purchase are exclusively matters for the Chancellor of the Exchequer and he alone must be held responsible for the operation of unsafe vehicles in cases where economic stringency has prevented their renewal.
C-licensees have always claimed that they could deliver their goods more cheaply than by using the services of hauliers. All things being equal, that should be so, because the haulier has to make a profit; but things are not always equal. Intensification of the watch by the Ministry of Transport on the condition of vehicles may tend to narrow the gap between C-licensees' own costs and hiring.