THE PARCEL CAR

Progress, Volume IX, Issue 12, 1 August 1914, Page 1209

THE PARCEL CAR

By BOBT. WHITSON, Engineer

One of the first things to strike a visitor to our New Zealand cities, if he be at all interested in the motor question, is the absence, or at any rate the scarcity, of the light parcel delivery ear so familiar in other countries.

To the small retailer who employs only one or two delivery carts, the problem perhaps has nothing very attractive, for the employment of motor delivery will only show the best results when each van is kept busy for every possible moment of the working day. It is now an established fact that under good working conditions each motor employed may be expected to do the work of three one-horse carts engaged on town and suburban deliveries, but with

the price of horse flesh at the figure obtaining in the Dominion, it is manifestly poor business to do away with say two horses, make the deliveries by motor, and then have the machine standing idle for perhaps half the day. There is too much money standing out in such a proposition, and it is safe to say that the small retailer could better employ his capital in the further development of his business. With the larger class of retailers however, who employ from three delivery carts upwards, it is no longer a matter of question as to whether motor delivery is a payable proposition, but even for these merchants it is a question for careful consideration before the step is taken, for it would be misleading to suggest that every class of delivery round can be handled to advantage by motor. For instance experience has proved that where deliveries are made on a round lying altogether within a congested area with stopping points close together, the motor can show very little advantage over horse delivery, in fact for such a set of circumstances perhaps the greatest claim the motor has, is to be found in its handiness in traffic.

Where the points of stoppage are however any distance apart, or where deliveries lie mostly in suburban districts, the merchant who has sufficient work to keep his vans busy, need have no fears in tackling the matter of motor delivery with every expectation of finding it a payable business. Many firms of English retailers have after considerable experimenting adopted a compromise. This method is to employ horse delivery for city deliveries within a short radius of the central store, and motor parcel cars for further away and surburban deliveries. Another important point to be remembered, is, that it is bad business to invest in a type of motor that is capable of carrying loads very much ahead of requirements. A small margin of capacity for extra weight is of course merely wisdom, for a van of 12 cwt. that is employed running loads of say 10 cwt. should give excellent service, and show a light repair and maintenance bill, while when needed the extra weight can be comfortably handled, but it is a heartbreaking thing to see a 12 cwt. van busy all day delivering loads of three or four hundred-weight. • Not only is the first cost of such a machine far greater than it need be for the merchants requirements, but interest, depreciation, tire bills, running costs, and maintenance are all proportionally higher. A merchant is not in the same position as a Carrying Coy. for the latter have more or less to adopt a class of vehicle, or number of vehicles capable of carrying for any class or weight of load they may be called upon to shift. But the merchant who is investing knows just the class of goods he is handling and the maximum and minimum loads he has to carry, and if the representative of the type of van he favours, is both capable and honest, little difficulty should be experienced in arriving at a pretty definite conclusion as to whether motor delivery will pay. In the majority of cases it undoubtedly will, and the fact that this article points out some of the factors that require careful consideration must not be taken as an indication that any doubts are held on the subject. But the last thing that any motor van agent, or anyone who has the interest of motor advancement really at heart, wants to see, is the installation of a delivery service that does not “make good.” Such a failure not only gives a bad set back to sales in that district, but, where the failure of the service is due to want of forethought on the part of the purchaser, or false salemanship on the part of an agent, who knowingly or ignorantly has effected the sale in circumstances that could not be expected to pay, throws a further unwarrented obstacle in the path of progress.