The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1916-07-16
EFFICIENT DELIVERY
SERVICE, Is PROBL EN-
Horse and Wagon Following Delivery Boy, Held Their Own
Until Advent of the Automobie-Lt Brothers, of Pha-
delphia, Tell of Value of Light Weight Truck.

, In speaking Of Department Store
Delivery Problems. Lit Brothers. OF
Philadelphia, say:
In a modern department store.
such as Lit Brothers, the biggest
problem is 20 procure an efffiicient
delivery service The customers want
their merchandise delivered the same
day they purchase it. and It is up TO
us to see that they get il when wanted
2nd at least expense to ourselves. We
must organize this branch of our
business to work speedily and with
out any wnsteful or costly methods
II Undoubtedly, in the infancy OF the
service. packages were taken out by
q boy and carried by him personally.
That method was short lived. and the
horse and wagon came into general
use. There were many objections.
however to that method of delivery.
We required tho constant services OF
a veterinarian with regular Inspections
10 keep our horses we'll They were
subject to sickness. and particularly
IN the summer time under the strain
Of heat and service. 1t was no uncom-
mon thing for them TO become Ill or
disabled.
The horse and wagon. however.
held its own until the advent OF the
automobile Today, the gasoline com
mercial car is steadily and surely re-
placing the horse and wagon for
commercial deliveries Lit Brothers
experience ia that wagon has TO be
run with three relays of horses per
day. For city deliveries we used
single teams and had to figure three
horses to wagon. For suburban
deliveries, we had TO use double teams
and figured on six horses to a wagon.
In addition, we used to be compelled
to send out many parcels in bulk to
shipping points, and deliver from there
with horse and wagon. We can go
much further now with a Vim com
merciai car direct from the store. and
do away with many OF these shipping
points entirely The work which these
cars do would be entirely impossible
with any other method OF delivery.
We attribute much of our success
with gasoline cars to the care and at
tention we give them, At first we had
difficulty in obtaining competent and
careful chauffeufs. With the more
general use OF cars. this has generally
righted itself The men have become
experienced and better mechanics. and
this with the increasing simplicity OF
construction OF the commercial car
has made the problem much easier 10
solve.
When gasoline cars first came in
to use, the heavy truck was the only
. commercial car on the market. We
used these, but found that they were
too heavy and their upkeep too ex-
pensive for ordinary city parcel work
we believed that there was a need
for a purely commercial car. and our
experience with the Vim has justified
this belief Our experience with the
Vim HaIf-Ton Car has been entirely
nat isfa N "a M
ing the first one we speedily made
several additional purchases, and are
now using quite n number of them.
We have had no trouble with the Vim
Half-Ton Car and have found 1t the
best for general delivery purposes,
that is. where we have to handle n
largo number of small packages
which la Of course the normal condi-
ton in delivery service.
I'm conclusion. we might say that
the Vim Half-Ton Commercial Car
has gone long way to help the de-
partment store delivery superintendent
solve some of his problems"