Evening star., 1927-08-14
BY WILLIAM ULLMAN.

NJ ANY new merchandising notes
NH have been sounded by the
wv automobile industry since it
1 4 became Americas greatest
single enterprise. Mostly.
however, they have occurred in the
passenger car field. Now 1t is the
truck manufacturers turn, and, max
ing the most of it. he is offering de-
velopments that promise to be of
great significance in the field of motor
transportation.
Among the most significant ges-
lures of this nature is that whereby
the retailer or wholesaler, large or
small, may operate truck fleet of
vast or negligible proportions with
out making a capital investment in
motor vehicle equipment or in storage
and service facilities for such equip
ment. Instead of buying trucks. he
leases them. Instead of providing
storage space and quarters where the
fleet may be kept in repair, he leaves
this to the lessor.
This trend simply is another mani
festation of the business theory that
volume is the great cost cutter. In
stead of the individual business or
industrial organization operating a
relatively small group of trucks,
gigantic fleet operated on scientific
basis by one organization is placed at
the disposal of the various individual
firms. The business house may have
as many or as few of the trucks as II
needs. 1t may have large or small
vehicles. 1t may have them painted
any color 1t desires. The name Of
the leasing firm only appears on the
machine.
Buy I'm Volume.
But when it signs a contract speci-
flying the number and size of the
trucks it requires, the individual busi-
ness firm steps out of the picture
from an operating point of view.
Those behind truck operation enter
prises that cater to wholesaler and re-
taller of every financial stature main
tain that they can offer a transpOrta-
ton service peculiarly attractive
I'VE cam" they say. buy trucks
and parts in volume. insurance, gaso-
| line. oils. service labor, storage and
everything else in lots sufficiently
large TO make the great operation
| proportionately cheaper than the
smaller one" This is their chief
| argument.
1t is successful. one of the largest
operators Of this kind in the country
| says, because the firm that can solve
the transportation problem of the
metropolitan wholesaler or retailer is
| meeting a definite need that has
commodity merchandisers to get their
delivery systems upon a thoroughly
| scientific basis.
The motor trucks part in the tre-
| mendous expansion of business Is
well known. But the coming of the
truck brought its own problems. One
| of these was that of figuring the cost
| of such transportation for the pur-
pose of estimating the part of this
| item in the total expense of market
ing given commodity. Numerous
variables arose in the experience of
| the business house to give complexity
| to the situation.
Drivers Are VariabIes.
One Winter, for instance. a fleet
would emerge almost unscathed.
| The next. exery truck would suffer
broken axles, broken propeller shafts
| or similar maladies. An operator
might go for two years without seri
Gus damage to his equipment and
then, in the course of two weeks, see
! two of his trucks demolished in acci
dents Of one kind or another. These
are but two variables. Large fleet
operators can cite dozens OF others.
| Drivers, too, are variables. One
| will treat truck with the greatest
Of care and consideration, obtaining
from it relatively costless service.
| Another will wreak havoc with the
truck mechanism. sending it to the
| repair shop constantly.
These and many other factors of
more or less Importance have proved
| so difficult to render in precise cost
| figures that the Society of Automo-
| tive Engineers and other agencies
| have attempted to devise a formula
| that would be of assistance to the
business house in determining the cost