Keep it cheap: bill butterworth on practical personnel transport

摘要

If you are paying someone to go from here to there, it is easy enough to time the journey, and work out what the journey costs in paid man time. If it is you, yourself, who is travelling, the exercise comes down to the value you place on your time.The answer to that question may well dictate if you spend money on personal transport, and how much. The world is a diverse place, with personnel carriers of every kind, from roller blades on the feet to air or bus troop carriers. So, what is it that suits your purpose? What is your purpose? Whatever you choose, it will take cash at the start to acquire it, cash to run it and cash to replace it. Putting it the accountant's way, you will need to look at the cash involved in acquiring its use (not alwaysby outright purchase), running costs, and either economic life or residual value when you trade it in for a new one. And will your transport carry people to where you want, and keep on doing so? One of the potential advantages of low cost vehicles is that they are not very sophisticated, and can be easily fixed with limited tools, skills and circumstances - out in the field, if necessary. Some three or four years ago, I was working with CARE - that most constructive international humanitarian charity -in the mountains of North Georgia. We travelled over 1,200 miles in eight days, and on mountain roads, most of which had never been metalled. This was about the toughest of conditions it would be possible to drive in. Yes, one of the three Lada Nivas didfail mechanically, just once; the vehicle hit a pothole and a front drive shaft broke. The passengers got out, lifted one side, pushed a couple of rocks under to jack it, used a spanner and hammer to remove the broken shaft, and were back on the road within an hour; in two wheel drive, but working. This vehicle can take real punishment and be fixed, if necessary, out in the field. That is worth cash.