I want to be emperor

Chapter 1142 Car Insurance

Everyone knows that the military is vigorously promoting the use of vehicles to replace horses in order to save military expenses...

It's not for the car's stronger material transport capacity, nor for the car's ability to tow artillery... Although these are also important, they are actually not that important. It's not like horses can't transport materials and pull artillery... The German army was in World War II , still equipped with a large number of horses, relying on mules and horses to complete most of the frontline material transportation and artillery pulling tasks.

In a standard German infantry division in the early days of World War II, the ratio of carriages to cars was about five to one...

Therefore, whether it is material transportation or artillery towing, even during World War II in the original time and space, mules and horses can play an almost decisive role... As for pure motorization during World War II, only Americans can afford it.

And this comparison is still based on the technical level of cars and mules and horses during World War II... and the current level of technology of cars in the contemporary Chu Empire is far lower than the level of cars of the original time and space during World War II.

Under such circumstances, the use of cars on a large scale to replace mules and horses for material transportation and artillery towing actually has great limitations in performance.

But... the Chu army is still determined to promote cars to replace horses on a large scale. A very important reason is that military generals believe that using cars is cheaper and more cost-effective than using mules and horses.

The Chu army promoted motorization... not for combat effectiveness, but purely to save money.

The most obvious reason is: the mules and horses have to eat and drink regardless of whether they are used or not... and cars do not need to burn gasoline when they are not in use... even if they burn gasoline, the gasoline is very cheap.

In order to promote cars and gasoline, several domestic oil companies basically sold gasoline at cabbage prices for the past ten years, which was very cheap... In the early days, they even gave gasoline to the military for free.

In addition, in terms of daily maintenance of vehicles, the special vehicle companies that automobile manufacturers cooperate with will also provide parts at extremely discounted prices to help the military train technical personnel. Even if a major problem occurs and needs to be returned to the factory for repair, Basically only the cost is charged...

Then a group of military generals and officers involved in it, for the sake of their own future, also vigorously touted...the advantages were vigorously promoted, while the shortcomings were hidden...

This also gave the military people the illusion that cars cost nothing when they are not in use, and even when they are in use, they only cost a small amount of money... The only investment is the initial cost of purchasing cars, but large-scale purchases Tricycles are actually not expensive. One is only over 100 Yuan... very cheap.

Otherwise, how could the military be so willing to place large-scale purchases in succession... Now the number of orders for one or five trucks alone has exceeded 5,000, and the number of orders for various three-wheeled motorcycles is even higher It has exceeded 10,000 vehicles.

What the Military Academy plans is to equip the Army with various vehicles in the next five years, including tracked tanks, wheeled armored vehicles, tracked tractors, half-track tractor-trailer transport vehicles, wheeled transport vehicles, tricycles, etc... …The total number must reach more than 20,000 vehicles.

The interests at stake here are not those of one person, two people, or one organization or two organizations, but involve a lot of senior generals, hundreds of thousands of officers at all levels, and a lot of defense companies and even oil companies behind them. , automobile companies and other supporting enterprises.

Under such circumstances, the reports that many military bosses in the Military Academy can see...are just reports selected by the people below.

Therefore, the bosses of the Military Academy have always believed that using cars is more economical than using mules and horses...

Until the 1st Motorcycle Brigade had a long-distance maneuvering drill that was close to actual combat, and then a group of senior military generals became dark-faced... Damn it, it's so expensive!

During more than 200 kilometers of high-speed maneuvers, more than a thousand vehicles of various types broke down. Many of them were due to high-intensity use and high-intensity off-road maneuvers, which caused damage to core components such as gearboxes and even engines... Even if these vehicles can be brought back for repairs, the repair funds required are not a small amount.

And long-distance maneuvers consume a lot of fuel. According to the drill plan, these fuels cannot be obtained from gas stations along the way... but need to be replenished from supply stations more than 200 kilometers away. This is two The supply line of more than 100 kilometers requires a large number of vehicles.

After a drill, several senior generals in the logistics department had dark faces... Damn it, just a brigade like this, if it is in a marching combat state, will consume at least three to four hundred of various materials a day. tons, and many of them are high-value materials.

To maintain and support such a motorized traveling army operation, hundreds of tons of supplies need to be supplied every day, and you will also need to equip it with a repair shop to repair vehicles with problems at any time.

What does it mean behind this?

It means huge military investment!

After a drill, in less than half a month, the senior officials of the Military Academy directly suspended the previously planned plan to build multiple pure motorized divisions after many meetings and negotiations... A brigade was so burned. The money is enough, and a few divisions will come... Will those days be over?

At the same time, the number of various vehicles assigned to each Class A and Class B divisions also began to be reduced.

Otherwise, according to the previous plan, each first-class division would have to be allocated at least three thousand vehicles of various types... It's not that we can't afford so many cars, but we really can't afford to keep so many cars...

After all, it’s not like the cars in the army just sit there without being used at all during peacetime, and are only used when war breaks out... You have to train every day, and training will produce fuel consumption, which will consume the life of the car. Well, it will cause problems with the car and require repairs... Everything here is money.

After the big bosses realized this, they quickly adjusted their plans... Of course, they did not say that they would cancel the previous orders for various cars and armored vehicles. This was followed by a large number of interest groups and defense companies. How can we say that it has been revoked?

The bosses of the Military Academy also have to take into account the interests of many subordinates.

Even the plan to expand the total number of vehicles in the army to 20,000 vehicles in the next five years was not given up, but continued to be implemented... However, the follow-up plan was directly thrown into the garbage heap.

Originally, some military officials thought that since cars are easy to use and save money, they would buy 20,000 cars first, and then continue to purchase 18,000 cars a year as technology advances. Within the year, the number of cars increased to hundreds of thousands or more, and all mules and horses were eliminated.

But now...there is no need to proceed with the subsequent plans. It is already good to be able to maintain the current 20,000 various motor vehicles.

The pace ahead is too fast, which is a bit nonsense. Now the military bosses have decided to slow down temporarily and first get 20,000 artillery vehicles for towing artillery for a small number of elite infantry units, and then get some elite armored vehicles. Just a reconnaissance unit or something like that.

However, the changes in the military's plans for automobiles still do not affect the rapid development of the Dachu Empire's automobile industry... Again, compared to the huge automobile industry chain, the military's automobile demand is only A fraction within a fraction has little impact.

The military does not use cars, but the use of cars among civilians is rising steadily. Especially various transportation companies and even individual practitioners engaged in commercial transportation are very enthusiastic about tricycles and light trucks. The sales of various tricycles and light trucks are still booming on the market. Some popular models even need to be ordered months in advance before they can be picked up.

At the same time, the development of passenger cars is equally rapid... It has been more than ten years since cars appeared, and they have been developing on a large scale for several years. Nowadays, the rich and powerful among the people and even ordinary high-income groups have become very accepting of driving and riding in cars. , and even chase.

Especially for high-income groups living in cities, they are more receptive to cars...

Although there were private carriages before, the limitations of private carriages are too high. Not to mention the cost of raising horses is at least tens of dollars a year. The most important thing is that parking is extremely troublesome.

It’s not enough to just have a stable for yourself, but you also need to have a stable when you go to work...and you also need to have a stable in other places when you go out daily. But in fact, in most cases, normal office, Commercial places, such as shopping malls, rarely provide a large number of horse stalls.

Even if a stable is provided, the carriage cannot be parked unattended. You must have a driver on board to keep an eye on the horse at all times to prevent the horse from being frightened.

All these kinds of things give private carriages huge limitations. Ordinary high incomes are not enough. You have to be rich enough to at least be able to afford to hire a private carriage driver, and then you have to have a single-family house with a stable.

Therefore, before this, even many high-income groups in the city would not own a private carriage. They would choose to take a public carriage or a taxi for daily travel.

But cars are not so troublesome. You don’t need to be supervised when parking. You can park your car even on the roadside and leave it alone. High-income groups can buy vehicles and drive by themselves.

This is also the reason why in big cities such as Songjiang City, passenger cars have huge sales volume and account for the main sales volume.

Relatively speaking, in small cities and even rural areas, the sales volume of passenger cars is not large... It is not that there are no rich people in these places, but it is that parking in these small places is convenient, and rich people can use private carriages, and they are not interested in cars. The need is not that urgent.

Thanks to the rapid development of the automobile industry, the business of Jiao Tiancheng's car repair shop is also very good. Since its opening, except for the small business in the first half month, the subsequent business has been very good and it has been busy every day.

Even though he recruited eight apprentices to help him, Jiao Tiancheng was still busy every day, but he didn't feel hard at all when he was busy!

Because it makes money.

The profit in the first month was only more than thirty yuan, and by the second month the profit reached more than forty yuan.

In the third month, as more car owners knew about his car repair shop, and two apprentices were able to help him deal with simple vehicle failures, the profit increased rapidly and reached Hundreds of Chu Yuan.

Three months after it opened, Jiao Tiancheng rented out a store he controlled next door to expand the area of ​​the store... Although the store area is quite large today, the business is so good that there are many vehicles passing by, so it needs to be repaired at the same time. There are also many vehicles, and the demand for shop space is also great.

After renting the store next door, the store area more than doubled, and he also recruited three new apprentices.

In this way, there were already twelve people in the entire store, including himself.

According to this pace, it is estimated that in more than half a year, the investment cost of the store will be recovered, and the rest will be pure profit.

However, Jiao Tiancheng is also an ambitious person. Seeing that business is so good and the market potential in the future is even greater, he is also thinking about purchasing some more equipment to enhance his maintenance capabilities.

At the same time, some businesses approached him and tried to use his channels to sell some car-related products, such as seat cushions, lubricants, non-standard accessories, etc. At the same time, insurance companies also approached him and asked his store to promote their car insurance business.

Vehicle insurance is not a new thing. It has appeared more than 20 or 30 years ago... Strictly speaking, the first application of vehicle insurance was not a car, but a horse-drawn carriage. To be precise, it was a commercial public carriage.

Very early on, in order to regulate the operation of commercial public carriages and freight carriages and avoid problems such as being unable to compensate for accidents, the empire made it mandatory for commercial vehicles to purchase commercial insurance to compensate for the losses of third parties and themselves. Passenger losses.

The earliest compulsory commercial insurance was undertaken by the 'Yangtze River Commercial Insurance Company', a financial institution under the Ministry of Finance... This commercial insurance company also has a long history. It was first engaged in the shipping insurance business, and then Gradually expand to other types of insurance business.

The vehicle insurance business has also been around for a long time.

However, for a long time, vehicle insurance coverage was limited to commercial vehicles, and there were no mandatory requirements for personal vehicles.

But after the automobile age, as cars became faster, they also brought greater risks to third parties, especially pedestrians. Therefore, the Imperial Transportation Department stipulated that all motor vehicles must purchase compulsory insurance before they can be allowed to go on the road. .

Therefore, cars in the Dachu Empire have compulsory car insurance from the beginning. Without insurance, they cannot be registered and put on the road.

In addition to compulsory insurance, there is also voluntary commercial insurance. Whether this part of the business can be accepted by car owners depends on the capabilities of each insurance company.

Now there are insurance companies that value Jiao Tiancheng's car repair shop channels and try to use this place as a business breakthrough to increase performance.

I don't know if it has any effect.