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SHORT-SIGHTED AND CONFLICTING LEGISLATION VS. THE MOTOR TRUCK

Before we shall be able to utilize our motor-truck facilities to full advantage in relieving the present freight congestion, we shall have to do several things, one of the most important of which is to enact legislation throughout the country of a somewhat uniform nature. Rules and regulations concerning motor-truck traffic vary in the different states to such an extent that if strictly enforced they would in some cases make it impossible for motor trucks to operate. In Ohio, in 1916, for example, the drivers of trucks used in a coöperative delivery of milk through seven or eight towns were compelled to stop off at one town on the route each morning, be arrested, fined, and then allowed to proceed. This is one of the results of allowing the cities and townships to formulate their own traffic laws. A law that went into effect in New Jersey on January 1, 1918, if enforced, would prohibit the operation of from 60 to 70 per cent. of trucks manufactured in the United States, over the highways of that state

with regular routes extending over a radius of twenty miles to cities in Long Island, New Jersey, and the northern suburbs of New York, and numerous motor-truck moving vans that haul as far as Boston and Washington. And so on.

THE MOTOR TRUCK IN THE POSTAL SERVICE

Postmaster-General Burleson has long been a believer in the motor truck as a medium for the short haul. On June 30, 1917, according to his report made public last December, there were 774 motor-vehicle routes in operation for the transmission and delivery of mail, of a total length of 41,762 miles, an average length per route of fifty-four miles. The annual cost to the Government of the motor vehicles used over these routes was $1,382,744. Had the routes been served by horse-drawn vehicles, the cost, according to the PostmasterGeneral, would have been $1,703,000; the annual saving to the Government, therefore, was $320,256.

In a short while, between 3,000 and 4,000 miles of motor-truck parcels-post routes will be in operation in various sections of the country. One chain of these routes will extend from Portland, Me., to New Orleans. Another will cover a large stretch of territory in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and West Virginia. On the Pacific Coast routes will be established between San Francisco and Sacramento by way of Stockton and Fruitdale, a distance of 125 miles, and between Redlands and Los Angeles, by way of Ontario and Pomona, a

route of 76 miles. Mr. Burleson recently called for bids for inter-city motor-truck service between New York and Philadelphia, New York and Hartford, Conn., and between Detroit and Toledo. A further extension of the use of Government-owned motor trucks for the parcels-post service of the rural districts will be made when a bill that is now pending in Congress becomes a law. The Post Office Department believes that the operation of these routes will aid materially in the distribution and in lowering the cost of food products. Much of the hauling of mail in the big cities is done by contract with private trucking concerns. During the last few years, however, the Postmaster-General, by permission of Congress, has been using Government-owned vehicles. In early January of the present year the, Post Office Department was. using its own trucks in eighteen of the large cities of the country, New York being one of the latest to be included.

ECONOMY IN COOPERATIVE DELIVERY

The removal of a million and a half men from industry for service in the Army and Navy has been responsible for a vast extension of coöperative delivery systems throughout the farming sections of the West and in the smaller, and some of the larger, cities throughout the country. Here, again, the motor truck is used almost exclusively. Up to a recent time there were coöperative delivery systems in forty-seven cities of twenty states of the Union. One package delivery com

pany in Boston handles between 7,500 and 10,000 packages a day, using about forty motor trucks for this purpose. Two large department stores in New York-Lord & Taylor and James McCreery & Company-pool their deliveries in a separate delivery concern. The importance of coöperative deliveries in these days of war economy may be seen in the experience of Ottawa, in Kansas, a town of 7,700 population, which recently reduced the number of delivery trucks used by the merchants of the town from 34 to 9, and effected savings of from 25 to 70 per cent. of their former delivery expenses. In another city of 12,000 population, the number of trucks was reduced from 20 to 14. in a town of 4,000 population has in this way effected a saving of 50 per cent., cutting his yearly delivery expense from $1,638 to $806.

One grocer

On the subject of economy and food production and conservation, so necessary at this time, the dyed-in-the-wool motor truck enthusiast can produce statistics in favor of the motor-driven machine that are fairly overwhelming. For example, according to Mr. H. W. Perry, secretary of the Commercial Vehicle Committee of the National Automobile Chamber of Commerce:

It has been determined by the United States Department of Agriculture that five acres of land are required to maintain a horse. Now this land ought to raise 75 bushels of wheat, worth, at $2.20 a bushel, $165; or say 250 bushels of potatoes,

worth-well, any farmer knows what five acres of good land are worth.

But a motor truck does the work, not of one horse, but of at least three horse-drawn vehicles, or say six horses. By using a motor truck, therefore, the farmer can devote thirty acres of good, tillable land to the profitable production of human food. In wheat, this would represent nearly $1,000 a year. The labor involved in raising the wheat would be no greater than in raising oats or corn for horse feed, and the horse would eat the oats while the wheat could be sold.

There are in the country at least 1,650,000 farms of 160 acres or more in size, every one of which could make good use of one or more trucks. These trucks would do the work of probably 10,000,000 horses, and this would release 50,000,000 acres of arable land. As only three acres are required to support a human being, these would feed nearly 17,000,000 people. What a tremendous help that would be in the present threatened food crisis!

Mr. Perry figures that the horse works, on an average, only three hours a day on the farm. On the other hand, one man can drive and take care of a motor truck and do as much work with it as three men driving teams-a saving, among other things, of the hire of two men, which is of some consequence in these days of high wages and scarcity of farm labor.

In the hauling of small shipments by motor truck, the elimination of the cartage expense usually involved at both ends of the railroad is another consideration which makes for economy in the motor-truck method of trans

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The Federal Government defrays 50 per cent. of the cost of building highways, the states contribute the rest, and then the states delegate the building of the roads to their various counties. This method of passing the responsibility for the building of roads has resulted in an unfortunate lack of coördination of the highway systems throughout the country. But there enters another absurdity into our present practice: the building of bridges, which certainly are a part of a highway, is often determined by townships. The result is that, because a township either is not rich enough or is disinclined to go to great expense, bridges connecting important roads are in many instances not strong enough to bear the weight of a load that is allowed on the highways they connect

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The trucks travel by day and night, stopping only for meals for the drivers and for fuel, oil, and necessary repairs, and making the one-way haul of more than 750 miles in from three to four days. There are sleeping compartments on each truck, and two drivers, one man driving while the other sleeps

portation. Then, too, there is the lessened danger of damage by handling: three or four handlings are often involved in shipping by freight, whereas only one handling is necessary in transportation by motor truck.

We therefore have at our hand a convenient and economical medium for relieving the railroads of their present burden. We have the vehicles and can turn out still greater numbers of them; the recent standardization of types of trucks used by the Government is already showing its effect throughout the industry in the tendency to standardize the kinds of trucks used for commercial purposes and in the increased speed and facilities of production. Despite recent beliefs to the contrary, also, we have more than sufficient gasolene to run them. Mr. H. L. Horning, of the Automotive Section of the War Industries Board, at the convention of truck manufacturers in January, said that because of the recent development of "cracking" processes, by which the constitution of heavy oils is

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broken down, there is now an overproduction of gasolene in this country of a million gallons a day. In the meantime, devices for burning kerosene have been perfected and resources developed; so that, according to Mr. Horning, we shall probably not again face a shortage of gasolene.

Before we can obtain the maximum, or

the near-maximum, effectiveness of which the motor truck is capable in the transportation of freight, however, we have a long road to travel.

Obviously we must have the highways, of proper durability and strength, over which the trucks are to operate. The latest figures on road construction in the United States showed that although 324,798 miles of improved roads were included in the total mileage of 1,439,297 miles of roads in thirty-three states of the Union, only 1,000 miles of highway were capable of withstanding heavy motor truck traffic.

The present system of the Federal Government defraying half the expense of road-build

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FREIGHT IN TEN HOURS FROM PHILADELPHIA TO NEW YORK

A motor-truck express for which the freight congestion holds no terrors. The trucks make the trip to New York by night, and are also used in irregular haulage between Philadelphia and cities in nine different states, the longest haul being that to Boston-about 340 miles

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In the near future between 3,000 and 4,000 miles of motor-truck parcel post routes will be in operation in the United States

ing in the various states, and of the state legislatures subsequently delegating the actual construction of the roads to counties and townships has resulted in a lack of coördination of the highway systems throughout the country. The thing to do, according to Mr. George C. Diehl, chairman of the Good Roads Committee of the American Automobile Association, is to abolish the authority of the township over road-building and to classify the roads of the future under three heads: federal, state, and county, the federal roads being the main cross-country arteries of traffic, the state roads being subordinated to these, and the county highways in turn being feeders to the state thoroughfares. It is essential that the roads be constructed of sufficient width and strength to accommodate the estimated volume of traffic, which could be approximated by a preliminary survey. The present system of allowing local officials to determine the width and strength of bridges should also be remedied. An incongruous phase of existing laws is that

although the states and the Federal Government pay for the construction of roadways, the burden of building bridges in many instances is placed upon the townships, which oftentimes either have not the money or are disinclined to build bridges strong enough to accommodate the maximum load allowed upon the highways that they connect.

Somewhat of the same helter-skelter conditions prevail concerning the rules of the

ARMY TRUCKS ON THE WAY TO SEABOARD
The Quartermaster's Department has planned to deliver
the 30,000 Liberty trucks, recently ordered, by their own mo-
tive power over highways from the factories around Detroit
and Buffalo to seaboard. If delivered by railroad, these
30,000 trucks would require 15,000 freight cars

road. Mr. Windsor T. White, president of the White Company, of Cleveland, and chairman of the recent convention of motor truck manufacturers and Government officers, has indicated some of the anomalies of present state legislation. At the meeting in January, Mr. White said:

The Connecticut laws of 1917 provide that "the Highway Commissioner may restrict the use of motor vehicles of over four tons' capacity on any trunk line or state highway." The Maine laws of 1917 provide that "the State Highway Commissioner may regulate the speed, weight of load, and time of year when trucks may be operated on regular sched

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ule." The laws of South Carolina provide that "local authorities may regulate the use of commercial vehicles and license them."

The Texas State Highway Commissioner is authorized by law to "change the rules and rates relating to motor traffic." The laws of 1917 of the State of Vermont provide that the "gross weight of motor vehicles is limited to five tons except by special permit allowed on hearing by the Board of Selectmen or Trustees of any town or village." And the laws of the State of West Virginia authorize the State Highway Commissioner to make regulations for the protection of roads.

These are instances selected at random of some of the laws which hedge the operator of a motor truck. Until we make state traffic regulations of a reasonable somewhat uniform nature, therefore, we shall not be able to utilize the motor truck to

and

full advantage in supplementing the railroads. The difficulty of keeping roads open during the winter will also have to be faced. Pennsylvania recently set an example which other state high

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seem. Mr. Roy D. Chapin, chairman of the Highways Transport Committee, has described how this problem has been solved in Connecticut: "The plan followed is this: In all the principal cities of Connecticut, there is a telephone number known as Return Loads. Any

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Courtesy of The Commercial Vehicle

THE BEST TRUCK EVER MADE"

One of the types of Liberty trucks which are being used by the American forces. Every one of its parts has been standardized, and it is the product of the combined genius of the motor truck industry and the War Department

way boards might well emulate. In coöperation with the Highways Transport Committee last November, the state highway authorities placed six large motor snow-plows in service along the main east and west roads of the Lincoln Highway in order to obviate the handicap of closed roads for the overland drive-away of Army motor trucks from Detroit.

The problem of full and return loads is another phase of motor truck haulage that will have to be worked out. Besides being a loss to the shipper, the

truck that goes

from one city to another and wants a load for the trip back calls up this Return Loads Bureau. The Re

turn Loads Bureau is presumed to be the centre of information on material ready for shipment in that particular city." The idea surely is adaptable to other states. At

least we shall have to formulate some such plan before the

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motor truck can operate to its full effectiveness in relieving the railroads.

These are not all, they are merely the most salient, aspects of the problem that confronts us. Before the Government can say definitely that short-haul traffic is to go over the highways by motor truck, there is a vast amount of facts and figures to be presented and working plans to be demonstrated. But the foregoing statement of what is being done is a fair basis for presuming that the Government, in cooperation with the men of the motor truck industry, will in the near future reduce the problem to its simplest elements; that in the present crisis, as at the Marne, Verdun, and the Somme, the motor truck will be the salvation of Democracy.

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