Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 92.djvu/920

 Solving the Railroad Problem

Connecticut does it by making the return trip profitable for motor trucks

��CITY CARDS WITH SHIPPERS NAMES

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�� ��E5T autumn, when the railroad con- gestion became acute, the State of Connecticut, which is the heart of the small arms and ammunition industry of the United States, found itself in a desperate situation. Ammunition partly finished in one plant must be hauled to other plants for differ- ent machining opera- tions before it is com- pleted. As there were no freight cars at all, or too few, the war ma- terial could not be moved by the rail- roads. Many manu- facturers had to use motor trucks for that purpose, and, in some cases, even to get raw terials for their plants and to deliver finished goods to New York for shipment abroad.

The first problem was to keep the roads open. This was accomplished by taking the work of removing the snow out of the hands of the townships and turning it over to the State. The second problem was to make the haul- age as economical as possible by providing return loads for the trucks.

To make sure of return loads, the State, under the direction of W. S, Conning, chairman of the Motor Truck Transporta- tion Committee of the State Council of Defense, formed Return Loads Bureaus in four- teen of the important cities of the State. Each bureau keeps a file of all the trucks available for overland haulage work. The bureau supplies information re- garding trucking compa-

��ROUTE NUMBERS (D,@— --@ I WITH CARDS BEHIND EACH ■ NUMBERED TAB GIVINO NAMES OF AVAILABLE TRUCK OWNERS

���A file like this is kept in every one of the Return Loads bureaus in fourteen cities of Connecticut

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�� ��One of the City cards bearing the name of a trucking concern listed in the files of the bureau

��nies and their routes to shippers and keeps a record of all applications. This enables the bureau to post the truckmen on the prospects of obtaining a return load to their home city after they have delivered their outgoing load.

The telephones of the bureaus are listed under the heading "Re- turn Loads" to facili- tate telephoning. The routes covered are numbered, and the trucks running on each route are given cor- responding index num- bers in the file. There are already more than seven hundred motor trucks listed under this plan and each bureau a complete file of all available vehicles and a map of the routes covered.

Since it costs almost as much to run a truck empty as it does loaded, it will easily be seen how advan- tageous it is to both shipper and truckman to be sure of a return load.

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���Map of the State of Connecticut showing the various routes for overlanc; truckiiig established so far in important cities

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