New Britain herald., 1915-03-03

difficulties found in 1ifin and Mans field when they operated on the piece price, namely where merchants many times send out their own clerks. This difficulty apparently has not been as acute in Ann Arbor and the success of this system is due greatly to the fact that they have an efficient mana ger who knows the business and un- derstands the handling, buying and selling horses, etc. There are sixty five regular users of this system and sixteen regular teams are used. The provisions men procide special boxes for the sending out of their orders. The wagons are different from those used in Mansfield and Tiffin. The sys- tenn employs only men for operating the delivery teams. In 1914, 607, ,139 delivery company, states that the pub of the Ann Arbor civic association, which has no connection with the de- livvery company, states that the pub lie is absolutely in sympathy and could not do without it. Four deliveries are made on regular days and five on Sat urdays.
 V large and substantial. The manager has full charge of the equipment.
 Individual Charges.
 The charges are as follows. for grocers, those who are stockholders three and three e-eights, those not stockholders four and one-eighth. A delivery must have a tag giving the hundred pounds. Butchers are pay ing one-half cent less for delivery than the grocers. Delivery tags are sold for cash in advance and every delivery must have a tage giving the name and address of the customer. C. O. D. deliveries use envelopes in- stead of tags and the envelope con- tains q bill which the delivery clerk receipts. The money is put into the envelope to be returned to the mer- chant when the next collection is made. Additional city delivery work is undertaken which results in addi- tion revenue without increased over head expense and this line of work can be developed anywhere.
 Pontiac, Michigan, was the next city visited. This city has a popula- ton of about 17,000.
 
 which has been in operation about eight years. It has been very success ful, although experiencing some of the difficulties found in the other cities. For the same reasons found in Mansfield, the equipment will prob bably be sold in the near future to the party who is now manager, and the building rented to him. The man.
 ,tntxA that when this change is made the system will have weekly rates for de- livery instead of the piece price sys- tenn.
 Men are here employed as drivers and the pay averages S14 per week The manager states that while boys are quicker as delivery men, they are much harder on horses. Twelve de- livery teams are used and four trips are made each day except Saturdays, when five trips are made.
 Provision Men Best Users.
 The largest users are grocery and provision men and they state emphati- cally that they would never take up their own delivery again under any circumstances. The largest user is d
  ont his business or only sell from the store. At pontiac they are using two all-steel wagons which were made es- pecially for them about six months ago and their manager states that as fast as the present wagons give out, steel ones will be purchased. In my opinion they are far superior to the wagons used in any of the other cities.
 -t vtHr-H HNyn a IT users. The provision dealers use boxes or crates of special width and length, but of varying sizes. One req son advanced here for the change to private ownership is the fact that from time to time the original own CTS go out of business for some req son or other and unless the stock is bought by some other merchants the system in a little while would cease to become cooperative.
 From what you have heard, l think you will agree that the question is big one and of vital interest to New Britain. The committee felt that a report should be made to the New Britain merchants at this time showing the progress of the work up to-date. The committee has not had sufficient time to formulate definite plan for putting the system of this kind in operation in New Britain, but believe that it is essential that such a system should be put in operation in the near future in the interests Of the merchants and the purchasing public.
 Application Here. te Let us consider for few moments | how the system of this kind can be | applied in New Britain. There are | today in New Britain, among the pro- |