The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1917-01-18

From the standpoint of the ''jitneyV
Kenosha is the second city in the state
of Wisconsin as records of the Wiscon-
sin Railroad Commission which have
been sent to Mayor Charles III. Pfennig
show that Milwaukee is the only city
in the state where there are more jit-
neys than in Kenosha Kenosha, ac-
cording to this report, has forty-seven
bonded carriers licensed by the COM
mission; Racine has but thirty-fOur,
and Milwaukee has one hundred and
eighty eight. The report of the com
mission, which has been made after an
examination by staff men from the rail
road commission office, does not appear
to be of greatest value. Tt shows, how
ever, that the commission is fully aware
of the fact that the bonded carriers
are not operating to the letter of
the law in either of the cities
covered by the report. The commits
sion investigators says:
"The schedules of these bonded car
riers vary from one to nineteen hours
per day. The attached tables show the
number of bonded carriers operating on
schedule as indicated in steps of two
hours each, for the years beginning
September l, 1915 and September l,
1916. While the number of operators
has materially decreased in the city
of Milwaukee, it will be noted that the
schedules have been increased over
what they were beginning the year Sep
TENDER /, 1915. This is also true of
Racine and Kenosha
The reason for so large a number of
short schedules is partly due to the iA~
formation given to the operators by the
Automobile Liability Company. While
this Office has no written statements to
indicate that this is true, a large num-
Der of the operators have verbally
made this statement. The Automobile
Liability Company has taken the posi-
tion that bonded carrier can operate
any number of hours that he wishes in
excess of the schedule indicated on his
application, and, therefore, if his schedz.
rlle is made short enough there will be-
little or no possibility of violating that
portion of the law which requires the
bonded carrier to operate the hours in
dicated on his application. This prac-
tice makes it absolutely impossible for
the commission to know how much
service is being given by the bonded
carriers. The only information which
we have is the minimum hours which
are being operated.
Observations made by members of
the staff indicate that not always do
bonded carriers operate even the
hours shown on their application.
When investigated, the reason given
for failure to operate was usually sick
ness of the driver or need Of repairs
On the automobile.
Our observations also have indicated
that bonded carriers have operated on
routes other than that indicated on
their application. This has occurred
more frequently where bounded carriers
have been refused the privilege of oper-
ating on routes upon which the COM
mission have permitted only a limited
number of operators. Where such vio-
lations have come to our attention
they have been reported to the police
department
Bonded carriers have also been OBJ
served operating without the "Bonded
Carrier" sign, as required by law.
These signs it many cases are made de-
tachable and when the machine is not
being used as bonded carrier the sign
is removed. When again used as a
bonded carrier the operator often for
gets or neglects to replace the sign.
It has come to our attention by OBJ
servation and reports from other oper
ators, that some of the drivers are
using cars other than those indicated
in the bond and application.
The police department has permitted
no one to operate as bonded carrier
who has failed to obtain satisfactory
bond. They, however, have found it
impossible to follow up portions of the
law which pertain to the operation over
the general routes and during the hours
set forth in the application. They
have maintained that in order to ad.
minister this portion of the law it
would be necessary for every traffic
policeman to have detailed record OF
every operator in the city.