New Britain herald., 1918-10-25
MAIL MOTOR TRUCKS
 FOUND SUCCESSFUL
One Route Costing $500 Monthly
 Produces St6,OOO Revenue.

Washington, Oct. 25.-Cross- country operation of mail carrying motor trucks, tried out by the post office de. partment on an experimental but nevertheless big scale. during the last year, has been a great success. Janaes l. BlakeSlee, fourth assistant pOstnfds- ter general has found that one truck route between Philadelphia. and Wash ington, cutting chiefly through terri tory without direct rail connection and costing $500 a month to operate, has in eight months developed a revenue of $16,000 monthly Another route, into Washington, where 2S parcels a day were moved during the first month, now shows one ton of traffic each way each 24 hours,
 Seventy lines now operate over the country, all but one east of the Missis- Sippi, and there are visions of a sys- tenn which will furnish $360,000,000 annually in revenue for road construc- tion or other purposes.
 ''Why, General Pershing has 5000 trucks damaged or ruined over on the other side" said MT. Blakeslee telling of the growth of the system. 1T don't care what condition they are in. We want them all, and can fix up and put every one of them 10 work. What's even more important, he's got some boys over there shy a hand, or an arm, or a leg, and we can use them all too, in good worl9 at good pay, that they can do. Congress gave us S300,000 to work with, and if we had the earnings of the lines themselves, we could expand almost indefinitely. As it is, $9,000. 900 will be requested by the division for next year, and I think it will be appropriated. People realize what we are doing.
 Night Operation Profitable.
 "Operating at night is the most profitable, and we have but two ma- chimes doing. that, out of New York. The typical route is about 1S0 miles long, 90 miles out, and 90 miles back.
 Almost always the constant opera, Ston of the lines produces return load, the universal character of the mail service allowing almost anything to be taken. The mail trucks go, come rain, storm, or anything and so the traffic develops. Rates are also pretty high, the lowest being about SEQ a ton. That is what makes the surplus revenues.
 "0f course, we'll have to have con- crete roads, but the business can pro- duce the money to build them. There are some economies in distribution of produce that are simply amazing. It has added an entirely new factor to transcontinental transportation, and we shall just begin finding 1t out when more extensive operation goes into effect during the next two years"
 Just1why NIr.~ Blakeslee sees it that way can be understood from just one commodity price list, Milk retails now in Washington at 17 cents a quart. Milk is coming in on mail trucks direct to consumers for 10 cents 3 quart. Naturally the trucks are be- Ing weighed down with five gallon cans as consumers learn of the possi- htlity. The trucks tap milk producing territory that outside the usual haul ing lines, and off the rail arteries
 "Wherell the roads come from to run 9.000 trucks?" he asks. Well, there are 66000 rural mail and star routes being operated in the United states now. Sometimes I think every one of them would make a truck line. Food is being handled 1 0 times on it3 way to q consumer. We can cut that fo five.
 Watching these figures, since De eemher, when we started, has given me new sort of inspiration We shall be moving the mails and mails will include a whole unexpected variety of things-in new modes before the generation finishes. Airplanes for the thousand mile distances, trains for the 500 mile and trucks for the 250. That's about the schedule"