Evening star., 1919-04-20
SAY AUTO EXPRESS
WILL HELP PUBLIC
Motor Truck Men Urge Laws
Thus Linking Producer
and Consumer.
is A PUBLIC UTILITY

The motor truck committee of the
National Automobile Chamber of Com
merce is advocating the enactment
of legislation that will ultimately es
tablish rural motor express commu
nication between the producer and
consumer at the lowest possible fair
charge to the latter. With but 250.-
600 miles of railway in the United
States against 100000 miles o?
! highway, the Importance Of such .
service to the public at large CO mot
be overestimated and its economic
; relation to cost of living is close
/ enough to justify it's classification Us
a public utility on a par with other
services which seek TO provide for
the necessities of life.
| Past experience has shown that at
some point in the operation of such
units the factor of regulation must
! be taken into consideration, as other
wise the public is confronted by one
of two conditions; % Either one
group is so much more powerful than
the others that it assimilateS them
. and becomes monopoly, or (2) un-
due competition results in an eco
nomic condition that forces all par
ties to it into bankruptcy.
/ Rural motor express operation has
tended to move toward the latter
| be cited which illustrate the point
| and which are anything but special
| in their application.
Greater Highway Traffic.
! War conditions enforced a transfer
! of large quantities of freight from
the railroad to the highway. When
| normal conditions were restored the
motor express routes could not COM
! pete with the railroads and their
! business was either taken entirely
away from them or greatly dimin-
! ished.
i In Colorado. motor truck route
was established between two good
! sized cities. A good rate was fixed
and the company profited. Its opera
! tions attracted other investors. rate
war ensued. both were forced to with
draw and the community suffered in
! consequence.
! In other cases men of little capital
| were attracted to the business by the
! success of others and. through mac
| curate knowledge of operating and
overhead costs, fixed rates at too low
| a point.
Finally interruptions operators of
no financial responsibility crept in
Oh 1OncSI OpoTdloTS, HiTeu uHSCIupu-
| lous drivers, with the net result that
costly shipments were damaged in
| transit. leaving the shipper without
| financial recourse and consequently
setting up a resistance to future OPP
! erations by efficient. responsible or
ganizations.
Character of Laws Needed.
| In view of these conditions and go
| ing back to the first consideration of
| the function of the rural motor ex-
press as a public utility. the motor
| truck committee OF the National Au-
| tomobile Chamber Of Commerce feels
that the subject is sufficiently impor-
| tant to the public to justify the enact
ment of legislation which would:
1. Place the matter of rate making
| in the hands of a public utility COM
| mission which would base those rates
upon a knowledge of local conditions,
making them equitable, to shipper and
operator alike and making impossi-
Bile neglect Of the interests of the
community, which should always be
considered as of first Importance.
Q. The enactment of legislation
which would seek to protect the ship
per from undue loss in transit, as he
road traf1ic.
data which should teach the motor
truck operator how to gauge the
needs Of his territory. how to arrive
at his operating costs. and how to
give the best service to the public.