Evening capital news. (Boise, Idaho) 1901-1927, 1919-03-30
EFFICIENT HANDLING OF MOTOR TRUCK FLEET
RESTSENT|RELYM D|SPATCHERS SHOULDERS

were placed every morning near the
food supply warehouse, and sides OF
beef were trucked direct from the car
to the motor trucks at the warehouse
door. Other trucks were assigned 20
handle the days food supply llour'
sugar, canned goods, and the like. Inc
meat trucks were first loaded, dlstrip-
uted the meat, and then were sent 10
special details near the place OF their
last meat delivery. This was snort
distance to figure on saving, but every
mile counts when quarterly state
ment is made up, and the meat truchs
saved mile each per day of traVel
empty.
The loading of the miscellaneous
provision trucks was done by blocks
The camp was divided into districts
whose size was based on the average
daily tonnage. Three blocks OF Kitten
ems and barracks, for instance, would
be handled by one truck, and explicit
orders required the assortment OF all
shipments before they were loaded on
the trucks. Thus, a truck for blocks
A, and G would be so loaded that the
kitchen nearest to the warehouse would
have it's food stock on the rear end OF
the truck, ready to be unloaded first
without delay; the second stop would
be next, and so on through the load.
The sorting of orders was all done on
the warehouse floor far from the
trucks, so there would be no conges-
tion at the loading doors.
The trucks thus had a comparative
ly short haul before they began to dis
charge their load. AT the end of their
trip, the same trucks would be met by
cleanup squad, or police detail' and
make a return trip picking up the big
galvanized iron cans of kitchen refuse.
This would be delivered to the concen-
tration station where all this material
was gathered for disposal in bulk, or
shipment by rail to hog farms near the
camp.
To operate this system it was neces-
sary to have every officer in this camp
using trucks file requisition day in
advance for his tonnage requirements.
At night, a dispatcher would take all
the orders, both special and standing
orders, and issue printed forms to the
drivers of the various trucks instruct
ing them where, when and to whom to
report and for what duty.
Any truck sent out on a long haul
was under orders to report to the dis
patcher by telephone before returning
to the park A truck with task COM
pleted at block A, for instance, was re-
quired to report by phone to the dis
patcher at block Il, or wherever the
dispatcher was located, when a haul
was completed. If a call had been re-
ceived for truck in block A, the truck
already in that vicinity would be sent
to this task, without losing the double
distance of empty roll from A to z
the return of truck No. l empty from
block A, for instance, and the sending
of truck No. light to block A from
block to do this work.
And it seems of course that any fool
would be able to work out this problem
satisfactorily. In fact, the dispatching
of a fleet of motor trucks requires as
much mobility on the part of the brain
of the dispatcher as it requires to oper-
ate railroad division from the train
dispatcher's desk. The truck dispatch
err, especially in n plant where there
are many short order calls, must at all
times know where to reach all of his
fleet of trucks. This can only be done
by blotter, recording the movements
of all trucks, and a dispatcher ready to
meet an emergency.
In practice. a dispatcher cannot OPP
crate his trucks at a maximum at all