Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1920-12-24
WOULD ELIMINATE
WASTE|N HAULING
Federal Highway Council to
Foster Carrying of Full
TruckIoads.

ELIMINATION OF the expensive pfac-
tice of hauling less than truckload
lots of freight or express packages
consigned to Washington retail houses
or to individual consumers here will
be sought by the "store-door" de1iv-
cry committee of the federal highway
council within two months by agree
ment with the largo trucking COM
panies of the city. DR.. r. S. McSlwee,
chairman of the committee, announced
today.
DR.. McElwee said the plan was tried
out some years ago in washington,
but failed, owing to disagreement
between the railroads, consumers and
truckers. Modern methods of haul
ing freight and express packages will
overcome the objection of the rail-
roads to the plan, it is believed.
Pooling of Trucks.
Briefly, the plan oontemplates a
pooling of trucks by the large truck
ing companies of Washington to OBJ
viate the practice of using truck for
hauling one or two packages at a
time consigned to dealers or indi-
viduuals within a. certain radius. BY
pooling the trucking facilities of the
companies it is pointed out that a
truck can leave the rail terminal with
II full load, perhaps composed OF sew
eral items, all of which can be de-
livered within certain radius at
pointed out that it costs very little
more to haul a load weighing three
tons from the Baltimore and Ohio
freight yard in lexington to an r
street store than to haul a hfty-pound
package the same distance. Yet in
many cases trucks do haul such small
loads, thus costing the ultimate con-
sumner the entire cost of the opera
ton of the truck, plus overhead
charges, for hauling the small pack
age.
It is planned by pooling the trans
portation facilities of the companies
in Washington to organize fleets OF
trucks which will be assigned to de-
livery to stores or to individuals with
in a certain zone. The city will be d.
vided into zones for this purpose and
all goods hauled within one zone will
as the zone widens. its center being
the railroad point of delivery.
Save Thousands Yearly.
Thousands of dollars a year are ex-
pected to be saved by this arrange
ment. DR.. McElwee points out, which
are otherwise expended in the haul
ing of small parcels Preliminary steps
toward contamination of the plan
have already been taken in New York
and several of the large trucking COM
panies are ready to go ahead with
the plan. which has been in operation
in many European cities for years.
Carriage in the city limits of Wash
ington is a much larger item of cost
than freight rates to the local con-
sumner, Eugene F. Hartley. expert
statistician of the census bureau. says
today in a report on carriage costs in
this city.
Cost of delivery of ice to the con-
sumner. for example, is shown to be As
per cent of the total cost Other items
Washington:. Bottled soft drinks, 2O2
per cent: brick, 1919 per cent, and
laundered goods, 1873 per cent. The
classes for which the lowest three
merchandise, Is per cent; furniture
and carpets, 2.S per cent. and hard
ware, per cent. Among the individ-
ua1 establishments the proportion
which delivery cost represented of to-
tai gross sales ranged from six-tenths
dealer to- IS per cent in the case Of
the ice dealer.
Profit and Overhead.
The report estimates that about 40
per cent of the cost of delivering
milk represents profit and the cost
of handling and distribution. OF
this 40 per cent. the average cost Of
distribution: would be from 10 to IL
per cent. That a part of this cost
is chargeable to the demand of the
consumer for special service is the
opinion of a prominent milk dealer,
who states that, in addition to his
three regular deliveries, he is forced
to maintain three or more special de-
liverieS, under penalty of losing his
patrons" says the report.
For the year 1915 Washington paid
total bill for express, freight and
carriage charges within the city of
SIS, $4,000. This amount has proba-
time. The aggregate rail-freight
1915 amounted to approximately &c.
100000, of which sum approximately
IS, 459, 900 represented inbound freight
by rail. The estimated total trans
portation and carriage costs applying
to commodities for public consump-
ton in Washington was approxi-
mately 900 in 1916. This rep
resented about $40 for each indi-
vidual, or $3.50 for each family, based
on the 1910 total population.
Application of the truck pooling
plan to Washington will be taken up
at a meeting of the stofe-door de-
livery committee in New York the
second week in January, Dr. McElwee
announced. At that time the pro-
posal will be thoroughly considered
as applied to the capital, and initial
steps toward taking up the proposal
with the trucking companies here
will be made shortly after the meet
ing.