The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1923-01-17

'0F TRUCKS Is
! BIGGEST EVIL
New York Has Stringent Law
Against Overtaxing
Hauling Powers
HARD ON HIGHWAYS
Breakdown of Efficiency Is
Result of Taxing by
Excessive Load

IF there is any place where the
burning of the candle at both ends
homily applies" motor truck own
err of long experience recently de-
clared to J. c. Taylor, assistant
branch manager of the International
Harvester Company of America, at
sure comes home fast and hard in
the overlooking of motor truck.
Il started out with my express
and freight hauling business num-
Der of years ago. We gave the right
kind of service, and the work came
to us in larger and larger quantities.
My 4,O00-pound capacity trucks soon
were carrying 5000, pounds and. over,
but l was SO busy with the Office
and the work that completely for
got the loads the trucks were car
rying. This was in the early days
Of overland freight hauling with
motor trucks, and, of course, we had
to learn by our mistakes.
Somewhere in the back of my
mind, however,,I realized that we
were paying out considerable money
for tires and leplacements, but the
business was growing rapidly and we
were making money-at least, it
seemed SO on the surface.
GAS part of it's service procedure,
the truck company sent road engi-
neer around every three or four
months to inspect our machines.
eral times that we were overlooking
our trucks, but after each inspection
l ordered the parts that needed re-
placement, made the repairs the en-
gineer said were NECESSARY and SIM
ply forget the warning. We just
went after more and more business
and piled larger and heavier loads
on the trucks.
FINALLY the business came in so,
fast that I had to bring my wife into
the Office to take charge of the books.
After one Of his regular inspections,
seeing that he had failed to convince
me, told my wife that if she would
make me stop overlooking our trucks,
she would become the most profitable
partner in the business. He went
over the written inspection reports
for the preceding year with her, and
dwelt particularly on the total fig
ures Of our operating expense. He
compared Jour operating costs with
trucks of like make in similar work.
He showed how the extra cost of
operation brought on by overlooking
would have more than paid for an
other truck during the three years
we had been in the freight hauling
business.
"The road engineer then went on
to explain that, there were so many
load miles built, into truck and if
we took out reater part of the
total lona-miles in overloads, we cut
down the life of the truck by more
than half and our ope&ating costs
were more than double what they
would be if we loaded the trucks
properly He showed where our bus
mess was making fair profit on the
books, but we were not charging off
enough for depreciation to compen-
safe for the shorter life of .oul
trucks due to excessive overlooking. |
"My wife was won over by the |
service mans argument. She brought |
the books home one night and then
went after me. With the figures she |
showed me and what the service en-
gineer had told me, l suddenly be-
came convinced that it was worth !
while to pay close attention to the |
written inspection reports and the
suggestion of the truck company's |
y
"Thc final upshot of it was that
called the road engineer in and to-
gcther we planned our hauling so
there would be mo overload. The
trucks are now loaded to capacity,
both coming and going, for an empty
truck or one carrying half load is
not a profit maker. By using lit
tie headwork, I now realize there is
no need for overlooking. It took the
combined efforts of the truck COM
pany's engineer and my wife to drive
home that fact" \
After reciting this truck owners
Mr.. Taylor dwelt on the
injuries to highways that result from
overlooking Of trucks. In building
a motor truck, he pointed out, tn.
specifies a certain size
Of tire large enough to cushion the
load and protect the road under spec
fled maximum capacity load.< When
overloaded, the tires break into the
road bed and naturally. injure it.
Authorities everywhere, Mr.. Taylor
went on to state, are recognizing the
evils Of truck overlooking and are