Evening star., 1924-10-04
MOTOR TRUCK USE
GROWING BY LEAPS
Railroads Adopting Faster
Delivery System to End
Congestion.
By J. c. ROYLE.
Special Dispatch 70 The Star

opeclal Dispatch TO The Star.
NE" YORK, October 4.-Store door
delivery and collection of freight by
the railroads through the use Of motor
trucks is coming inevitably in the
larger centers of the United States
That Is the belief expressed by George
II. Kelly, treasurer of the White
Motor Company of Cleveland, large
manufacturer of trucks
Time and railroad equipment are
TOO valuable to permit continuation
of present terminal delays and con
gestion," he said. Railroad cars will
be emptied promptly, their contents
sorted into trucks and the cars re
turned to main line traffic. But tenn
porarily this will not add to the
number of trucks in use. John Smith
& Company and Joseph Jones & Com
pany will not send trucks down TO
the freight yards for barrel Of sugar
each and hold them idle there until
the sugar is unioaded. Instead one
truck will take on 10 or 20 barrels
of sugar and deliver them to Is OF
20 firms.
Trucks Value Proved.
There is no question that the gen
eral use of the motor truck in bust
ness and industry is increasing, but
l believe this increase will be healthy
an6 gradual rather than sudden and
Immediate. 1t must follow the i'm
provement of highways and streets.
and the solving of traffic congestion
problems to be stable and permanent
and give best results"
The value Of the use of trucks in
obviating railroad terminal conges-
ton has been Thoroughly proved in
Cincinnati. according TO experts.
Trucks are now utilized there for
transferring freight from one rail-
road to another
The trucks used have removable
bodies These bodies are placed BY
machinery on the freight platform
and goods for a certain destination
are sorted into each. When they are
loaded the truck chassis is backed
up. the body swung into place and
the freight transferred to another
terminal. where the body again is
placed on platform and its contents
redfs tributed to freight cars
Delivery Made Rapid.
By this method one truck engine
and chassis handles many bodies with
only one driver and without delay.
The process obviates the distribution
of freight into trap cars, the switching
Of such cars over miles of track to
reach destination which may be
within hundred yards of the start
the yards to q minimum.
1t is estimated the system has cut
the time of delay OF freight cars in
the Cincinnati yards from over three
days to less than one day and has
materially reduced the cost involved
as well as expedited delivery Of
goods. This has meant a tremendous
Increase in the car mileage Of equip
nent-
IN nc ha i
mentS of truck service, according to
Mr.. Kelly, will be in the handling of
less than car load freight over short
haulS from large terminals.
Representatives of the Pennsylva-
MIA lines declare that the results from
such service between Philadelphia
and ilmington, Del, have been fully
up to expectations. The New York
Central has been so pleased with the
experiment on its lines that il is eX-
tending the service in several locali-
ties. In each section. Mr. Kelly de-
clares, the length of truck runs must
be governed by local conditions,
since there is a distance beyond which
motor transportation of freight ceases
to be profitable.
Fruit Shipments Rushed.
Other transportation experts fix this
distance around so miles. In general.
effort is made to schedule traffic So
that each truck will be able to make
one round trip a day and IL miles an
hour is about the limit of speed to be
expected of loaded vehicles under or
dinary conditions.
AS a result of the new methods OF
handling freight and cars, the aver
age time Of fruit refrigerator cars
from California to the Atlantic sea
board and back has been cut to so
days, and in one or two instances two
round trips have been crowded into
about As days. Ordinary freight cars
do not move so rapidly. but the old
system which required six months
for freight car TO go from coast TO
coast and back has gone forever.
Nowadays every cars time away from
home" is carefully checked, and as
result freight cars are earning
about four times as much for the road
as they did formerlv