Salt Lake Tribune | 1917-10-07 | Page 32 | Auto Makers Watch Freight Schedules

AUTO MAKERS WATCH FREIGHTVSCHEDULES Employ Men to Keep Tab on Rates for Shipping Cars. It costs from 50 to 75 per cent more to build a motor car today than it did three years ago. Labor alone has increased in-creased 35 per cent and some of the materials have more than doubled in cost. Add to this an unprecedented!' bad railroad situation and one has the combination against which the motor car manufacturer ft -working today. That is the summary of the situation as described last week by W. B. Riley, sales manager of the Jordan Motor Car company, who was here from the Cleveland factory to visit J. A. Greor.e-wald, Greor.e-wald, manager of the Mereer-Jordan Sales company, local distributors of the-Jordan the-Jordan car. "The combination of obstacles ob-stacles means that a motor-car short-ago short-ago is certain, warns Riley. "Already some of the Detroit manufacturers manu-facturers are driving their cars to Joli-et- and other points past the congested terminals and junctions of Toledo and Chicago to be placed aboard cars and shipped westward." said Eiley. "But even that does not solve tho problem. Getting freight cars in which to make , the shipments is some work in itself. "Let me illustrate by telling what we have to do. We keep two men in automobiles riding from one freight yard to another in Cleveland. They Watch freight schedules like dispatchers. dispatch-ers. "When a freight draws in they are there to note the destination of each ear. Cars billed to Cleveland are followed fol-lowed until unloaded. And the moment the last of the cargo has been taken out. in goes a Jordan, and then another until the ear is loaded. " We take no chances. "We don't wait for the railroad company to 'spot' the cars at our docks. Vc take the antes to where the cars are. And even then there often is a lively scramble with some other shipper who has been just as watchful as ourselves. "The situation right now is as bad as in midwinter in former years. And we still have the lake navigation. Grain and cr:ttle also are just beeduning to move in the middle west. When those get into full swing there is going to be little room for anything else, .outside of the munitions which the government is making at widely scattered points. "This condition " means motor car shortage, especially on the Pacific coast and other points too far removed from the factory for 'driveways.' "The larger' plants are running ns near to capacitv as they can to "meet the demand. The government has let immense truck orders, which will nee-essarily nee-essarily cut down the production of pleasure cars.