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Show Utility and Economy of the Truck Universally Recognized Most Important Motorized Unit of the Age in Relieving War Traffic and Man-power Problems Prob-lems in Factory and on the Farm. Today we are face to face with a transportation problem that has only one practical solution. It isn't a new problem by any means. For, with the great industrial and commercial expansion expan-sion this- country has been experiencing the past ten years, the task of moving raw materials and finished products through the various manufacturing and merchandising channels has been growing grow-ing more difficult as their volume increased. in-creased. As it happened, the unprecedented demands de-mands imposed by the war upon our businesses almost overnight brought the question of transportation where something had to be done immediately to relieve congestion. Railroad facilities facili-ties were being taxed to the limit. Our coastwise shipping was utterly unable to anywhere near handle a sufficient amount of freight to effect any relief. Intercity deliveries were placing a burden bur-den on the slow-moving horse and lim- ited man-power which was creating a commercial chaos. Then the manufacturer, seeking an adequate means gf transporting his much-needed materials the merchant and contractor endeavoring in every way to relieve their transportation needs and the farmer trying to raise larger crops than ever before while handicapped han-dicapped by the scarcity of labor all found the solution to their particular transportation requirements in the motor mo-tor truck. This' doesn't imply that hitherto the utility of the motor truck .hadn't been recognized. It had to a certain degree. Motor trucks have been used for years to a limited extent. But their full worth for short and long distance hauls was never really appreciated until in sheer desperation they were called upon to perform what the railroads, the steamships and the horse had failed to do. And they made good. They proved, beyond doubt, that they are the most efficient, ef-ficient, economical and speedy carriers available for commercial, use. Number Expands. At the beginning of this year over 400,000 trucks were in use in this conn-try. conn-try. Today they are moving one-quarter as much goods as are all the freight cars on all our vast railroad systems. There is scarcely a single, line of business busi-ness in which the motor trucks are not doing the major share of the work transporting men, materials and merchandise mer-chandise about cities, through sparsely settled rural sections and even across the continent at a speed and cost which, w-heu compared with other means of transportation, represent a substantial substan-tial saving. To manufacturers the motor truck is today as important a unit of their production pro-duction facilities as the very machines which make their goods. Its use has wrought changes in every department of their business which have, done much to increase their production capacities and to lower their overhead expenses. Its value as a commercial carrier, without consideration of its influence on other departments, alone has proved great enough to make it distinctly profitable to use. At the time the manufacturer man-ufacturer was wholly dependent upon horses and teams for transportation purposes, ho had either to hire them at a cost per day which represented a good sized margin of profit for the owner, or to maintain stables of his own. The latter course called for an extensive outlay in buildings and yards. Tt meant, the emplovment of stablemen, hostlers and a driver, and. in many cases, a helper for each team. It necessitated a large amount of floor space for horses, wagons, repair and paint shops, a blacksmith black-smith shop, as well as lofts for hay and grain. When Efficiency Counts. For all this investment the. manufacturer manufac-turer had the use of slow-moving horse-drawn vehicles whose actual capacity ca-pacity for service was limited to the physical endurance of the horse. And the horse, being an animal and not a machine, can be subjected to only a few hours of hard labor daily if he is to remain fit for work. When the manufacturer displaced this oouipment with its accompanying paraphernalia para-phernalia for motor trucks, he was enabled en-abled for the first time to get the transportation trans-portation end of his business down on an efficient working basis where haulage haul-age costs per mile could be determined accurately. Tn doing so he found that, on an average, one motor truck would do the work of from three to four wagons and do it quicker. In this way alone it effected a '.jDgible saving at the start, represented by the cost of the drivers, horses, wagons, as well as the facilities necessary for their main-teni-nee. Tte manufacturer also found that he could house and care for a fleet of motor mo-tor trucks in less than half the space and with far less labor than for the same number of wagons of relative capacity. ca-pacity. Then, again, when business was such that demands upon his transportation transporta-tion system were exceptionally heavy, there was never a breakdown and tie-up tie-up in the system when trucks were used. Their capacity for work is unlimited. They can be operated at high speed every hour of the day and even night, if necessary. There is no limit to what they can do. There is no limit to where they can go. Better still, they fortify the manufacturer with the means to successfully meet the advancing costs of labor and raw materials which are cutting down his profit margins, by enabling en-abling him to speed up the production and distribution of his products, and thus take care of a larger volume of business at practically the same cost. Strongly Entrenched. The motor truck is now just as strongly entrenched in the commercial field. It has aided the jobber and the retailer as well as men in all other lines of business to do away with the uncertainties uncer-tainties and expense of horse-drawn vehicles, and to reach out into new territories for trade.' It has brought them in closer contact with their established estab-lished trade and into touch with new business which, without the aid of the .truck, they could never- have hoped to secure or to handle at a profit. It has enabled them to render prompt and dependable de-pendable service and to take care of the ueeds of their customers more thoroughly thor-oughly and at less cost. Nowhere else has' the motor truck proved itself of more assistance than on the farm. It is estimated that by the end of the current year there will bo 300,000 trucks used by the farmers. These trucks will take the place of some 1,200,000 horses, which, in turn, will release for agricultural purposes about 6,000,000 acres of land used today to raise feed for the horses. The Farmers' Verdict. To ask a farmer these days as to what way the motor truck assists him most in carrying on his work, is to receive the reply that, it aids him in every detail de-tail of his multiple tasks, from the time he starts to break ground in the early spring until he has sold his crop's, gathered gath-ered wood and cut his ice the next winter. win-ter. No other piece of farm equipment has contributed more to his better paying pay-ing business than the motor truck. When thc war came the farmer was encouraged, urged and almost commanded com-manded to cultivate every available foot of his land. Bumper crops were a vital necessity. We had not only this country and our army to feed, but also the peoples and armies of our allies and some of the neutral countries. Farm labor was very scarce and wages very high. Seeds, fertilizers and everything needed to produce these crops were also bringing high war-time prices. The farmer was up against even a harder proposition than he ever was before. Tut he accomplished all and even more than was expected of him. And it was the motor truck that played an important impor-tant part in enabling him to accomplish accom-plish it. On the farm thc motor truck is capable capa-ble of meeting many and varied needs. It replaces from two to four mon. Tt is making the farm a more enjoyable place to live on and farming a bigger, better and more profitable business. Tba motor truck has a place in every line of business endeavor today where adequate, dependable and economical transportation is essential. It. is an economic necessity. It is the only practical prac-tical solution to our problem of commercial com-mercial transportation. |
