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Keeping Tab on Car Movements 



Lack of system is (iiii> nf tin' iiii.st geiioi-iillv notrcl faults in 

 tbe offices of lumbermen the extent of whose business is sufficiently 

 great to suggest the adoption. of reasonable methods of jirevent- 

 ing errors and loss. 



Cases are on record of cars being shipped out without a jiroper 

 record being made and without an invoice being sent to the cus- 

 tomer. These capes have been uncovered by accident. There 

 are plainly many others, not located, which have been handled in 

 this way, to the' material loss of the lumber company. 



If a business. is small, and if the owner of it is on the job all 

 the time, the chances of serious errors are slight; but when the 

 concern has grown to such a point that the memory of the head 

 of the establishment cannot contain all of its details, the opportu- 

 nity for loss is considerable. 



A leading wholesale hardwood concern has recently adopted a 

 checking system for keeping tab on cars, which seems to be 

 worth general adoption. The svstem is used in connection with 

 shipments from its local .vard, and also with reference to ship- 

 ments from the several mills which it is operating. The plan has 

 the advantage of simplicity, and yet seems to provide an abso- 

 lute check. 



The basis of the record, of course, is the tall.v. Turning in 

 the tall.v of the inspector is followed by making out a shipping 

 ticket, in duplicate, containing the results of the tally. These 

 shipping tickets are numbered consecutively, consecutive num- 

 bering, in fact, being the basis of the entire s.vstem. 



The sheets of the salesbook are also numbered, its numbers 

 corresponding with those of the shipping ticket. The entry in 

 the salesbook, in addition to containing the facts shown on the 

 shipping ticket, likewise indicates the price at which the lumber 

 was sold, and the books of the concern are posted from this 

 record. 



In the case of the local yard, the duplicate of the shipping 

 ticket is not needed particularly, but where the shipment was 

 made from a distant mill, the duplicate is kept on file at the mill 

 for the information of the superintendent. 



The bill of lading is issued in triplicate, as usual, and the car 

 number and other information are entered in a book used for 

 that purpose exclusively. The entries are numbered, the numbers 

 corresponding with numbers printed on the bill of lading itself. 



This is the entire s.vstem. Xow let us consider how it works 

 and what conditions it is calculated to take care of. In the first 

 place, the use of consecutive numbers furnishes a "flag" or 

 warning by which any lost or omitted record can be indicated. 

 For instance, if the person in charge of the salesbook notices 

 that one number is missing, the local yard or the outside mill, 

 as the case may be, is called on to supply the missing number. 



On the other hand, the salesbook is checked against the bill 

 of lading book, and it is determined that an entry for the sales- 

 book, which, remember, is the basis for the ledger charges, has 

 been made to correspond with every car shipment indicated by 

 the bill of lading book. The use of the consecutive numbers on 

 the latter insures the proper entry of every car, for in the event 

 of failure to turn in the bill of lading used for this purpose, its 

 absence is immediately noted. The use of consecutive numbers 

 and duplicates means that a lost record will be noted, and that 

 it can be rewritten without inconvenience. 



Another feature of the bill of lading book which is worth 

 noting is that provision is made for handling shipments which 

 are not made in the routine way. For instance, if a car of lum- 

 ber is purchased at one point, shipped to another for drying and 

 then reshipped direct to the consignee, there is a possibility of 

 the record being incomplete and inaccurate by reason of the tie-up 

 at the kiln, or the suspension for any reason whatever at any 

 other point. To take care of this, the bill of lading book, con- 

 taining the ear number and other information, carries a special 

 indication that the movement is incomplete, and that a further 



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record must hv itklIo of its final disipiisiticni. Tliis provcnts the 

 item from being lost track of, and insures attention being called 

 to the status of the situation. 



The head of the concern which has adopted the s.vstem referred 

 to said that the checking arrangement was not made simply be- 

 cause of a craze for "system," or to introduce red tape into the 

 office. He explained that actual experience had demonstrated 

 the need of some such protection, and that it was furnished for 

 that reason only. 



"We know of two cars which got awav from us prior to the 

 time we put this s.vstem into use," he said. "Oue we located 

 because the customer wrote to make a complaint about some fea- 

 ture of the shipment. That called attention to the omission of 

 the record and enabled us to get track of it. In another case J 



the customer was simply honest enough to call our attention to ■ 



the fact that no invoice had been sent, enabling us to make an I 



investigation and determine the car which had escaped the proper 1 



record. 



"Take the bill of lading question, for example. No car is , 

 shipped without a bill of lading being made out, of course; but 

 when unnumbered Jjads are used, it frequently happens, or at ■ 



least can easily happen, that in case of a 'jam' in the office, % 



someone will hurriedlv nialse out the bill without referring it to 

 the proper partv for entry. The result is that the car is sent on 

 with no record behind it. This cannot happen under our system. 

 Then again, tally-sheets may become lost and no salesbook record 

 be made. In that event the entry in the bill of lading book 

 gives us the clue and enables us to ascertain the information 

 we need. 



' ' It might be supposed that the introduction of a system of 

 this kind has been accompanied by an increase of work. On the 

 other hand we have found that in most cases it has cut down 

 the amount of labor required. Heretofore frequent copying, by 

 hand, was necessary to have the proper records made. Now, 

 with a loose-leaf system installed, the facts can be written on 

 the t.ypewriter, copies made at the same operation, and time 

 and labor saved. It must be remembered that the smaller the 

 number of clerical operations, the fewer the chances for mistakes 

 of that kind to be made." 



Another feature in connection with the checking operation is 

 keeping tab on wagon business. In the big wholesale yard or 

 sawmill, where carload business is the principal item, wagon hauls 

 are likely to be overlooked if close attention is not given them. 

 Even in retail yards, where wagon business is the only kind of 

 trade handled, it is well-known that unless a systematic method 

 of checking this business is provided for, wagons will get out 

 without being recorded and the lumbermen will be able to make 

 no charge. 



For this reason it is desirable that the same sort of record, 

 in general, be used for wagon-load hauls as for carload move- 

 ments. That is to say, a ticket, in triplicate, with consecutive 

 numbers appearing, should be used. The yard office man of 

 course keeps one of the tickets; one is sent to the customer with 

 the wagon, and the other goes to the office. Here again the sim- 

 plicity of the scheme and the fact that the tickets are consecu- 

 tively numbered operates to call attention to an omission. 



It is possible, of course, for a careless driver to leave without 

 thinking to get the ticket, or for a careless clerk to wait until 

 all of the loads intended for a certain customer are sent out, be- 

 fore making up the tickets; but if the concern insists on every 

 wagon being ticketed, and if its customers become accustomed 

 to receiving a ticket for each load — an arrangement which is a 

 protection to them as well as to the seller — arrangement will soon 

 become a matter of routine to evervbody in the yard, and will 

 be taken care of accordingly. The s.vsteras referred to have been 

 designed for the purpose of preventing innocent mistakes, but would 

 also serve as a check on dishonest employes. G. D. C, Jr. 



