does not attempt to explain the 

 "why" of particular trends. Just 

 knowing whether transportation 

 rates for fishery products are on 

 the average higher or lower than in 

 the past, and whether one group of 

 carriers increased rates more than 

 other groups, will help legislators, 

 regulatory agencies, and the fishing 

 industry, when deciding upon a 

 particular course of action with re- 

 spect to fishery transportation rates. 



Construction of the indexes 



The indexes were constructed 

 from published rates on file with 

 the Interstate Commerce Commis- 

 sion and from rates furnished by 

 the fishery and transportation in- 

 industries. Representative origin 

 points were selected in the prin- 

 cipal producing areas. Separate 

 indexes were constructed for each 

 of the three principal modes of 

 transporting fisher}'^ products: rail 

 freight, railway express, and motor 

 carriers. The year 1947, considered 

 the first normal postwar yenr, was 

 selected as the base for the indexes. 

 When a rate change became effec- 

 tive before the 15th of the month, 

 the new rate was computed as 

 though in effect for the whole 

 month. 



For the three indexes, there are 

 variations in the representative 

 routes selected, but for each index 

 the same routes are used for the 

 whole period, so that the index 

 measures changes in rates without 

 reflecting other variations such as 

 length of haul and regional distri- 

 bution changes. It is usual to 

 weight the routes selected in rela- 

 tion to the revenue and amount of 



traffic carried over each. It was 

 impracticable to develop a refined 

 system of weights for any of these 

 indexes, because of the lack of 

 traffic data; therefore, choice of 

 routes and number of routes con- 

 stituted the weighting used. The 

 very simplicity of this method of 

 weighting is an advantage. Tables 

 1,2, and 3 list the routes used. 



The nature of the traffic was 

 considered in the construction of 

 the indexes. The rail-freight and 

 motor-carrier indexes are subdivided 

 according to type of fishery product. 

 The railway-express index covers 

 fresh- and frozen-fish traffic only, 

 because that agency does not trans- 

 port other fishery products in sig- 

 nificant quantities; for that index, 

 a regional breakdo\vn is shown. 



Rail-freight rates 



The railroads lead in transporting 

 canned fish, fish oil, and fish meal. 

 They haul significant quantities of 

 fresh and frozen fish on the longer 

 routes, but this traffic on the 

 shorter hauls has been largely taken 

 over by motor carriers. Increases 

 in the postwar years accelerated the 

 upward movement of rail-freight 

 rates; in April 1952, the tenth gen- 

 eral increase since the end of World 

 War II was authorized by the 

 Interstate Commerce Commission. 



The rail-freight index (table 4) 

 was developed from 36 representa- 

 tive routes (table 1) for the follow- 

 ing categories: canned fish; fish, 

 fresh or frozen; fish meal; and fish 

 oil. An index for each category 

 was computed separately, and the 

 indexes were averaged to give an 

 index for all fishery products and 

 byproducts. 



