Solving the Railroad Problem 



Connecticut does it by making the 

 return trip profitable for motor trucks 



CITY CARDS 

 WITH SHIPPERS 

 NAMES 



ma- 





E5T autumn, when the railroad con- 

 gestion became acute, the State of 

 Connecticut, which is the heart of 

 the small arms and ammunition industry 

 of the United States, found itself in a 

 desperate situation. 

 Ammunition partly 

 finished in one plant 

 must be hauled to 

 other plants for differ- 

 ent machining opera- 

 tions before it is com- 

 pleted. As there were 

 no freight cars at all, or 

 too few, the war ma- 

 terial could not be 

 moved by the rail- 

 roads. Many manu- 

 facturers had to use 

 motor trucks for that 

 purpose, and, in some 

 cases, even to get raw 

 terials for their plants and 

 to deliver finished goods to 

 New York for shipment 

 abroad. 



The first problem was to 

 keep the roads open. This 

 was accomplished by taking 

 the work of removing the 

 snow out of the hands of 

 the townships and turning it 

 over to the State. The second 

 problem was to make the haul- 

 age as economical as possible 

 by providing return loads for 

 the trucks. 



To make sure of return loads, 

 the State, under the direction 

 of W. S, Conning, chairman of 

 the Motor Truck Transporta- 

 tion Committee of the State 

 Council of Defense, formed 

 Return Loads Bureaus in four- 

 teen of the important cities of 

 the State. Each bureau keeps 

 a file of all the trucks 

 available for overland 

 haulage work. The bureau 

 supplies information re- 

 garding trucking compa- 



ROUTE NUMBERS (D,@— --@ 

 I WITH CARDS BEHIND EACH 

 ■ NUMBERED TAB GIVINO 

 NAMES OF AVAILABLE 

 TRUCK OWNERS 



A file like this is kept in every 

 one of the Return Loads bureaus 

 in fourteen cities of Connecticut 



\'UDKlN8SON ROUTE @) 





One of the City cards 

 bearing the name of a 

 trucking concern listed in 

 the files of the bureau 



nies and their routes to shippers and keeps 

 a record of all applications. This enables 

 the bureau to post the truckmen on the 

 prospects of obtaining a return load to 

 their home city after they have delivered 

 their outgoing load. 



The telephones of 

 the bureaus are listed 

 under the heading "Re- 

 turn Loads" to facili- 

 tate telephoning. The 

 routes covered are 

 numbered, and the 

 trucks running on each 

 route are given cor- 

 responding index num- 

 bers in the file. There 

 are already more than 

 seven hundred motor 

 trucks listed under this 

 plan and each bureau 

 a complete file of all 

 available vehicles and a map 

 of the routes covered. 



Since it costs almost as 

 much to run a truck empty 

 as it does loaded, it will 

 easily be seen how advan- 

 tageous it is to both shipper 

 and truckman to be sure of 

 a return load. 





has 



Map of the State of Connecticut showing 

 the various routes for overlanc; truckiiig 

 established so far in important cities 



004 



