ber of producers may have lost some 

 and replaced them. 



Premiums by dealers to producers 

 who invested in farm tanks were 

 offered in the form of reduced trans- 

 portation rates, quality premiums for 

 the milk, or advantages of selling on 

 local markets at a higher price than 

 on the Boston market. The size of 

 premiums varied from 5 to 10 cents 



per cwt. and were offered by dealers 

 to encourage the change-over so that 

 plant economies could be introduced. 

 Of 46 tank trucks in operation, 14 

 were owned by the dealers, and their 

 drivers were employees. This may be 

 characteristic of the transition stage 

 until loads and routes are developed 

 to guarantee a pay load as incentive 

 for truckers to enter the business on 

 their own. 



IX. Characteristics of Truckers Assembling Milk 



1. Can Truckers 



Eightv-five percent of for-hire 

 trucks hauling milk in cans were 

 owned by the drivers. Up to 95 per 

 cent were owner-drivers in Vermont, 

 64 percent in Maine, and 79 percent 

 in New Hampshire. The remainder of 

 the trucks were owned by independent 

 truckers who hired drivers and who 

 contracted their services to dealers. 

 The truck drivers might be hired 

 farm help. In very few cases did 

 milk dealers own their transporta- 

 tion facilities for can assembly from 

 farms. 



The assembly of milk in cans is 

 generally by independent truckers 

 who charge a specified amount per 

 cwt. for carrying the milk from farm 

 to plant. The dealers are dependent 

 on the truckers' bringing in the milk 

 each day irrespective of weather con- 

 ditions. Despite this dependence, 

 however, there are few formal con- 

 tracts between can truckers and deal- 

 ers. 



Competition between small truckers 

 with unspecialized trucks — almost 

 any sort is adaptable to the purpose 

 — insures the producer that rates are 

 held down to a minimum. The dealer, 

 as an agent of the producers, deducts 

 the agreed haulage rate from the 

 price of the milk and turns it over 

 to the trucker at regular intervals. 



In addition to the agreed haulage 

 rate, the dealer — by unwritten 



agreement 



sometimes guarantees 



the trucker a specified weekly gross 

 income and makes a suplementary 

 payment to him whenever the 

 trucker's gross income from the haul- 

 age rate falls short of the guaranteed 

 minimum. Guarantees of this general 

 type foster loyalty to the dealer and 

 also improve the competitive posi- 

 tion of truckers. Such help is import- 

 ant if competition is keen. Thirty- 

 six percent of the can truckers men- 

 tioned that they were receiving some 

 kind of supplementary payment bv 

 the dealer. Thirty percent of the 

 dealers using cans disclosed that they 

 were making supplementary pay- 

 ments to independent truckers dur- 

 ing months of low volume. As for the 

 amount of such pavment, dealers and 

 truckers said nothing very revealing. 

 This suggests that any given dealer 

 probably did not have a uniform 

 scheme of supplementarv payments to 

 all of the truckers hauling milk to 

 his plant. 



Competition between can truckers 

 is acute in many areas because truck 

 ownership attracts resources. The in- 

 dependence which appears to be ob- 

 tained from owning and driving a 

 truck is one attraction. Another ma- 

 jor attraction is that trucks suitable 

 for can pick-up can also be used for 



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