public, and there may or may not small rate changes by the trucking 

 have been some change in its milk firm would not have changed the 

 haulage rates by March 20, 1957, the general nature of the rate relation- 

 date of the rail rates used here. Any ship shown in Figure 6. 



60 



S 50 



til 40 



10 



TANK TRUCK 



^RAIL TANK CAR 



DISTANCES (MILES) 



Figure 6. Typical rates per ewt. of milk for hauls up to 400 miles by tank 

 truck and by rail in New England, 1956-57. 



XI. Can Transportation Coets and Rates Be Reduced? 



1. Costs and Profits on Can 

 Assembly Routes 



The adoption of tank truck assem- 

 bly can be justified if the total trans- 

 portation and handling costs on and 

 off the farms can be reduced. 



The variation between routes, be- 

 tween trucks, and between drivers re- 

 sults in variations in costs of oper- 

 ation. Rates will vary between dis- 

 tricts or regions as competition for 

 truck services varies. Low cost truck 

 operators will net greater returns 

 than higher cost operations if the 

 same rate is charged by both. There 

 may be instances when higher rates 



enable le?s efficient operators to 

 equal the net returns of low cost op- 

 erators. 



From 14 can assembly routes, data 

 were obtained on costs and revenue 

 for one year. From this information, 

 Table 33 has been constructed. The 

 data are shown in more detail in 

 Appendix I, Tables 42 and 43. 



Table 33 shows an average daily 

 load of 83.7 cwt.. trucked from farm 

 to plant at a cost of 26 cents per 

 cwt. for a 122-mile average length of 

 route, measured from the plant to 

 the successive farms and back to the 

 plant. On half the routes, the cost was 



34 



