20 MASS. EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETIN 366 



Trucking operations were organized in four ways: 



1. The largest dealers hired some of their own producers as truckers. These 

 truckmen-producers had their business organized to enable them to make one 

 trip to the dealer's plant each morning, hauling milk from a definite route. The 

 common capacity of trucks was two tons and truckers owned their trucks. 



2. Many dealers whose receipts could be handled with one truck on one 

 route found that it was advantageous to perform their own trucking operations. 

 Several of them operated their truck routes personally, and were thus enabled 

 to make daily producer-dealer contacts which were not possible for larger dealers. 



3. Forty producers, living close to dealers' plants, performed their own truck- 

 ing operations; thus they avoided the cash hauling charge. Such cases were 

 quite numerous among small dealers with plants located in towns neighboring 

 Worcester. Several producer-dealers with only one or two patrons had them 

 truck their own milk. 



4. There were a few instances where the producers of a single dealer were 

 so scattered that their milk was shipped via custom truckers. 



The transportation of milk was, therefore, largely in charge of dealers, who 

 set the rates that were deducted from gross payments to producers. Charges 

 for hauling milk from farms in the Massachusetts area of the milkshed to dealers' 

 plants varied from 1L6 to 46.5 cents per hundredweight of milk, or the equivalent 

 of one-fourth to one cent per quart, the extremes representing the charges made 

 by dealers buying on a per quart basis. Between these extremes, 15, 16, 20, 23, 

 25, 28, 30, and 35 cents per hundredweight of milk were the charges made, although 

 the majority paid 30 cents as seen in Figure 9. In some areas one rate predom- 

 inated while in other areas a standard rate seemed entirely lacking. The average 

 rate per hundredweight paid by flat-plan producers was the lowest, 22 cents, 

 while the average for the rest was 28 or 29 cents. 



In order to judge hauling rates more fairly — i. e. according to mileage hauled — 

 the map showing the location of Massachusetts producers was divided into one- 

 mile zones as shown in Figure 6. It was assumed that the zone in which a farm 

 is located represents the distance of that farm from Worcester. This is not 

 exact because of variations in roads and because some producers do not live on 

 main routes. In other words, the assumed distance from Worcester is almost 

 invariably somewhat less than the actual. 



Charges per hundredweight were multiplied by 20 to find the per ton charge, 

 and the result divided by the distance from Worcester assumed as in Figure 6. 

 This amount was the charge per ton-mile and these charges which were paid by 

 Massachusetts producers shipping to Worcester are shown in Figure 10. 



When the hauling charges are put in terms of the ton-mile, there is a very 

 wide variation in rates, ranging from 14 cents to $1.33, with the majority from 

 30 to 68 cents, although 20 of the 598 producers paid $1.00 per ton-mile (most 

 of these 20 were use-plan producers). 



When the producers are divided according to the plans by which they were 

 paid, it is evident that the flat-plan producers were the cause of the wide varia- 

 tion. They paid the highest rate generally if rates per ton-mile are considered, 

 and in turn received a higher price for their milk. It is interesting that this group 

 of producers contained 13 of the 40 producers''' who hauled their own milk, 

 showing that undoubtedly some of the flat-plan producers realized that they were 

 charged a high hauling rate and so trucked their own milk — whether more 

 cheaply or not, it is difficult to say. 



'■'This number include.'' the 23 producer-dealers and producer -distributors, wlio, of course, 

 hauled their own milk. 



