350 History of Inland Transport 



assuming infinitesimal proportions per ton per mile when 

 spread over a haul of a thousand miles. 



There is thus no real basis for the comparison formerly 

 so often made between average cost of transport per ton per 

 mile in the United States and the United Kingdom respectively. 

 The only fair method of comparison is to discard averages 

 altogether, and contrast charges for actual consignments of 

 equal weight carried equal distances in the two countries ; 

 and comparisons made on this basis will be found to favour 

 the British lines rather than the American. 



In some instances group rates are in operation for a series of 

 producing centres or for a series of ports, the rates being com- 

 mon to all the places or ports included in the group. This 

 arrangement is of advantage to the general body of the 

 traders concerned, since it puts them all on a footing of 

 equality, without reference to differences in distance ; and it 

 is, also, of benefit to the railway companies since it simplifies 

 the clerical work and helps further to avoid unremunerative 

 competition. 



Another important feature in connection with railway rates 

 is the distinction between " class " rates, which represent the 

 authorised maxima given in the railway companies' scales 

 for the various classes already mentioned, and " special " or 

 " exceptional " rates, in which the companies concerned have 

 made reductions below their maximum powers, whether for 

 the encouragement of traffic or because of such reductions 

 being warranted by the volume or other conditions of the traffic 

 already carried. In " The Fixing of Rates and Fares," by 

 H. Marriott (1910), it is stated that " probably about seventy 

 per cent of the traffic between stations in the North of England 

 is conveyed at ' exceptional rates,' much below the statutory 

 authority." 



In my book on " Railways and their Rates " I have already 

 given, as follows, the general principles on which these special 

 or exceptional rates are fixed : 



(a) Volume and regularity of traffic between the points 

 concerned. 



(b) Weight per truck or by train which can be maintained 

 by such regular traffic. 



(c) General earning power of the traffic. 



(d) Liability or non-liability to damage. 



