MILK SURVEY OF THE CITY OF ROCHESTER 135 



as this. It is therefore assumed that under a centralized system for Roch- 

 eter the number of employees in an accounting system of the same kind 

 would work at the rate of 500 quarts per man hour. Applying the Roch- 

 ester wage scale for bookkeepers of .390 per hour would make the cost 

 per quart for the entire milk supply of Rochester for bookkeeping .000780 

 per quart, and the yearly cost $23,36675. 



This would result in a saving of .001263 per quart/and $18,896.60 per 

 year. In considering these savings it must be remembered that under the 

 centralized system the costs suggested would provide an adequate book- 

 keeping system for the entire milk supply of Rochester of 82,075 quarts, 

 while the present costs for the city are applied to only 56,687 quarts. The 

 extension of the bookkeeping system to the entire supply, therefore, in- 

 cludes an expense which is not provided for by the present system. On 

 the other hand, the economies under the centralized system are so great 

 that they would show the savings indicated. The actual number of book- 

 keepers necessary under the centralized system would be 24, working 

 seven hours daily. 



COLLECTORS 



One of the most important items of expense in milk distribution 

 consists in the labor of collecting money from milk consumers. The ma- 

 jority of milk consumers pay cash for milk at least once a week. This 

 cash is collected in most instances by the milk drivers. Among the larger 

 companies, however, a few special collectors are employed for this pur- 

 pose. In securing information from the Rochester companies regarding 

 the cost of distribution, the number of hours spent by the milk drivers 

 and by these special collectors and the cost were estimated independently 

 of the cost of driving retail and wholesale routes. For the 82,075 quarts 

 of milk received daily, the number of men engaged in collecting money 

 from the reports obtained was 186. It seems probable, however, that all 

 of the men engaged in driving both retail and wholesale routes at times 

 take part in the work of milk collection. 



The men reported as doing this work were engaged for a period of 

 415.2 man hours daily which is at the rate of 128 quarts per man hour at 

 a cost per quart of .002221 per quart. In assuming the yearly cost Sun- 

 days are omitted as it is assumed that the collectors do not make a business 

 of collection on Sundays. On this basis the yearly cost is $57,069.29. 

 Under a centralized system the reduction in the cost of milk collections 

 would depend chiefly on the reduction in the number of milk wagons and 

 milk drivers. In the table on driving retail and wholesale routes it is 

 estimated that the milk supply of Rochester could be delivered with 139 

 wagons as against the 278 wagons now used. A comparison of the cost 

 of milk collection and of the work performed in this department of the 



