rr.jj- ■ :^^-'-:-^>r.i-'f : 



:%.? ■->-■•'• ■.- - ■ 



August 7, 1!H3. 



The Rorists' Review 



le 



EXPRESS RATES iir 

 ORDERED CUT 



Mt 



Interstate Commerce Commission takes another long 

 step toward easing shippers* burdens; effect on florists 



I XPRESS company officials 

 are glum this week, for the 

 long- delayed reduction and 

 readjustment of rates is 

 one step nearer — the Inter- 

 state Commerce Commission 

 has set October 15 as the date for put- 

 ting into effect the new schedule about 

 as proposed July 14, 1912, and reported 

 in The Review' for July 18 last year. 

 The order was entered at Washington 

 August 4. It promises an average re- 

 duction of rates of about sixteen per 

 cent. 



The nature of the changes forced on 

 the companies is fairly well under- 

 stood, di8«.ussion having continued f o^ 

 over a year, since the proposition was 

 first made. The companies were given 

 opportunity to present their case in de- 

 tail, but did not succeed in getting any 

 material modification of the plan. 



Divide Ck>aiitry Into Blocks. 



The most radical departure from ex- 

 isting methods lies in that adopted for 

 applying the new rates. In the United 

 States there are 35,000 express stations. 

 To name rates from each of these to 

 every other one requires the statement 

 of more than 600,000,000 different rates. 

 The rates themselves are so involved it 

 requires expert authority to determine 

 the lawful rate. 



Commissioner Lane evolved a method 

 whereby the rates from any point to all 

 other points m&y be printi-d on a single 

 sheet or card about the size of a single 

 page of The Review. 



The first step was the division of the 

 I'nited States into blocks, each approx- 

 imately fifty miles square, something 

 after the fashion of the zone system as 

 applied to the parcel post. Rates are 

 jtroposed between each of these blocks, 

 treating all cities and towns within 

 tM«h block as common points. Each of 

 these blocks is one degree of longitude 

 in length and one degree of latitude in 

 width. To every express station within 

 each of these blocks the rate is the 

 ,-ame from any other given block. 



The present system requires the state- 

 ment of 200 times as many rates as the 

 system proposed by the commission. As 

 each agent, under the new system, will 

 he obliged to know only the rates that 

 •'pply between his station and each of 

 the other blocks, he will have to consult 

 only 830 rates to find the proper charge 

 from his station to every other station 

 witliin the United States' 



Effect on Florists. 



The first question raised is, "What 

 will be the effect on florists?'' 



The reductions will be important to 

 florists who look to one of the big city 

 jiiarkfts for <'nt flower supplies, as their 



shipments average of comparatively 

 light weight. While there will be an al- 

 most uniform reduction in charges upon 

 parcels weighing fifty pounds or less, 

 the rates on packages weighing more 

 than fifty pounds will not be so mate- 

 rially reduced. In some instances the 

 commission's proposed rate basis shows 

 a slight increase of the charges on 

 heavy packages. This indicates the be- 



EFFECT ON RATES. 



Hatei on 



Between Chi- Packages -weigliing; 



caco and— 80 lbs. 50 lbs. 100 lbs. 



BinninKham, Ala.: 



Resent l.SD 1.76 



After Oct. 16... .64 1.80 



Cincinnati : 



Present 70 1.00 



After Oct. 16... .41 .78 



CleTeland : 



Present 70 1.00 



After Oct. 16... .44 .80 



Des Moines, la.: 



Present 76 1.00 



After Oct. 16... .68 1.00 



Detroit: 



Present 00 1.00 



After Oct. 16... .41 .78 



Dubuque, la,: 



Present 60 1.00 



After Oct. 16... .86 .60 



Duluth: 



Present l.OO 1.18 



After Oct. 16... .64 1.80 



Grand Bapids: 



Present 60 1.00 



After Oct. 16... .86 ,60 



Indianapolis : 



Present 60 1,00 



After Oct. 16... .86 .60 



LouisTille, Ky.: 



Present 70 1,00 



After Oct. 16. .. .41 .78 



Memphis : 



Present l.W 1.88 



After Oct. 15... .58 1.15 



Milwaukee : 



Present 40 60 



After Oct. 16... .94 .55 



Minneapolis: 



Present 85 1.00 



After Oct. 16... .66 1.10 



New Orleans: 



?re»«nt 1.86 1.88 



„ After Oct. 16... .78 1.65 



Oklahoma City: 



Pre»ent 1.85 8.00 



After Oct. 15... .85 1.88 



Pittsburgh: 



?re«ent 76 1.00 



After Oct. 16. . . .60 .96 



St. Louis : 



Present 70 1,00 



After Oct. 16.. . .44 .86 



Topeka. Kan.: 



?S!*"°t • ; • 1.10 1.88 



After Oct. 16... .61 1.82 



8.50 

 8.40 



1.50 

 1.85 



1.50 

 1.40 



1.75 

 1.80 



1.85 

 1.86 



1.86 

 1.00 



8.85 

 8.40 



1.85 

 1.00 



1.85 

 1.00 



1.50 

 1.86 



2.75 

 8.10 



.90 

 .76 



2.00 

 2.00 



8.76 

 3.10 



4.00 

 8.45 



1.76 

 1.70 



1.50 

 1.40 



2.75 

 2.85 



lief of the commission that the rates of 

 the express companies per 100 pounds 

 are not, on the whole, seriously excess- 

 ive. This is particularly manifest from 

 an analysis of the rates for distances of 

 200 miles or less, which are scarcely dis- 

 turbed on the heavy weight traffic. 



The cut flower shipments out of Chi- 

 cago at this season are under rather 

 than oyer fifty pounds, but of course in 

 the winter the orders average larger 

 and the weight runs up; still it usuallv 

 takes a two-attached shipment to get 

 up to 100 pounds. Manv of the buvers 



are getting daily shipments that run 

 from twenty to fifty pounds per box. 

 On the lighter shipments they will make 

 material savings, especially where the 

 distance exceeds 200 miles. 



Effect on Plant Shipments, 



The shippers of live plants who pack 

 properly already enjoy rates from 

 twenty to thirty per cent below the 

 rates charged on cut flowers, florists' 

 supplies and other articles that take the 

 merchandise rate. The new order con- 

 tinues these "general special"' rates 

 practically unchanged. 



When the express companies first 

 granted a special rate on plant ship- 

 ments it was a flat reduction of twenty 

 per cent from the merchandise rate. 

 Now plants packed in certain ways are 

 listed as "general specials" in the ex- 

 press classification — and the rates on all 

 general specials are prescribed in Scale 

 N, shown on page 16 by photographic 

 reproduction from page 29 of Official 

 Classification No. 21. A study of the 

 table will show that in some instances 

 the special rate is twenty per cent, 

 twenty-five per cent, thirty per cent, 

 thirty-five per cent, or even more, off 

 the merchandise rate. 



For instance: Where the merchandise 

 rate is $5.50 per 100 pounds the general 

 special rate is $3.50, a reductiom of 

 thirty-six and one-third per cent. 



Take the case of shipments from 

 Chicago to Topeka, Kan.: The present 

 merchandise rate is $2.75 and the spe- 

 cial plant rate is $2.10, a reduction of 

 65 cents. Under the new order the 

 merchandise rate, applicable to cut flow- 

 ers, will be $2.25 per 100 pounds and 

 the special plant rate, as shown in Scale 

 N, will be $1.75, a reduction of 50 cents, 

 not 65 cents as before. Where the mer- 

 chandise rate is reduced 50 cents it has 

 effected a reduction of only 35 cents in 

 the plant rate. 



The illustration of present and pro- 

 posed rates are those between Chicago 

 and cities that look to Chicago for a 

 large part of their needs in cut flowers, 

 etc., but corresponding changes have 

 been ordered between all other points — 

 mostly reductions but some few ad- 

 vances, as between Chicago and Duluth, 

 where the rate appears to have been out 

 of line on the shippers' side. 



Still More Than Parcel Post. 



The new parcel post rates on ship- 

 ments up to twenty pounds for a dis- 

 tance of 150 miles, which are to go into 

 effect August 15, are from thirty to fiftv 

 per cent lower than the new express 

 rates. For example, the parcel post 

 rate on a twenty-pound package from 

 ('hieago to Indianapolis will be 24 cents, 

 while the express rate will be 36 cents. 



The new rates are to I e experimental 



