EXPERIENCE WITH MOTOR TRUCKS. 6 



The average estimated life of these trucks is 6J years, and on this 

 basis depreciation is usually the largest single item of expense in con- 

 nection with their operation. 



The average cost of operation, including depreciation, interest on 

 investment, repairs, registration and license fees, fuel, oil, and tires, 

 is 15.2 cents per mile for the one-half and three-fourths ton trucks, 

 15.2 cents for the 1-ton, 21.3 cents for the 1| and 1^-ton, and 25.8 

 cents for the 2-ton. 



The average cost of hauling crops, including the value of the 

 driver's time at 50 cents per hour, is 24.0 cents per ton-mile with the 

 one-half and three-fourths ton trucks, 24.1 cents with the 1-ton, 23.3 

 cents with the l|-ton and 1-J-ton, and 21.5 cents with the 2-ton trucks. 



Nearly 85 per cent of these trucks had not been out of commission 

 when needed for a single day during the year covered by the reports, 

 and 80 per cent of the owners stated that they had not lost any 

 appreciable time on account of motor or tire trouble, breakage, or 

 other mechanical difficulties when using their trucks. About one 

 truck in 15 was out of commission more than five days, however, and 

 one owner in 40 reported a loss of more than 5 per cent of the time 

 when using his truck. 



Half of these men own tractors as well as motor trucks. Most of 

 the tractors are owned on the larger farms, however. Only 33 per cent 

 of the men whose farms contain 160 crop acres or less own tractors, 

 while 65 per cent of those with over 320 crop acres own them. The 

 number of work stock kept on the farms where both trucks and trac- 

 tors are owned is only slightly less than the number kept on the 

 farms of corresponding size where only trucks are owned. 



Seventy-eight per cent of these farmers state that their trucks re- 

 duce the expense for hired help. On those farms where there is a 

 reduction the operators estimate that it amounts to $209 per year 

 on the average. 



METHOD OF STUDY. 



In February and March of 1920 a questionnaire was sent to each 

 of approximately 15,000 farmer truck-owners in Illinois, Indiana, 

 Iowa, eastern Kansas, southern Minnesota, Missouri, eastern Ne- 

 braska, southeastern South Dakota, and southern Wisconsin. The 

 questionnaire called for the type and size of farm, the use the farmer 

 makes of his motor truck, the cost of operating it, his idea of its 

 profitableness, the advantages and disadvantages of a truck for farm 

 use, and other related information. In all about 15 per cent of the 

 farmers replied to the questionnaire. However, only reports from 

 grain and live-stock farmers, who raise corn as one of the principal 

 crops, were included in the study. 



All reports from men owning second-hand trucks or trucks made 

 by the addition of truck units or attachments to passenger cars, those 



