EXPERIENCE WITH MOTOR TRUCKS. 7 



head of work stock. At present the average cost of keeping a horse 

 a year in the corn belt is around $200. The reduction in expense for 

 this item, then, is in the neighborhood of $240 per farm. For all 

 farms the average amount of hired help saved by the trucks is $163. 

 On most farms these are the only two items of direct reduction in 

 expense which can be credited to the truck, and on the average they 

 amount to $60 or $70 less than the total cost of operating a truck. 



To offset this added cost, custom hauling done with the trucks 

 amounts to $50 per year for all farms, leaving only something like 

 $10 or $20 annual net expense, which must be more than balanced by 

 the saving of time of the owner and members of the family, the ability 

 to get crops and live stock to market in better condition or at better 

 times, and other benefits which are not directly measurable in dollars 

 and cents, if the average truck is to be a profitable investment. 



So far as could be determined, the size of the truck, the length of 

 time it had been in use, and the size of the farm have little to> do 

 with the owner's idea of its profitableness. Some of the men who do 

 not consider their trucks profitable have found them unreliable, so 

 that the repair bills have been excessive or the machines have been 

 out of commission when needed. Of all the 831 trucks only 19 had 

 been out of commission when needed more than 10 days during the 

 year covered by the reports, and the owners of 8 of these 19 trucks 

 consider that they are unprofitable. 



Eight-ninths of these men whose trucks are not proving profitable 

 have not found it possible to dispose of any of their horses. Part of 

 them have also found that they do not have enough work for the 

 truck to justify the investment in such an expensive piece of equip- 

 ment. About one-quarter of them had driven their trucks less than 

 1,000 miles and used them on less than 30 days during the year. 



THE BEST SIZE. 



The fact that these men considered their motor trucks profitable 

 investments does not mean, however, that they are all entirely satis- 

 fied with the particular machines which they own. It is very impor- 

 tant that the truck should be of the proper size for the hauling which 

 it is to do. Ordinarily both the first cost and the cost of operation 

 of a small truck will be less than of a large one, but often the 

 small truck will not carry as large loads as is desired, and more trips 

 to haul a given amount of material will therefore be necessary than 

 with a larger truck. A truck which is too large, however, would 

 have to be operated with only a partial load a great part of the time, 

 and the extra cost may more than offset the advantage of being able 

 to carry larger loads on exceptional occasions. Each farmer was 



