4” BULLETIN NO. 770, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
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(4) The city transfer companies, whose business permits them to 
undertake rural hauling. Most routes so developed are built on a 
sound basis. The companies, in most instances, develop their routes 
in districts familiar to them, where the opportunities for business are 
fairly well-known in advance. 
(5) The large corporation operating a fleet of trucks and com- 
manding considerable capital. There has been an increasing number 
of this class of operators, and the field has seemed attractive to many 
men of large capital. Profits during the war period have been such 
as to make it worth while for men of considerable means to devote 
serious attention to the building up of motor routes as a regular 
business. 
There are many and varied modifications of the above classifications 
of operators. Motor hauling during the emergency has been very 
miscellaneous in character, and conditions do not permit general state- 
ments to be made covering the field as a whole. With such an array 
in the field of motor hauling, it would naturally be expected that there 
would be a very wide range of operating conditions. Investigations 
have shown that this is actually the case. Certain weaknesses in the 
rural motor truck industry have been noticed in connection with these 
studies, and it is the purpose of this publication to call to the attention 
of operators and prospective operators those features of the industry 
which apparently are not understood or appreciated. It is hoped that 
some of the suggestions contained in this publication may assist in 
avoiding loss and in helping in the development of the rural motor 
route on a sound business basis. That rural motor routes in general 
are not being so developed is evidenced by the unbusinesslike methods 
adopted by many new operators, including both farmer-operators and 
the strictly commercial organizations. Present efforts to stimulate 
the motor trucking industry on the part of those who would profit 
more by its expansion evidently are not a part of a systematic or well- 
conceived plan. It is easy to call to mind conditions under which 
motor truck operation in -certain rural districts as a regular business 
proposition has not proven profitable. These limiting conditions have 
not received the attention that their importance would warrant. The 
suggestions on the following pages are designed not so much to give 
specific instructions on the formation of new rural routes as to call 
to mind those business arrangements which must in all cases be con- 
sidered carefully if a venture is to prove profitable. It is hoped that 
this publication will assist in developing the proper sort of thinking 
among prospective operators and call up in definite order those basic 
considerations which must be given attention. The suggestions and 
conclusions included herein have resulted from a careful study of a 
large number of typical motor express routes in various sections of 
