MOTOR TRANSPORTATION FOR RURAL DISTRICTS 23 
City delivers free of charge to any point below 120th Street individual 
consignments returning a gross revenue of $1.00 or more. Packages 
returning a lesser revenue are delivered free to the downtown terminal 
of the company only ,an extra charge being assessed for complete 
delivery to the consignee. 
Some rural operators have established city depots for the collection 
and delivery of goods. Commodities picked up at various points in the 
country are brought to these depots in the city. The consignee then 
calls.for the goods, or a light truck for city use effects a complete 
delivery. In order, however, to utilize profitably the services of an 
auxiliary truck for city delivery, it is necessary for the operator to 
have a sufficient volume of business to justify the maintenance of such 
a vehicle. The establishment of a central terminal would solve the 
city delivery problems of the small operator. The central terminal 
plan is discussed in detail in a subsequent portion of this bulletin. 
Most operators have found it more satisfactory to make complete 
delivery to the consignee, assessing a minimum charge on small ship- 
ments sufficient to cover complete service. Such an arrangement is 
almost always more satisfactory to the patrons. Offering complete 
delivery also emphasizes one of the desirable features of motor truck 
service, namely, complete transportation service to the door of the 
consignee with a minimum of handling in transit. 
COLLECTION OF MONEY. 
Nothing has yet been said concerning the collection of moneys. 
With the small operator, particularly the farmer-operator, the collec- 
tion of money is usually a very informal matter. Cash is collected 
either from the shipper or from the consignee, according to previous 
understanding. Sometimes even the formality of a receipt is dis- 
pensed with. Where regular patrons furnish a dependable load, 
arrangements are often made for rendering weekly or monthly bills to 
these shippers. This necessitates more complete and careful book- 
keeping on the part of the operator, but is more desirable from point 
of view of the regular patron, who may not always have the exact 
change to hand to the truck driver when he calls for or delivers the 
goods. In any event, financial transactions should be marked by the 
passing of documents, whether these be receipts, receipted bills of 
lading, or other evidence that money has changed hands. 
KEEPING COST RECORDS. 
Having established a motor route, it is imperative that adequate 
records be kept. In an investigation covering over 60 routes, the 
Bureau of Markets found numerous instances where operators who 
thought they were making a profit as a matter of fact were gradually 
using up the original investment for current expenses. It is obvious 
that a man who has no clear idea of his costs of operation cannot 
