Freight depot

“ The record of a single shipment of freight will illustrate methods, so far as limits will permit. A shipper sending freight for shipment sends with each dray-load a "dray ticket" in duplicate, showing the articles, weight, marks, and destination. If he has prepaid the freight, or advanced any charges which are to be paid at destination, it is also noted on the dray ticket. When the drayman reaches the outbound freight depot with his load, he is directed to a certain spot where all freight for the same destination is being collected for loading. ”

“ Business has taken the place of red tape, and General Hastings has turned the freight depot into offices for his various departments, for a system has been established which will reach all the victims, bury all the dead, discover all the living and clean up the town. ”

“ The loading and unloading tracks being limited much of the freight must pass through the depot necessitating double handling. Again, in the large cities a considerable percentage of land in the business section, stated to be from 25 to 30 in Chicago, is occupied by the railroads for tracks, road and station purposes. This land is worth from $10 to $50 a square foot, and if freight cars stand upon it intermittently for the receipt and discharge of l.c.l. freight, it is not earning continuously but, on the other hand, it is spending every minute in interest, taxes and maintenance. ”

“ The South Side Railroad depot is deserving of mention; it was originally a depot building two stories high, in which are sitting rooms, freight and ticket offices on the first floor for the accommodation of passengers, while on that above are the several offices of the corporation. Early in summer a covered depot to shelter the cars was erected and has just been completed. ”

“ Agents or other officers of railroads and other transportation companies whose duty it is to receive freights shall receive all articles of the nature and kind received by such company for transportation whenever tendered at a regular depot, station, wharf, or boat landing, and every loaded car tendered at a side track, or any warehouse connected with the railroad by a siding, and shall forward the same by the route selected by the person tendering the freight under existing laws ”

“ Under government control these staffs—except in very large cities—would be reduced to one, and all trains would run into one centrally located depot; freight and passengers be transferred without present cost, annoyance, and friction, and public convenience and comfort subserved, and added to in manner and degree almost inconceivable. ”

“ The amount of cargo shipped overseas, the efficiency of the loading, and the reduction of the time of stay in the ports attest to the efficient manner in which the committee has operated, and it is not too much to say that they are to be largely credited with the results that have been accomplished.
Expeditionary depots were operated at Boston, Mass., Philadelphia, Pa., and Baltimore, Md., primarily for the movement of freight. ”

“ Today, 95 percent of our imports and exports are moved by water—more than one billion metric tons of cargo—and our waterways currently handle 140 million passengers a year. Our domestic fleet is one of our most productive and cost-effective modes of transportation, moving 24 percent of the Nation's cargo at less than 2 percent of America's total freight cost. ”

“ The great quantity of coarse freights, that could only be profitably carried long distances by water, has revolutionized the type of vessel used for its transportation, making large steamers imperative, consolidating interests and cheapening methods. It is usual for the vessels in the grain trade and in the iron-ore trade to make their up trips empty; but in consequence of the admirable facilities provided at terminal points, they make very fast time, and carry freight very cheaply. The cost of freight per ton-mile fell from 23/100 cent in 1887 to 8/100 cent in 1898 ”

“ A corps of men is kept constantly busy, [Pg 163] checking off the merchandise as it is unloaded. Husky porters, with hand trucks, seize cases, barrels and miscellaneous packages of every sort and, presto! they are whirled into huge freight elevators which presently depart for upper and unknown floors. There are three of these, in practically continuous operation. In addition to them packages brought by hand—generally from local wholesalers and in response to emergency orders—are carried up into the offices of the receiving department upon an endless carrier. ”

“ We may economise in the working of our ships at sea, but if on their arrival in port they have to wait for berths to discharge and load, and if these operations are hampered by the lack of mechanical appliances or labour, the shipowners’ exertions are in vain. Nor does the difficulty end here: docks lose their value and attractiveness if the cost of moving cargoes from the ship’s side to the warehouse, or to the manufacturing districts, forms a heavy addition to the freight. ”

“ Appellants' warehouses, while nominally open to the general public as railroad freight stations, are not in fact public stations, but are confined to the warehousing of merchandise for their patrons. The services which they perform in connection with loading and unloading of freight, including the sending of arrival notices to their patrons after receipt of notice of arrival from the railroad, the collection of freight charges, and other incidental matters, are in fact performed for the owners of the merchandise rather than for the railroads. ”

“ The rolling stock and the locomotives are not nearly so heavy as those used in the United States; the railway beds and track equipment, on the whole, are probably the best in the world. Freight rates are considerably higher than on the corresponding classes of merchandise in the United States. The public highways are most excellent, but the means of street traffic in the cities are very poor.
The harbor facilities at the various ports are of the best. The docks and basins are usually arranged so that while the import goods are being landed the export stuffs are made ready to be loaded. ”

“ The owners of freight, therefore, have a responsibility for creating suitable facilities for loading and unloading freight promptly and for warehousing it in structures of their own, rather than in railway-cars, because the railway-car is the most expensive warehouse that can be used. A box- or a coal-car costs from $700 to $1000, and a refrigerator-car costs from $1200 to $1500. ”

“ Freight houses should probably not be more than two hundred feet wide, since otherwise freight taken directly from the cars to the vessels must be trucked too far. On the other hand, where package conveyors are used, this would matter little; and the wide 5warehouse would have greater floor space for the same cost of construction. If a large amount of freight is loaded direct from the cars to the vessels, it may be well to run a track between the freight house and the pier; but at most docks, unless space is very valuable, such freight will be handled at a pier independent of the warehouse. ”

“ Scarcely any species of merchandise brought from a considerable distance inland will bear such freight charges and leave a margin for profit to the producer and shipper. Would-be planters of coffee and sugar-cane dare not enter upon raising these staples for the market, unless situated very near the shipping point, or near some available river's course, the latter means being naturally much cheaper than any form of railway transportation. ”

“ The commodities in the United States which [Pg 373] contribute principally to the long haul are raw products. The universally low rates of these commodities greatly lower the general average. In Europe, on the other hand, manufactured goods predominate as long-haul freight, and based upon increased risk and increased cost of carriage, considerably swell the general average of freight charges. ”

“ Warehouses should be located on railroad spurs so that supplies may be delivered directly from cars into the warehouse and from the warehouse directly into the cars. Concentration of storage space is desirable on account of the shorter distance to move supplies when unloading and loading. To this end a depot consisting of several stories, one above another, affords the minimum trackage necessary in handling supplies and it is desirable that such a building be selected when practicable. ”

“ Much of the heavy freight of the country,—coal, iron, grain and lumber,—should be carried in this way, in order to reduce freight rates and so, indirectly, the cost to the people, and further to relieve the burden on the railways. ”

“ If the tracks are only on one side of the building it is designated a side freight house, but if there are tracks on both sides it is designated as an island freight house. Terminal freight houses differ from local freight houses in their greater size, in their more substantial construction of brick and steel, and in their arrangement for handling incoming freight, outgoing freight, different classes of freight, etc., in separate departments, and in having the storage space separate from the spaces devoted to the handling of transient freight. ”

“ In case the earnings on the 600 tons or less of railroad freight which might be sent in each vessel exceeded the guaranteed minimum, the balance of freight money was to be paid over to the railroad, while the moneys received on all freight between New York and San Francisco and between San Francisco and New York [231] in excess of 600 tons for each vessel were to be equally divided between the railroad and the steamship company. ”

“ Subsidiary depots should be established every hundred miles until the pole or an open polar sea is reached. These minor depots would be nothing but tents of stout duck, of the Northwest tepee pattern, raised on light but strong poles of cedar, and spiked to the ice with iron or copper spikes. They would contain provisions, blankets, stoves, and fuel, and, as long as the main party was out, would be connected with the head depot by regular dog service. ”

“ There was ample evidence to sustain the findings of the Commission that the unloading of live stock at the stockyards was a part of the transportation provided for in the tariffs of the line-haul carriers.
1. Throughout the United States, the duty of unloading carload freight rests ordinarily upon the consignee. See National Wholesale Lumber Dealers' Association v. Atlantic Coast Line R. Co., 14 I. C. C. 154, 160. But continuously for fifty years prior to 1917 live stock had been unloaded at Chicago by the Stock Yards Company, without charge therefor to the shipper or consignee. ”

“ It was ordered, further, to receive at the same point and to 'transfer, switch, transport, and deliver all live stock' consigned to anyone at the Bourbon Stock Yards, 'the shipment of which originates at the Central Stock Yards;' with proviso requiring pay or tender of proper charges for its services, whenever demanded, at the time such live stock or other freight is offered. ”

“ No less than shippers in the prompt loading of cars, can those who receive freight conserve railway service, and therefore the national wealth, by promptly unloading shipments received in carloads, and by promptly removing their freight from the station sheds when it comes in less than carloads. Carelessness about this is one of the evils at which the railways in former times connived under stress of competition. ”

“ Nor can a port become highly important if its trade is all in one direction. If it imports but does not export, ships can come loaded but must go away empty, and to do that they must charge very high and possibly prohibitive rates for the freight they bring. If the port exports but does not import, then ships must come empty before they can secure their cargoes, and the result is the same. A healthy port, then, must have a constant and steady stream of freight bound in both directions. ”

“ We had been on the street only a few minutes when I began to reason with him, and to point out the danger of exposing ourselves in so public a place as the Buffalo depot.
“Mark,” I said, “when the superintendent of a railway issues orders as to the running time of trains, he never fails to say to his employees, ‘When you’re in doubt as to the right of way, be sure to take the course you know is safe.’ Now, it’s dollars to doughnuts that the depot is being well watched. I suggest that we about face and drive to another town, much smaller than this, and get a train there.” ”

“ In the larger cities high class hotels gather near the principal depots, as in New York and Boston, and in England, where they are frequently built as a part of the railroad station itself. The axial effect of railroad depots is of great importance in the smaller towns, where the depot constitutes one of the strongest single forces attracting traffic within the city. The distribution of this axial effect depends upon whether the travel to and from the depot is concentrated on one principal street, or whether the streams of travel pass through a large number of streets. ”

“ There is considerable competition, which, of course, has the effect of reducing the rate of freight. The lowest apparent tender, however, is not always accepted, as it occasionally happens, that, from peculiarity of construction, a vessel of less registered tonnage will afford greater accommodation, and, consequently, convey a greater number of prisoners than one of larger burden. ”

“ The great extension of long lines westward in the last few years naturally raises the question whether the average freight haul has increased. The largely diminished rates suggest that probably producers have been led thereby to ship both agricultural and manufactured products greater distances to market. ”