Freight transport

“ Everything is done that can be done to draw it on to the railways on the one hand, and on to the waterways on the other, and as a consequence the rates of freight, as we have seen, are on both systems reduced to the lowest attainable limit. The Transatlantic traffic is competed for quite as keenly, so that grain has been carried between Chicago and the markets of Great Britain, a distance of over four thousand miles, for less than 20s. per ton, including a railway journey of 950 miles, or a lake and canal journey of 1200 miles, in addition to the ocean voyage. ”

“ The ship will, however, sooner or later require a higher rate of freight for ports of slow despatch, and this increased expense in transport will undoubtedly operate in favour of rival ports. For the ports themselves are but stepping-stones to or from a market or industrial centre, and the market will always select the cheapest route for its trade. With the increase of populations in the Old World and the development of new countries, the transport of emigrants and of travellers for business and for pleasure became a highly important and lucrative source of employment for steam shipping. ”

“ Different objects of transport require different speeds. Perishable freight, such as ice, beef, pork, cattle, &c., requires to be moved in much less time than grain, lumber, flour, coal, and manufactured articles. As a general thing, the difference between the characters of freight engines, as regards the nature of the traffic, can be adapted only with a view to amount, disregarding the nature. ”

“ In accordance with this idea, the canal traffic of most European countries has usually taken the form of coal, iron, and other heavy merchandise, while the railways have carried goods that were charged a high rate of freight, on the grounds that they were damageable, and of high intrinsic value. ”

“ To bring the shipper and truck owner together serves the interests of both. It doubles the efficiency of the motor truck, enables business men to make prompt shipments or secure deliveries in a day instead of several, relieves the railroads of much short-haul freight, and thereby releases cars for necessary long-distance haulage of munitions, equipment, and other supplies for our Army in France, and for foodstuffs, fuel, etc., for the civilian population at home. ”

“ I put a factory at Troy because I could get by water express service at freight rates, loading machines on the boat in the evening and have them delivered in New York the next morning, while to ship the same material by railroad to New York would require three to five days by freight.
Directly back from the river bank on either side are two of our fine highways. Neither the railroad nor the river meet all the needs of the men living on those roads. You might build the railroads up until they are 10 tracks wide, but you do not fully help the farmer 10 miles away to get his produce to market. ”

“ The total freight traffic carried on the railways of the United States in 1881 was 350 million tons, being an average of 6·7 tons per head. In 1888 the total freight carried was 5891⁄2 million tons, being an average of 9·8 tons per head. In 1870 the cost of conveying a barrel of flour from Chicago to New York was 6s. 5d.; in 1880 a working man was only called on to pay 3s. ”

“ A steady increase in the freight performance of American equipment is shown by official data of the Interstate Commerce Commission. Whereas in 1894 it required on an average 1,888 freight cars for every 1,000,000 tons of freight transported their capacity has so increased that the same amount of traffic in 1906 was carried by only 1,127 cars. ”

“ The underlying carrier's haul involves a different shipment, a different consideration, a different origin, a different destination, and a different consignor and consignee than are involved in the forwarder's undertaking. Furthermore, respondent's contention leads to the conclusion that railroads, whose bills of lading have long been prescribed by the I.C.C. and filed with rail tariffs, must transport freight on bills of lading subject to change at will by the forwarder and possibly different in many respects from the uniform rail bill. ”

“ In other times the railroad bought canals to suppress them. But we have learned a larger outlook now and the congestion so recently as a year ago taught us that there are certain kinds of goods, certain types of transportation, that the railways of this country can not afford to do. Certain great items of bulk freight they must always carry. We should starve for steel if we had to depend upon our railroads to bring the ores from Minnesota to Pittsburgh, and the Northwest would be in a hard case if we had always to send coal to them by rail from the region of the East. ”

“ If the large class of steamers can not live on their own receipts, much less can the small. An adequate speed for the mails leaves no available space for cargo. The ship may carry two or three hundred tons of freight; but it pays perhaps but little more than the handling and the [Pg 92] extra coal necessary to transport its extra weight. As a general thing, it may be safely said that when a vessel is well adapted to the mails and passengers she is filled with her own power, that is, with heavy engines, large boilers, and a large quantity of fuel, as also with her provisions and baggage. ”

“ A boat of 200 tons, travelling 22 miles per day, is more serviceable than a boat of 275 tons which can only go 121⁄2 miles. The greater speed entails a somewhat greater cost in traction; but it admits of more voyages, the transport of more freight, and a more regular service. The lengthening of the locks on the Burgoyne Canal, by enabling the tonnage to be increased by one-third, without diminishing the speed of transit, or notably increasing the cost of traction, has proved a profitable work for the inland-navigation commerce of France. ”

“ The Act of 1801, upon which the rest of this early railway legislation was framed, follows the canal precedents in their provision for managing the company's affairs, for raising share and loan capital, and for compensating landowners. Only the use of horse power was contemplated. The tracks, when laid down, were meant, like canals, for general use by carriers and freighters. The companies did not provide rolling stock; any person might construct carriages adapted to run upon the rails, and if these carriages were approved certain maximum tolls applied to the freight they might carry.... ”

“ 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 only trade in which it has ever been supposed that steamers of any description whatever could carry freight is that between Europe and the United States, where there are large quantities of rich, costly goods, in small and valuable packages, which pay an extra rate of freight, as express goods ”

“ They usually carry no flag, and are dirty and lack paint, but they carry a load that would interest the most blasé European. Those bound up-stream, under full sail, like ourselves, are piled with European boxes and bales, from stem to stern; and on top of the freight, in the midst of the freight, sitting on it, stretched out on it, peeping from it, is another cargo of human beings, men, women and children, black, yellow, clothed in all the hues of heaven and the rags of earth. It is an impassive load that stares at us with incurious, unwinking eyes. ”

“ The manner in which the freight business is conducted affords a good illustration of the high degree of development to which modern business methods have attained. Freight is accepted by each railroad for shipment not only to all points on its own system, but also practically to every railway station in the country, and even to many foreign cities. ”

“ The express companies have practically a monopoly of the transportation of the smaller packages of goods requiring quick transit and immediate delivery, but the longer, heavier, and slower freight are in the hands of the railroads, and where it can be done, and time is not a first factor, the steamboat takes the place of the train. ”

“ Assuming that it is a fact that almost all competitive tonnage is secured through “good-will,” is there any better way in which to impress a prospective shipper with the road’s efficiency than when he is a passenger? The things that were observed on this 8,000-mile trip seem to indicate that at least some managers do not appreciate the value of comfortable, courteous passenger service as a feeder of freight tonnage, or that they are unfamiliar with the manner in which their passenger service is being handled. ”

“ 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 ”

“ The train is practical only because the railroad company maintains freight and passenger stations, foreign and domestic agents, and all the detailed [Pg 277] force that a modern railroad requires. Furthermore, it sends its trains over certain routes at certain specified intervals, ready to move freight and passengers as they are ready to be moved. So must a shipping line be operated. Ships must be where they are needed, else freight accumulates or is diverted to other lines. ”

“ The destination set out in the railroad bill of lading is the forwarder's break-bulk point. At that point the carload is broken up; some shipments may be distributed locally, some sent by truck to off-line destinations, and some consolidated into carloads for reshipment to further break-bulk points. The railroad has no knowledge of the contents of the car, the identity of the individual shippers, or the ultimate destinations of the consignments. The forwarder has an unqualified right to select the carrier and route for the transportation of the freight. ”

“ 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 ”

“ The huge investments ships require necessitate that there be no loss of time and consequently ships must not wait for freight to come to them. Because ships carry great amounts of freight and cannot lengthen or shorten themselves, as trains can, to accommodate fluctuating quantities, it is often necessary for freight to go in “tramp” steamers to ports which attract small amounts of freight. ”

“ But if full loads cannot be arranged for small wagons, there is obviously no economy in introducing larger ones. On the other hand, where, as in America, the great volume of freight is raw material and crude food-stuffs, and the distances are great, a low charge per unit of transportation is more important than any consideration such as quickness of delivery; therefore full car-loads of freight are massed into enormous trains, which run unbroken for distances of perhaps 1000 m. ”

“ My next problem was to manufacture within a certain limit of cost and my next to deliver the goods, and that is the greatest problem of all. The railroads are slow and unreliable. They have no more system than a carrier pigeon. Your freight is transferred until the boxes are worn out ”

“ Prompt loading and unloading of freight-cars is one way in which owners of freight can conserve railway service and in the long run help themselves.
The conservation of railway service has yet larger aspects. The moving of a freight-car from the place of shipment to its destination is the duty of the railway company, but it cannot perform that duty without adequate facilities. ”

“ The natural growth of classification in a rapidly developing country like the United States, has manifested itself in three distinct ways: there has been a steady increase in the number of items of freight separately enumerated; a growing distinction in rates between carload and less-than-carload shipments ”

“ If you do not realize the importance of the freight traffic, you should talk to those shrewd old souls in Wall Street who measure a carrier, not by its ticket sales, but by that fascinating thing that they call “tonnage”; you should go out upon the line and ask any operating man how his territory is holding up in traffic. He will answer you in tons, in freight-cars moved within a single twenty-four hours. If you are still unconvinced, go to the passenger man you know best. ”

“ One whom Providence has not favored with the mysterious wisdom of a general freight agent might suppose that considerations of bulk, weight, insurance and similar factors formed a basis of railroad classification. Nothing, however, is farther from the truth. Freight charges, when permitted to be fixed by railroad companies, are invariably such as the traffic will bear, and freight classifications are arranged on this principle, provided competition by water, rail or other land transportation does not demand a modification. ”