The Seattle Star Newspaper, March 29, 1919, Page 9

Btiia, the second article in the Highway Transport series by Captain Bu cient Handling of Truck | Fleet Rests With Dispatcher y Company Must Solve Own Problems, But Success! or Failure of Truck Fleet Operation Rests Upon Per-| fection of Dispatch System ck, drives home a vital truth, he will write on “How Uncle Sam Trained 75,000 Truck Drivers. BY WARREN B. BULLOCK ly Captain, Motor Transport Corps, U. S. A. can you get the greatest service out of your} ks at the lowest cost? can you cut to the lowest point the cost per ton the freight which you have to transport? or. the is just one answer, and that is an efficient dis-| ns system. fo two concerns operating fleets of motor trucks have vie ‘Goat of $10 or $12 per day the same problems. Every company must solve more for itself its own problem of collection, or distribu- both, of freight which it is to transport. success or failure of a motor truck fleet rests But in perfection of its interior organization, its dispatch- m the desk. An efficient or inefficient dispatcher p to make or break a fleet’s record for cheap haul other single element. It is the problem of keeping fe load to the maximum which he must solve, the of a one-way trip with a big load and a return & full load in and out is) cost per ton mile, ‘tm almost any concern at/ hand, the same truck, making one On the the problem is to get! way loaded, the other light, doubles average both the gost per half. To operate a) $12. dispatching, getting a|trucks, will ton pay ‘ways, means a very low| mighty efficient mile. “Eat its Head Off” yy many miles the wonderful Briscoe fll squeeze out of a gallon of gas. the time when the In other fo get @ full load out and words, it will take two trucks, at $20 | sale business establishment, to bring back means | or $24 per day, to do the work done | foal ‘of the cost of motor| under the other method, at $10 or | camps And this difference in the op- eration of a single truck, or pair of | mate. the salary dispatcher, ofa and ‘Car That Doesn’t motor motorist a average begin to wonder whether he had enough _ Summit at East Pine good long spin. incidentally, you'll have many to prove it. $885 .2.. - ” Touring and Roadster Models litchell Motor & Service Co. Lighting, Starting and Ignition BATTERIES East 8413 Interest You Investigate STER ELECTRIC C0. STATE DISTRIBUTORS 703 East Pike St. longest period of guarantee ever placed on a battery 4 other | leave a handsome bala good on the books of th | drm. This problem of dispatching was one of the hardest problems Uncle |} Bam had to meet in organizing the | transport service for the army, and | the way he met it is worth knowing the private operat it was d to me chuse at the outset | of the war the supply of trucks was | far below the r « of the vart | ous camps and cantonments. It was also hard to meet because digpateh ers were inclined to favor officers of higher rank, regardiess of the needs of the case, until it became a general | rule that the dispatcher was king of his kingdom, and responsible only to his immediate chief for the efficient handling of his job, To the credit} of the service, however, it must be | waid that as soon as the needs w recognized there was the broadest willingness to co-operate with dis» patchers. One of the best short haul problem was at a thern mp, whire the conditions were almost a duplicate of those to be found in any whole tho typ of army eto the operating examples of a in dispatthing probably of dozens Every morning, owing to the cli it was necessary to learly and quick distribution of meat }from refrigerator cars about the camp. The were placed every | morning near the food supply ware house, and sides of beef were truck ed direct from the car to t trucks at the warehouse door | trucks were aasigned to bh: day's food supply, flour, #u: ned goods, and the like The meat trucks were first loaded, distributed the meat, and then were sent to spe cial details near the place of their } last meat delivery, This was a she | distance to figure on saving, but ev lery mile counta when a quarterly statement is made up, and the meat | trucks saved a mile cach per day of | travel empty Loading Tip The loading of the miscellaneous provision trucks was done by blocks. The camp was divided into districts, whose size was based on the average daily tonnage. Three blocks of kitchens and barracks instance, would be handled by j truck, and explicit orders required the assortment of all shipments be | fore they were loaded on the trucks. | Thus a truck for Blockw, B and C would be so loaded that the kitchen nearest to the warehouse would have its food stock on the rear of | the truck, ready to be unloaded first without delay; the second stop would |be next, and so on thru the load. The sorting of orders waa all done on the warehouse floor far from the trucks, #0 there would be no congas | tion at the loading doors. | The trucks thus had a compara | tively ahort haul before they began |to discharge their load. At the end | of their trip, the same trucks would | be met by a clean-up squad, or “po- | ioe detail” and make a return trip, | picking up the big galvanized iron cans of kitchen refuse. This would be delivered to the concentration str tion, where all this material waa gathered for disposal in bulk, or shipment by rail to hog farms near the camp. To operate this system, it was necessary to have qvery officer in this camp using trucks file a requi sition a day in advance for his ton- nage requirements. At night, a dis- patcher would take all the orders, both special and standing orders, | and tasue printed forms to the driv ers of the various trucks, instructing | them where, when and to whom to report and for what duty Zone System Any truck sent out on a long haul was under orders to report to the dispatcher by telephone before re- turning to the park. A truck with |@ task completed at Block A, for in | stance, was required to report by | phone to the dispatcher at Block Z, or wherever the dispatcher was lo- feated, when a haul was completed. If a call had been received for a truck in Block A, the truck already in that vicinity would be sent to this task, without losing the double dis tance of empty roll from A to Z—the | return of truck No. 1 empty from | Block A, for instance, and the send- ing of Truck No, 2 light to Block A secure (At the left above)—A truck of the Shell company, equipped with solid tires, contrasted ambulances in use at Camp Lewis. (At the left below}—A ficet of pneumatictired GM OC's In front of the F! model operated by Smith's dairy farm runs on a 25-mileamhour schedule, averaging 5,000 pounds of mili ‘ THE SEATTLE STAR—SATURDAY, MARCH 29, 1919. Pneumatic Tires for Motor Trucks Fast Coming ter TRUCK TIRE» LINE ADDED McAlpin, of Eldridge Buick, An nounces Addition of Goodrich Sotld Truck Tires to Lines Now Carried by Them, In keeping with the policy of serv to motor truck owners, the Eldridge Buick company, thru Ken neth McAlpin ager aocesyory department, have announced the dis tribution In King county of the Goodrich solid truck tre lne. “We are always looking ahead, says McAlpin, “and our policy « service is steadily winning us new friends and customers, We try to serve in every way possible, and be Heve that we furnish almost anything in the accessory line mome ] We feel adding the Goodrich solid truc we are only adding an extra accom modation to our patrons. The line is too well known to need any expe 1 description. The De Luxe solid truck tire made by Goodrich ts product that every truck owner and driver knows and admires for its re sitiency and Jong life. We can sell and recommend them with a clear cOnacience, and know that we are doing the buyer a favor by doing so, “Spring ts surely coming on with a rush, and our business promises to double the volume of 1918 We are gind to feel that we have established ourselves #0 solidly in the minds of the motoring public of Seattle, and notice will endeavor to maintain our policy | of fair dealing and honest service in the years to come.” CONSUL TELLS OF BELGIUM “The Past, Present and Future of Belgium” was the subject of an address by Joseph A. Hertogs, Bel- «ian vice consul at Seattle, to the King County Democratic club, at the Good Eats cafeteria, at noon Satur: day LECTURER TO TALK TURKEY Rey. John M. Lewtas, Lyceum lee turer and Y. M. C. A. worker, will lecture before the Sunday club, at the Y. M. C. A., on the downfall of Turkey. & WOOD SHIPS The United States shipping board has been requested by the. West Coast Lumbermen’s association to assign 30 Ferris-type wood steamers to the Northwest to handle railroad ties for the railroad administration REDONDO SAILS SATURDAY The Alaska Steamship company's ship Redondo is scheduled to sat) for Southeastern, Alaska ports Saturday evening with about 20 passengers and cannery supplies. ‘DURANT TO RACE MAY31) Pacific Coast Champion Will Go After Winner's End of $50,000 in| Liberty Sweepstakes | INDIANAPOLIS, Ind., March 29. —R. Clifford Durant, the first driver ‘to enter the 600mile Liberty Sweep: | stakes at the Indianapolis apeedw will start in the race May 31 the undisputed Pacific coast cham. pion, Durant, a millionaire, is not ' i" for the winner's end of the $50,000 purse, but because he wants to take the trophies and the honor v we © first Californian to win an Indianapolis 600, back to the Pa-| cific slope with him, | ‘When Durant started in the re | cent 250mile Santa Monica as} | road | race his title of Western champion | was really at stake, The race was! not billed for the title that Durant won at Tacoma last Independence day, but if Clifford had been defeat ed the title would have been an) empty one. The Chevrolet croxsed the wire first, altho Durant had made two stops and narrowly mise. | ed a fatal accident, averaging $1.26 |milee an hour for the 260 miles. ‘That Durant is o skillful and| heady driver ix proved by his defeat | of Eddie Hearne. ‘The famous vet-| eran of 10 seasons of big time rac ing, drove a sister car to Durant's, | went thru without a stop and was defeated. Durant blew a tire early | in the race and headed for the, crowd, but threw his wheel over hard, kept the car under control | land Itmped back to the pits. He changed a tire in 26 weconds and wan off in the lead again, He also made another change of the same| | kinds of weather and over all kinds|month of February they sold three 4 erated on pneumatic tires, Al- y many of the large! truck fac- - ” torles, such as the General Motors MMridge-Bulck Co. |Truck Company are putting out a Tho pneumatic truck tire hasliarge number of trucks equipped opened up a large field for the motor | with pneumatics. The G. M. C. truck | truck. Probably no other «ingle de | department, of the Eldridge-Buick | velopment has done eo much to in-| Company, ts one of the leaders in the crease Its usefulness. The pneumatic | distribution of trucks equippyt with | tire provides firmer traction in all|tig pneumatic cord tires. In the BY BEN H. CROWDEK Manager Truck Departm: of roads. It enables the truck to £0/two-ton G. M. C.'s equipped with) thru mud and snow better than 4! pneumatic cords. truck equipped with solid trea, | Trucks equipped with pneumatic | tires will noon replace the horse as | motive power on the farm. It will be able to go out into the fields, get | ite load and deliver it direct to mar-| ket, It will be able to carry loads around the farm, over plowed fields, acrons the country and thru the heavy snows of winter as well as the | mud of fall and spring. | A large part of the country’s por: | a ishable crop rota on the ground,| _ Seattle-Tacoma owing to the farmer's inability to get | Moaé—O. K- it to market. The pneumatic tired truck will enable the farmer to haul his entire crop to market, thus in- : passable, the rough in places. creasing the supply, which always reduces the cost. A truck thus| Mest-Aubere—Gravel road, good: equipped will do much to reduce the | ll cout of living, by bringing the farm erally good Frankl closer to the city. te E over Boos Creek road, Double uling 18 In the wheat fields of Hastern | Green river. Washipgton, and in other parte of| gran Euumclaw ie mtod te tite. } this tate, ‘the farmer has to use| mile post: somewhat soft | horses to haul his crop out of the|five-mile post to 13-mile post; snow | lon March 24 was 12 inches at 16- | fields to the road, no the truck can | mite. $0 inches at Greenwater and carry it on to market. This double| 48 inches at 35-mile post in Pierce handling is very expensive, and in| Commu many cases prohibitive, forcing the farmer to let his crop rot on the | Good. | ground. Farmers all over the coun- | ,, Susset , Highway — Renton-North try are rapidly realizing that the| North Bend to the goat ranch; was | motor ‘truck, with its big pneumatic | never. in a@ better condition sand tires, ts one of their best friends. maintenance crews are working | ‘The additional “cushioning” given | Sutrmit Yo Mec Rete Fond ta) Week Ending March 29, Issued by Samuel J. Humes, King County Engineer | | } Paved = Valley | Seattle-Tacoma High Line Read —Thru Des Moines in good condi-+ tion to Pierce county line. From Pierce county line to Tacoma is also via Into Favo with the pneumaticeauipped jobs iMustrated. (At the right above)—A few « Buick company's truck salesroom. (At the right Efforts citl Club, the Automobile Western Washington, and zens of the various towns along highway for this early opening. = Resolutions drafted by the bodies were presented to the commissioners, and so urgent the reasons advanced for an opening that Engineer Humes instructed to dispatch crews atte | in evidence. pueee Ne r AWARD CO D PAVING OF LEARY Al Out of 12 bids for the paving Leary ave., to connect ywill paved streets of Ballard and mont, which were opened meeting, Friday morning, board of public works, the 1 Paving Co.'s bid af lowest. It was awarded the o2 which calls for an t duration, but was able to keep first | ny the ’ peace alsscet from the stent ef thelozy tha ten: tae che kee race. The son of W. C. Durant, the|-rhis “air cushioning” reduces the General Motors head, in private life| cow of repairs on the truck, in “ is the sedate manager of the Chev e tenek, tm soem ° ne cases, ax much as 75 per cent. It rolet factory in Oakland, Cal. AS) also prolongs the life of the truck. a racer he ix far from’ conserva-| tt ty consry tive and belleves in getting @¥rY | truck ‘om ears Deagbrn | or ace ae ae aiid pgs eMac ee) service for five or six years joe pesis tage Laren | will, if oPerated on pneumatics, give in the big race, gets) away next May $1, the fans can {Sven , better servic, and over @ summit by May let. Hollywoed-Redmend: Somewhat rouse crete pavement, a be assured that they will see nome | of the same kind of driving that made the late Bob Burman an idol) of the fans and the world’s speed king. It ts Durant’s first start in an Indianapolis 500 and it is also re- ported that he has promised his father that he will retire from fi racing game after he has had this opportunity to prove himself a mas- jod of eight or nine years. This! advantage alone will save the truck | users millions of dollars every year. | Smith's Dairy Farm, of Aberdeen, | Washington, operated a truck on/| solid tires for two years, and then| equipped it with pneumatic tires. These pneumatic tires have reduced vibration and eliminated crystalliza-| tion to such an extent that the year-| Quality Goes Clear Throw |ly expense now for replacement of jparts is less than the previous monthly expense. Last fall Smith's ‘The Camp Lewis military quartet | Dairy Farm purchased another pneu- will give a sacred concert at the matic equipped truck. This one was Bethany Presbyterian church, Sun-| a two-ton G. M. C., with 36x6 cords | day evening. in front and 40x8 cords in the rear, ter pilot and win the biggest race in the speed world. from Block Z to do this work. | And it seems of course that any foo! would be able to work out this | prblem satisfactorily. In fact, the} | dispatching of a fleet of motor |trucks requires as much mobility on| the part of the ‘brain of the dis-| | patcher, as it requires to operate a! | railroad division from the train dis patcher’s desk. The truck dispatch-| ler, expecially in a plant where there | |are many short order calls, must at | | all times know where to reach all of | | his fleet of trucks. This can only be | | done by a blotter, recording the) | movements of all trucks, and a dis-| | patcher ready to meet an emergency. i In practice, a dispatcher cannot operate his trucks at @ maximum at jall mes, but the percentage of empty haul can be materially re- duced. At one camp, the installation of a dispatcher “with a bean on his shoulder” cuts the cost per ton mile of operating a fleet of over 50 trucks, 60 per cent in a single| month. Now, Mr. Truck Owner, figure out this saving in dollars by efficient dispatching, for your own fleet, on a basis of as low @ cost as $10 per truck per day. (Copyright, 1919, by | Bullock) Warren B&B. WATCH YOUR TOP | It is peculiarly timely at this sea- |won of the year, with the spring| jrains just ahead, to remind the car | owner that the top should never be | folded when it is wet or damp, as| | this will cause the formation of mil- dew and ruin the fabric. Gasoline | Should never be used to remove | grease or dirt from the top, as it ruins the rubber composition and causes blisters. A leather top should | be washed with castile soap and i) ter, the latter a little warm, and a top dressing should be applied. “DON’T Buy Your NOW! THINK OF IT! ACAR WITHA VALVE-IN-THE-HEAD MOTOR FOR $735—FACTORY WwW. S. DULMAGE MOTOR CO. 925 East Pike Street This G. M. C. is used to collect 5,500 | pounds of milk daily over a 95-mile route, running on a schedule of 25 miles per hour on an unpaved coun- try road. Mud No Hindrance In Mount Vernon Mr. Roscoe Hay- ton runs a general delivery and transfer business. He is called on to deliver all kinds of merchandise over all kinds of streets and roads. Many of his trips are on unpaved roads, and in the winter are hub deep with |mud. He makes his deliveries with a two-ton G. M. C. equipped with | pneumatic cord truck tires, and has |no difficulty in negotiating the mud |of winter, He also makes frequent trips from Mount Vernon to Seattle, and on account of the pneumatic tires is able to make much better speed than is possible with a truck equipped with solid tires, As the truck equipped with pnéu- matic tires is capable of greater speed, its radius of « operafion thereyy increased. In Bellingham Watets Bros., who operate a cross- country freight run, wished to ex- tend their route to take in some other surrounding towns, so they purchased a two-ton G. M. C. with truck cord pneumatics. With this truck they can cover from 100 to 125 miles per day, while with this same truck on solid tires, 80 miles would be a long run. Good Points ntages of pneumatic tires are many. Some of them are as follows: 1, greater tractive ability; 2, greater permissible speed; 3%, re- duction in mechanical repairs; 4, less wear ‘and tear on road: de- crease in gasoline consumption; 6, decrease in oil consumption; 7, easier of operation—less wear on the | driver, The prediction has been made by |many of the best posted men in the country that within the next five years 75 per cent of the trucks up to WAIT! EASY TERMS The adv ‘and including two-ton canacity wit Comfort, reliability and econ- omy are coming to be d and more appreciated by buy= ers of motor cars. tune Purchases are being made with these characteristics — firmly in mind. Sat $1,095 At Seattle Some open territory for live agents. This tendency accounts in © part for the eager demand for’ _ the DORT. : The ability of the DORT to. travel smoothly and comfort- — ably, to endure hard usage and to operate at a very low costis. — well established. It will pay you well to exam- ine the DORT. UNITED MOTORS CO, A. F, HAWKINSON, Mar, 407 BE, Pine st. IDPORT MOTOR CAR