class of article or the classification rating assigned to the component parts of a shipment, it is desirable to weigh the several groups or pieces separately, so that the individual weight of respective portions may be definitely known. NOTICE. This shipment is billed at actual scale weight Clayton & Lambert Mfg. Co., FIG. 35.-A Weighing Notice Many concerns have adopted the practice of marking the weight on each package, and of affixing a note on the bill of lading to the effect that this has been done. Thus they caution the consignee to pay no charges upon a weight in excess of that figure without first assuring himself that the weight is as claimed. Many overcharge claims by this plan are nipped in the bud. Fig. 35 reproduces such a notice. WEIGHING AGREEMENT If an industry produces a line of products that are standardized in shape, size, or number to a package, it is possible to make a so-called "weight agreement" with any one or all of the several weighing and inspection bureaus maintained by the carriers. Representatives of the bureau will weigh a number of packages to determine the average weight that is satisfactory to the industry on the one hand and the carriers' representatives on the other. The weight so ascertained is used as the basis of transportation charges, thus eliminating the expense of weighing shipments on the industry's premises. CHAPTER XII LOCAL TRANSPORT Assembling Outbound Shipments-Terminal Delays—Ana- This chapter treats not only of local deliveries and pick-up service maintained to serve local patrons, but also of cartage to and from the different receiving stations of the carriers that are situated in various parts of a large city. ASSEMBLING OUTBOUND SHIPMENTS It is important that sufficient space be provided in the shipping room or on the shipping platforms, so that when goods are ready for delivery to the railroads and are about to leave the plant, they may be assembled in full truckloads. A large concern shipping many truckloads a day should sort out and route its packages. Individual full truckloads may thus be sent to each of several receiving stations or a mixed truckload may be sent to several receiving stations near each other. Intelligent planning results in material economy. A motor truck or a horse-drawn dray represents a substantial investment and a heavy and continuous overhead expense which goes on whether it is in use or not. As a consequence, it should not be kept busy with fractional loads; several trucks ought not to be covering the same routes with mixed loads; and finally, no truck should lose valuable time unnecessarily awaiting the receipt or delivery of its lading at either the plant or the receiving station. TERMINAL DELAYS In a study of terminal delays made by Mr. David Bancroft, editor of The Motor Age, the statement is made that losses of time at terminals are due to four causes: 1. Loss of time because of congestion in the street leading to the depot and from it. This congestion is sometimes due to the lack of adequate police control, at other times because of the narrow streets and again is caused voluntarily by the drivers. 2. Delay due to trucks waiting in line to reach the loading or unloading platforms at the freight depots, caused generally by long waits for bills of lading, insufficient loading platforms, or not enough doors in the freight houses. (See frontispiece.) 3. Loss of time in unloading because one man often has to unload a five-ton truck; because not enough hand trucks are in the freight depots; because there is a deplorable lack of system with the freight sheds; because there is a lack of clerical force at the freight house to handle the numerous shipping documents and bills of lading. 4. The driver, the human factor in the case, is often the "Czar" of the situation, and generally he is the greatest waster of time in the entire freight system of a city. In the case of the New York Team Owners Association et al. v. the New York Central & Hudson River Railroad Company et al., the subject of terminal deliv |