where the various department heads, including the traffic manager, are subordinate to the one-man head, the general manager. Under this plan, it is possible for individuals, prompted perhaps by a desire to curry favor, to annoy the manager with matters of minor moment and with an amount of vexatious detail. This is the chief objection to the military plan. It is avoided in a functional or divisional organization, where all matters in the respective division are passed upon by the senior clerk before being referred to the traffic manager for review or advice.

Fig. 2 indicates the executive control and functional arrangement of the traffic department of the National Cash Register Company, at Dayton, O.

It is to be noted that under this plan the work is classified in a functional arrangement and that the thirty-one men employed in this department are under the direction of the traffic manager. The work has been so planned that each employee is definitely located and consequently can develop into a competent specialist in the line of work to which he has been assigned.

In the corner of the chart, appear figures to indicate the cost of maintenance of the department, and the saving effected by its service. This point should be especially significant to organizations that still consider a traffic department unnecessary or inadvisable.

In 1912 the expenditures for salary and operation of the department were $23,678.86, during which time it recovered for the company $32,312.02. In 1916 the expenses had decreased to $23,201.24, while the amount recovered had leaped to $62,000.00.

These savings are represented by the amount recovered in the careful audit of freight charges, amounts

involved due to the loss, damage, or destruction of property. Such items in a great many nonprogressive industries are an absolute loss because the work is delegated to a bookkeeper or shipping clerk who may possess a very superficial knowledge of transportation matters and consequently overlook all or many valid claims.

Cases are on record where traffic men have recovered for their employers in single instances sums far in excess of their annual compensation. The traffic manager who cannot offset his salary expense by transportation savings does not merit his spurs.

The line-and-staff organization (Fig. 3) is exemplified by a functional organization which is supplemented, so far as the executive control is concerned, by the services of an advisory board or consulting council, which is or are retained solely in an advisory capacity and do not have any authority in the administration of the departmental activities.

Each type of organization has its merit and its advocates. Many of the larger commercial and industrial organizations of the country have evolved composite organizations which embrace certain of the best points of each of these types. But irrespective of what plan is employed, the industry should prepare a chart indicating the plan underlying the organization, analyzing all its activities so that each employee may find his place in the departmental sun.

CHAPTER III

THE TRAFFIC MANAGER

Importance of Transportation-Traffic Manager as a Ne-
cessity-Intricacies of Traffic Work-Influence of Freight
Rates Selection of Individual-Qualifications-Early Con-
ception of Traffic Work-Experience versus Technical
Training-Specialists-Transportation Studies-Advant-

ages of Vocational Training-Plant Location-Fuel-Sup-
plies-Water Routes The Traffic Manager's Duties-
Classification of Line-Packing, Routing, and Rate Charts
—Auditing Freight Bills-Claims-Tracing-Car Records
-Bills of Lading-Rate Studies-Public Utility Complaints
-Foreign Trade-Tariff Files-Tariff Studies-Depart-
mental Accounting.

With the exception of agriculture, transportation to-day is the greatest industry of the age, and is attracting the attention of the biggest men of the age. For that reason it is necessary to exercise a great degree of care in selecting the individual that is to administer to this function of work or to supervise the activities of the department.

THE TRAFFIC MANAGER A NECESSITY

The unfortunate attitude of many concerns is: "We do not need a traffic manager or a traffic department. Our shipping clerks are good enough for us." This

suggestion has often come from concerns that would be greatly affronted were it suggested that a competent accountant or an aggressive sales manager was an unnecessary factor in their organization. A competent traffic manager is, however, more often than otherwise, found to be more essential than some other department manager whose position in the concern has been taken as a matter of course.

Probably one reason why there is a misconception of the true place of a traffic manager is because his position as a part of any well-organized business is of comparatively recent origin. It may be safely

stated that the industrial traffic manager became a possibility and a necessity with the amendment to the Act to Regulate Commerce, the Hepburn Amendment, which became effective in 1906, inasmuch as this amendment gave to shippers and carriers new privileges and new responsibilities.

The Act also imposes obligations on the shippers and the carriers which may not be disregarded either thru ignorance or by design without incurring heavy penalty. These penalties, in doses of $5,000 or more for each offense, are designed to cool the ardor of the most enthusiastic tariff slacker.

Previous to this time the representative of an industrial concern was often rated by the ability to secure special concession from the carrier. In many cases rate rules and regulations were not published and filed with the Interstate Commerce Commission at all, and in others where the provisions were filed there was absolute disregard of them. The amendment cited, however, is proving an effective antidote to this practice.