Best location in port. Deep water. Completely icefree. Easy access under all weather conditions. Ask for our flat rate per ton for complete handling of your steamers, and for our despatch schedule. Better facilities Better despatch-Less cost. UNION TRANSPORT COMPANY, Inc. Telephone--Broad 0592-3-4 42 BROADWAY, NEW YORK "A NATIONAL INDUSTRIAL REAL ESTATE SERVICE TO MANUFACTURERS" WATERFRONT PROPERTIES AND FACTORIES-NEW YORK AND NEWARK HARBORS 270 Madison Ave., at 39th St., N.Y. CROSS & BROWN COMPANY Essex Bldg., Newark, N. J. Caledonia 7000 INDUSTRIAL DEPARTMENT Market 3008 VOL. 3 No. 8, Total Number 32 TH Transportation, Trucking and Warehousing Port of New York Combination United States Distributing Corporation Owns Coal Mines, Coal Barges, Motor and Horse Trucks, and Warehouses With Which it is Rapidly Reducing Port Charges While at the Same Time Increasing Transshipment Efficiency. Erie Leads Other Railroads in Gradually Substituting Motor Trucks for Lighters. 'HE Port of New York for more than a quarter of a century had been awaiting the arrival of the genius that would solve its port problems. These consisted of extravagance in methods of transshipping freight, with fearful waste of time and money in conducting port business. Finally, after extended investigation scientifically conducted for more than two years. by experts acting in behalf of the States of New York and New Jersey, the New York, New Jersey Port and Harbor Development Commission, and its Comprehensive Plan of port betterment were merged into the permanent Port of New York Authority which latter is in its third year of progress. The Whitehall Building in Which the Ex- The Comprehensive Plan had, as its main feature, the construction of an automatic electric railroad which would originate somewhere on the Jersey meadows, cross under the Hudson River somewhere below Christopher Street, connect with a dozen great warehouses to be located inland between the point of its arrival in New York and the Battery, whence it would again cross under the river, and arrive back at its starting point, thus effecting a vast underground and under-water loop, which would handle some ten million tons of freight annually, and thus greatly lighten the burden of our port problems. This automatic electric railroad was to cost upwards of two hundred million dollars. Erie Railroad Pioneers in Motor Trucks Some time after the announcement of the Comprehensive Plan the Erie Railroad Company, without any blares of trumpets or brass bands, quietly inaugurated a motor truck service to test out the utilization of vehicles in substitution, to a large extent, of lighters and car floats, in conveying freight between its classification yards on the Jersey Meadows and Lower Manhattan, that is, as Mr. T. C. Powell, Vice-President of the Erie, says, having in mind the establishing of "an elastic system of collection and distribution on Manhattan Island with two distinct purposes in mind." First: To inaugurate the plan of designating certain inland warehouses as freight stations for the collection and delivery of package freight. Second: To inaugurate what is sometimes referred to as "store-door delivery" of merchandise but is more correctly described as "direct collection and delivery" of merchandise package freight from and to the warehouses and stores of shippers and consignees at a cost not to exceed the expense ordinarily incurred by the use of individual teams and trucks. For obvious reasons it was impracticable, because too costly, to build larger rail terminals on Manhattan Island, while pier rentals steadily soar, and, besides, such an investment would not be flexible or elastic, but, on the contrary, more or less rigid. So, says Mr. Powell: The Erie Railroad, therefore, through the cooperation of the United States Trucking Corporation (one of the most important of the many subsidiaries of the United States Distributing Corporation, of New York), adopted the principle of decentralization of terminals and by acquiring the right to use so much of the ground floor of certain warehouses as was necessary to accommodate this traffic, the Erie Railroad, through the United States Trucking Corporation, opened the three warehouses described in the New York lighterage and harbor tariff of the Erie Railroad. The purpose of this plan is also two-fold, namely, the concentration of the freight at the inland freight stations permits the shipper and consignee to use his own teams and trucks for the short-haul service between the warehouse and the inland freight station, and permits the United States Trucking Corporation to consolidate these various shipments into solid truckloads for movement between the inland freight station and the freight car in Jersey City. But the inland freight stations serve another and very important purpose, namely, to establish as a temporary holding place, or reservoir, the tonnage which is in excess of the warehouse or store capacity of the consignee. The freight received at the inland freight stations is entitled to the same period of free storage as at any other freight sation and this gives the consignee time to arrange for the reception of the goods without congestion in his own plant, and in the same way permits a manufacturer to clear his warehouse of the manufactured goods intended for transportation. In Foth cases the goods may be elevated to the storage rooms of the warehouse company at the option of the owner, where they are protected in the usual way under warehouse regulations. The other subdivision of the plan of the Erie Railroad and the United States Trucking Corporation is to permit the direct handling between the freight car and the warehouse, or manu facturing plant of the consignee or shipper without immediate handling through a freight station. In such a transaction the United States Trucking Corporation is the agent of the Erie Railroad between Jersey City and the west line of West Street, on Manhattan Island, and from that point to the warehouse of the consignee, or from the warehouse or plant of the shipper to West Street, the United States Trucking Corporation is the agent of the consignee and shipper, respectively. This plan of direct collection and delivery is particularly advantageous in periods of activity when the pier stations of other roads are congested with teams and trucks waiting their turn to discharge or take on freight. And the importance of this saving in delay can be better appreciated when it is realized that the congestion in the streets of Manhattan is costing the merchants of Manhattan more than $100,000,000.00 annually, and by the further fact that so great is the delay at the ordinary pier station and at other points in Lower Manhattan, that many firms have abandoned the gasoline truck and have returned to the horse-drawn vehicle, so that of the number of vehicles engaged in commercial trucking and teaming on Manhattan Island 72 per cent are horse-drawn and only 28 per cent are selfpropelled gasoline or electric vehicles. There is a third feature of the arrangement between the Erie Railroad and the United States Trucking Corporation in which the shipper and consignee are not directly involved, but which expedites the handling of freight at these terminals, and that is the arrangement between the Erie Railroad and the Trucking Corporation whereby the Trucking Corporation handles between Jersey City and Manhattan Island freight intended for the various steamship lines and collected from those. lines, and also the freight delivered within lighterage limits at specified lighterage delivery points, and the collection of said freight in the reverse direction. Other Railroads to Follow Erie's Lead What Mr. Powell says is said so calmly and precisely that its import does not strike the ordinary reader, at first; but, in truth, it means the beginning of a revolution in freight transshipment between railroads and consignees in the Port of New York, the place of all places where just such a revolution has been needed. We do not know, it might be difficult for us to learn, precisely what the saving amounts to in dollars and cents that the Erie has achieved from this change; but a bright light is shed upon the subject by this fact, that the other trunk railroads are busy studying the situation, conferring with the United States Trucking Corporation officials, and completing their plans to follow the lead of the Erie in the substitution of trucks for lighters in the handling of vast quantities of their freight. The big point about this utilization of vehicles for much of the work formerly done by lighters is the probability that it will render unnecessary the construction of the automatic electric railroad that was one of the big features of the Comprehensive Plan of the Port of New York Authority. The United States Distributing Corporation But this is but one of the things that the United States Distrbuting Corporation is accomplishing in the direction of solving some of New York's many and perplexing port problems, the real essence of which is cheap and prompt distribution of freight. Upon that the future growth of New York's commerce and shipping absolutely depends, if its world primacy among ports is to be maintained. Not only can it be maintained, but its lead can be greatly increased, through practical and effective service such as the United States Distributing Corporation has been formed to accomplish. The railroads of the United States render a highlyorganized, cheap and efficient service in transporting a vast annual tonnage of goods from centers of production to centers of distribution. No comparable system functions in conveying goods either from the producer to the railroad or from the railroad to the consumer. But the advantages to be derived from a system, or systems, as highly organized as the railroads and as alert in the employment of all appropriate modern resources to perform that intermediate service, need only to be suggested to be appreciated. If a step further could be taken if such a system A U. S. Barge Corporation Convoy Ready to Transport a Train Load of Coal From a New Jersey Terminal |