the sales department or to prospective customers. They quote to their clientele rates of transportation on shipments made or about to be made. For this phase of the work, the measured service plan of compensation has proved especially adaptable.

Rate charts for the benefit of shipping departments, classification and packing specifications for the benefit of shipping room employees, and similar rate-schedule data are furnished by the association for the benefit of its clientele.

RATE ADJUSTMENTS

Not infrequently, in the handling of commercial audits, discriminatory rate adjustments will be developed, and at the same time the amount recovered on the freight bill will not be sufficient to warrant the audit bureau in undertaking the prosecution of the complaint before the public utility body before which it may be placed.

In such instances, it is customary to bring the matter to the client's attention, and to ascertain if, in view of future shipments, it is desirable to effect the necessary readjustment. If an affirmative response is developed, such cases are treated separately from the general contract existing between the association and the client, and an agreeable basis of remuneration is determined to compensate the association for the liberal allotment of time necessary in preparing complaints, exhibits, and other evidence necessary to support the issue.

TRANSPORTATION SURVEYS

In many instances, industrial concerns can be prevailed upon by the association to sanction a traffic sur

vey of the firm's lines of inbound and outbound shipments for the purpose of developing the most advantageous means of transportation to employ in order to secure both safety and the lowest transportation cost.

This is a very important work and involves an exhaustive study of existing methods employed by the client, of tariff and classification requirements, and of practices employed by competing houses in the same or other localities.

In the final report of the work, a detailed classification list is incorporated, showing all the articles handled by the firm, the classification ratings assigned to it in various localities under the existing classifications, and recommendations as to the form of packages to employ.

The association is entitled to additional compensation over and above that specified in the contract for such service, and the amount to be paid is to be deter mined, as in the case of rate adjustments, by the amount of labor involved.

PUBLICITY

It is possible to continue to add to the membership of the organization from time to time. Expressions. of goodwill from members of the association, and records of particularly valuable service rendered by the bureau, are means of recruiting new members.

The traffic commissioner of the association might address periodical meetings of the employees concerned He would with the actual shipping of the clients. Choose such topics as matters of current legislation

affecting transportation, efficiency reforms as applied to cartage, packing, and the preparation of documents. The meetings could be held in the association rooms.

Where the meeting plan is undesirable, it is possible for the association to issue a monthly or semimonthly leaflet, setting forth matters of general interest to the clientele which it represents.

RURAL OPPORTUNITIES

Rural students of transportation have a big opportunity to turn their talents to account by organizing the growers and producers in their district for enterprises of this type, and to arrange for collective marketing and purchase.

Touching on this point, an editorial appearing in the Trade and Transportation Bulletin is terse and to the point:

Quite frequently those engaged in making transportation a study complain of the lack of opportunity to join theory with actual practice in the rural districts in which they may be located.

The department of agriculture has only recently issued a bulletin treating in part, so far as concerns producers of agricultural products, the desirability of forming coöperative associations for the intelligent marketing of their wares. In this it points out the advantages which accrue in the shipping of carload quantities as against less-than-carload consignments; the employment of intelligent shipping methods; the development of more effective markets, etc.

The opportunity in traffic work should be measured not so much on the basis of population or size of a particular community as on the basis of production or consumption. Where any considerable amount of live stock, grain, fruit, vegetables,

etc., are produced, coöperative traffic management can be employed with success; while none of the individuals could, perhaps, pay anything like a remunerative salary on a contributory plan thru an effective organization, the traffic director of such would be amply rewarded.

As an illustration of the work that might be properly contemplated by a rural traffic association, take the question of soil fertility. A canvass of the district may be made, and the quantity and character of the fertilizer to be used ascertained, after which quotations can be obtained from various manufacturers. If it is presumed that the delivery could be made at the same time, the association would in all likelihood obtain a lower charge for the material to begin with; moreover, moving to destination in carload lots would effect a saving in transportation costs. Agricultural implements, farm machinery, etc., under the coöperative purchase plan, could be secured from the manufacturers direct, and at a lower cost to the individual than he would obtain under the present system of purchase thru retail dealers or mail-order houses.

Frequent meetings could be held for the benefit of the members, thus affording an opportunity to exchange views on subjects of particular interest, such as soil fertility, fertilizers, agricultural implements, farm machinery, remunerative crops, desirable markets, effective distribution, etc.

There are, of course, national associations of various kinds, for example, dairymen, fruit and vegetable growers, etc., whose activities in some degree are concerned with these questions; but they all, to some extent, lack the immediate supervision so essential in securing efficiency in any line of endeavor.

It is to be hoped that our readers who are thus situated will carefully weigh the foregoing and, if there is any considerable amount of shipping to or from their locality, that they will put this plan into effect in the interest of themselves and those with whom they might be associated.

Every man who has any considerable amount of shipping is a logical prospect as a member of an organ

ization of this type, whether he be the manufacturer in the largest metropolitan center or an agriculturalist in the sparsely settled west. The opportunities for association management of this kind are virtually unlimited.

TEST QUESTIONS

These questions are for the student to use in testing his knowledge of the assignment. The answers should be written out, but are not to be sent to the University.

1. What is associated traffic management?

2. How does the work differ from that of a commercial audit bureau?

3. In what ways does the work of an associated traffic manager resemble that of the industrial traffic man?

4. What persons can be secured as clients of an associated traffic manager?

5. What methods of compensation have been devised for such a traffic association?

6. What are the advantages of each plan?

7. How do these bureaus handle correspondence with the carriers?

8. Are traffic opportunities confined to large cities?