American Rural Highways. T. R. Agg
Table 2
Overhead Charges per Year for a 5-ton Capacity Gasoline Motor Truck Running an Average of 50 Miles per Day for 240 Days per Year
| Driver's wages[1] | $1500 |
| Depreciation (20% on $6000 investment) | 1200 |
| Interest (6% on $6000 investment) | 360 |
| Insurance | 450 |
| Garage (rental, upkeep, etc.) | 300 |
| Maintenance, minor repairs and supplies, tire chains, tools, lamps, springs, equipment, etc. (estimated | 300 |
| Complete overhaul once a year | 600 |
| License fee | 60 |
| Body upkeep, repairs, painting, etc. | 90 |
| Supervision | 696 |
| Total per annum | $5556 |
| Overhead charges per day for 240 days in the year, actual operation | $23.15 |
| Overhead charges per mile for 50 miles per day | .463 |
[1] In the above table the driver's wages have been placed under overhead charges because the driver is paid by the month and his wages continue even though the truck is idle because of repairs, bad weather or lack of business, unless, of course, the idleness should be of long duration, when the driver might be laid off.
Direct Charges per Day and per Mile for 5-ton Truck Operated as Above
| Cost per day | Cost per mile | |
| Tires (based on present tire guarantee) | $3.00 | $0.06 |
| Lubricants | .50 | .01 |
| Gasoline (3½ miles per gal., 14 gal. at 25c) | 3.50 | .07 |
| 7.00 | 0.14 |
| Total of overhead and direct charges for 240 days per year operation, per day | $30.15 |
| Per mile | .603 |
| Cost per ton-mile for full loads one way and empty returning | .2412 |
| Cost per ton-mile for full loads one way and half load returning | .16 |
The significance of these figures becomes apparent when they are compared with the cost of hauling freight over trunk-line railways with heavy traffic where the cost per ton-mile, including terminal charges, ranges from 1.7 mills per ton-mile to 4.4 mills per ton-mile.
In view of these facts it seems reasonable to suppose that motor vehicles for use on the public highways are more likely to be employed to supplement the rail transport than to compete with it. To the actual cost of operation of motor trucks given in Table 2, there should be added the proportionate cost of maintaining the highway for the use of the truck, which is partly covered by the item "License Fee" in the table. The license fee would necessarily be considerably larger if it were to compensate adequately for the wear on the highways over which the trucks operate. This will still further increase the cost of hauling by motor truck.
Motor trucks are employed for many kinds of hauling where their speed and consequently their daily capacity is an advantage over team hauling that is decidedly worth while. It probably could be shown that for many kinds of hauling, teams are more economical than motor trucks, but when promptness and speed and the consequent effect on dependent activities are considered, the motor truck often has a distinct advantage, and the use of the truck to replace horse drawn vans is progressing rapidly. This is true not only in the cities, but also in the smaller towns and in the country. Motor trucks have been adopted in a great many communities for delivery of farm products to market, and this use of the truck is certain to increase rapidly. But trucks in this service will use the secondary roads as well as the main or primary roads.
These observations emphasize the extent to which the highway policy of the nation must be predicated on the use of the highways by motor vehicles.
Chapter II
HIGHWAY