Milk Goes 1,200 Miles by Tanker
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Heavy Population in Areas Producing Little Milk Calls for Extension of Longdistance Haulage in Bulk MOV1NCi milk long distances in tankers is not new in the United States, but recent wartime concentration of consumers in Low milk production areas, and present continued .heavy milk consumption in these same low supply areas, have made the job of transporting fluid milk in tanks an increasingly important facto' in the
industry. .
Milk dealers desperately competing with each other for an all-too-inadequate local. supply of milk in order to take on readily available new business, have found this supplementary supply a happy solution. Moreover, this system of moving Grade A -inspected milk rapidly in insulated tanks frOm low-cost surplus production areas to higher-cost milk-deficient areas opens up economically sound possibilities for the direct benefit of consumers.
A typical U.S. undertaking engaged in the transport of milk in tank lots, is Quality Milk Service, of Burlington,' Wis.
900 Tons a Day , Owned and operated as a corporation by Mr. Lee Barney and Mr. Allan Torhorst, Quality Milk Service at present has35 tankers of various sizes on the road, which during the past year travelled approximately 2,500,000 miles and moved over 900 tons of milk a day from various points in Wisconsin to Chicago, to St. Louis, and even as far as Lexington, N.C.
Normally it is only the larger milk dealers who can utilize the carriers to bring in milk from distant points, the reason for this being the size of the load required to justify long-distance haulage. Tank loads hauled. by Quality Milk Service range Upwards
from 10-ton capacity. .
War-time neeessity brought a-solutionto the problem mentioned for a group of Kentucky milk dealers in the smaller cities When they pooled their purchases of . Wisconsin milk for delivery to a central point in Kentucky. These dealers then divided the load at the central point and each hauled his own share to his plant. The Quality fleet is organized tu operate out of two terminals—Burlington, Wis., and Union Center, Wis. Burlington headquarters serves such milk-collecting territory as the Fox River Valley in Wisconsin, and other. southern and eastern Wisconsin points. All Chicago health department approved milk is handled through the Burlington terminal. Union Center terminal handles all the hauling operation for Wisconsin Creameries Association, which organization has 17 plants.
Delivery of milk contracted for in Wisconsin by individual milk dealers is made by Quality Milk Service to. such cities as Chicago, St. Louis, 'Kansas City, Somerset, Ky., Lexington, N.C., Memphis, Tenn., and Evansville, Ind.
Because of its perishable nature, milk must be transported promptly and without a hitch. To do this job, Quality Milk Service has 45 topgrade drivers who receive a high scale of pay.
. Transport of the milk is done generally in relays on the longer distances. On the 10to 11-hour run to St. Louis, for example, one driver takes a tanker from Mauston, Wis., to Rockford, Ill. There he is met by another driver with an empty tank from St. Louis. Units are .exchanged and the men return to their paints of departure. In case of a breakckiwn en route, relief power units are dispatched immediately from either Burlington or the receiving end of the route—whichever is nearer.
To hold such breakdowns to an .absolute minimum, Quality Milk Service maintains its own workshop
with a staff of four mechanics, a grease man, and a wash man. This garage is equipped with spare parts for all trucks operated by the company, including one complete oil engine and one petrol unit. Entire operation, transport as well as garage work, is set up for a 24-hour-day basis and the repair shop does the bulk of its work at night, because most company trucks are off the road only then. All journey schedules are made up a day in advance.
Insulated semi-trailer tanks deliver the milk with not more than 1 degree temperature variation from what it was , when loaded. Even. on a 1,200-mile haul from northern Wisconsin to .Lexington, -N.C., Quality Milk Service tanks delivered milk to the Coble Dairy Co. plant in perfect condition and, what was of particular value to the milk dealer, this milk was delivered in 17 hours less than by rail,
35 Vehicles Quality Milk Service's 35 vehicles include four "double bottoms," or multi-tank units, with capacity for carrying 25 tons of milk, 12 semitrailers for 13-17 tons, two van trailers for carrying canned cream and barrelled goods, and the remainder semi-trailers ranging in capacity from 10 to 13 tons, so that the fleet is designed to provide a suitable type of tank for every type of route.
All of the inner shells of the tanks are stainless steel, but on some of its 15.test equipment the company has specified aluminium outer jackets to save weight and increase carrying capacity.