America Keeps Road Transport Strictly Regulated
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A NYONE who proposes to engage in the haulage of
passengers or goods by mtor over highways in the Tidied States for pay finds his
aitiative restricted by a multiade of limitations and his -eedom of action as an idividualist hampered by a unab_r of controlling authorities. A score of years ago, or lore, a man having £100 or £200 with which to make an titial payment on one or more commercial motors, could art a bus or haulage route or a hire-contract service withet asking permission of any authority, and might make is charges anything he wished.
But, as such service often proved highly profitable, cornetition developed rapidly, more and more bus and haulage nes were established, length of the routes was extended hundreds of miles, the aggregate volumes of passenger ad goods transport by highway grew tremendously, loss E the traffic was felt by the railways, and competition along carriers resulted in cuttingS of rates so drastically tat economic survival of many of the smaller carriers ca...me impossible.
Each State Has Different Laws.
Meanwhile, public safety and preservation of the system : highways required restriction and control of the fastcreasing number of vehicles of all types in operation. nder the organic law of the nation peculiar to the fedoraau of states, this duty fell upon the individual 48 states the Union, each of which enacted its own vehicle laws , conditions within its borders seemed to make necessary. Thus it came about that the requirements and restricans in the statutes of hardly any two states were identical. his multiplicity and division of authority operates to the scomfort of manufacturers and users, as too many cooks the kitchen do to the diners at the table. First, in signing and building vehicles, the manufacturers must ake them conform with the maximum allowable dimenms, weights, structural requirements and safety equipment ,ecified by many states, since they are to be sold for use roughout the country. And, secondly, the user must be re that any vehicle he operates comes within the limitsms and meets the requirements not only of his own state it of any adjoining or more distant states in dor through aich it may be driven. The following differences in some the major provisions of the several state laws will give me idea of the difficulties presented:—
Last year, all but two states permitted a maximum width of vehicle and load of 96 ins., but Florida limited it to 84 ins. and South Carolina to 90 ins. Permissible height, in half of the states, was 12/ ft. but varied in others from 11 ft. to 15 ft., with no restriction in four cases. Overall length of single units was limited, in the majority of states, to 33 ft. or 35 ft., in five to 40 ft., in two to 45 ft., in one each to SO ft. and 60 ft., in three each to 30 ft. and 28 ft., in one to 27 ft. and in one to 264 ft. Five states had no restriction on the number of units that might be operated in combination, 12 allowed a tractor to haul a semi-trailer and one full trailer (two-axle), 23 permitted either a semi-trailer or full trailer, and four made use of a semi-trailer legal but prohibited hauling a fourwheeled trailer. Similarly, the overall length of such combinations was restricted variously from 30 ft. to 85 ft. and there was no limit in two states.
Variation in Gross Weight.
Even greater diversity, and wide variation, existed in the limitation gross weight of vehicles and load.
The effect on vehicle design of all these size and weight restrictions is seen in the development of forward-control or tram-type buses and cab-over-engine trucks and tractors. the predominance of semi-trailers over full trailers, the production of six-wheeled units and the use of dual wheels. Necessarily, the vehicles are built to come within the least allowable maximum length, width and gross weight fixed by any of the states, with the possible exception of two or three which adopted uneconomically low limits. Longer bodies, and hence more passengers or bulkier and heavier loads, can be carried within the limitations with such foreshortened chassis and when the weight is distributed equally on two, three or four axles and on from six to 14 tyres.
Nineteen states now charge full registration fees and other taxes On commercial vehicles entering the state from another. Thus, it cpsts $1,100 (235) in registration fee alone for a 5-ton lorry to cross from Alabama into the contiguous state of South Carolina. Vehicles operating on regular routes through several states must display the registration plates of all such states, or in some cases change the plates when crossing the border.
The past tense was used, in specifying the various size and weight limitations, for the reason that these and any other provisions may be altered at any biennial or annual A.37 session of the state legislatures. By the end of last January, 10,000 bills affecting vehicles had been introduced in the convened legislatures of 44 of the states. Although the great majority of such bills fails of enactment, there always are numerous changes in the laws of the aggregate of 48 states, Before an operator may start a bus or haulage service over a specified route, he is required in many states to apply for a " certificate of convenience and necessity," usually to a state public utility, public service or railway commission, to which authority to issue or refuse such a cPrtificate is delegated by state law. Whether the applicant succeeds in getting permission may depend upon the amount of opposition offered and the influence upon the commission exerted by the railways, which have bitterly fought the inroads of the motor carriers on their revenues for many years.
Rail Exerted Powerful Influence, In fact, the railways, which have been closely regulated for upwards of half a century in the individual states and under the interstate commerce clause of the Federal constitution by the Interstate Commerce Commission created by the national Congress, demanded so insistently for years that motor carriers be similarly regulated, that in 1935 the Federal Motor Carrier Act was enacted. This requires the Interstate Commerce Commission to establish reasonable requirements as to adequate service, maximum hours of
• work by employees, safety of operation and equipment and uniform accounting systems and records of common carriers and contract carriers operating in inter-state or foreign commerce, but does not authorize it to establish rates. It obliges common carriers who were not established prior to June 1, 1935, to obtain certificates• of public convenience and necessity for operating over either regular or irregular routes, and requires contract carriers to obtain permits from the commission authorizing them to engage in hauling across state lines.
Schedules of reasonable rates for service must be filed with the commission and published in such form as the commission may prescribe, and reductions from such schedules must not be made within 30 days after filing them. The Act contains many other provisions regulating the acts of carriers engaging ininter-state transport. The
commission has issued rules and regulations governim qualifications of drivers and safe ecplipment and operatior of vehicles engaged in -such traffic.
Carriers are subject, also, tro provisions of the recent13 enacted national Wages and Hours Act. They must paa drivers not less than a prescribed minimum wage and mus. not require them to drive more than a specified number o hours in one week or in any 24-hour period. The question of the necessity of 'regulating carriers ha: been argued vigorously for many years. The Federal Ac. was passed only after many and prolonged investigation! and hearings, and the Interstate Commerce Commission ha: proceeded with the establishment of regulations with corn
mendable deliberation and caution. After all, relativel3 few commercial motors are operated for hire or as public conveyances.
A survey made by the Bureau of Public Roads with thi co-operation of state highway departments showed tha only 5.5 per cent. of all registered lorries were commor carriers and 8.7 per cent, contract carriers, whereas 85.1 per cent. were privately owned and operated. Witt approximately 5,000,000 lorries now registered, 15 per cent. or about 750,000, are regularly engaged in public hauling but comparatively few of them in interstate commerce Incidentally, more than 1,000,000 trailers and semi-trailer are now registered.
Rates and Fares Kept Low.
Not only have the railways lost traffic to road transport but they have been forced by the competition to mak. large reductions in fares and goods rates. On the othe: 'hand, the private lorries have -stimulated 'development c areas off the Mil lines and served as feeders of goods :Lc the railroads.
Despite all of the agitation and pressure by the railway and other interests that have brought about so much limita tion, regulation and heavy taxation of ' commercia vehicles, the state legislators and Federal law-makers wil not go so far as to Impose restrictions and burdens tba will force motor carriers out of the field of public trans portation, because the public will insist upon using eacl means for transport that serves its needs most quickly conveniently and economically. H. W. P.