lorries. These have largely superseded horse traffic. In Great Britain, the railway companies perform a certain amount of carting, but many private traders have their own collection and delivery vans, and special carrier companies also assist in this very essential service. The use of motor vehicles for the local conveyance of goods has been so far extended that regular goods and passenger services now operate over long distances through- out the country. For the transport of perishable goods the motor lorry is particularly well suited. It has the advantage of offering door-to-door facilities with one handling at each end. The publication of the first " road Bradshaw " in Great Britain is an indication of the extent to which road traffic now operates. The haulage of empty stock from one point to another is dearly necessary whenever a centre receives more or fewer waggons with loads than it requires for its own outward traffic. Very few centres receive the same number of loaded waggons as ':hey require for forwarding goods. There must therefore always De a considerable movement of empty waggons. Statistics pub- ished by the Ministry of Transport in England show that in that xmntry, at the commencement of 1921, about 30% of waggon nileage was " empty " running. Similar conditions prevailed n the United States. A large proportion of " empty " run- ling is in connexion with mineral traffic. A mining area >ffers a considerable volume of outward traffic, with very little nward. Occasionally, however, loads can be obtained in both lirections. A good example is seen in the case of iron-ore car- ied from Tyne dock to Consett for use at the iron-works there. The waggons are then used to convey coal from the collieries in he neighbourhood of the iron-works to Tyne dock for shipment, iut this case is exceptional. The number of mineral waggons phich run empty, or the ineffective dead load, can be reduced by he introduction of higher capacity waggons with a larger propor- ion of live to dead load.
This question of " empty " running is of equal importance in onnexion with shipping. A well-organized shipping company /ill have its agencies so well distributed to secure return cargoes hat loss through running ships in ballast is reduced to a minimum. One great difference exists between the operation of railways nd that of all other forms of transport. Railways operate n their own tracks, property which they must maintain and
- hich has to be adequately staffed and attended. Ships have
he advantage of the trackless ocean; aeroplanes and airships, ifinite space; rpad vehicles, the public highway. Canals in Great iritain are different again; the waterways themselves are as rule owned by various authorities, but the barges and other anal craft are usually owned by separate transport compa- ies and private traders.
It is thus apparent that a railway undertaking must have pro- ortionately a much larger operating staff than any other trans- ort service. This introduces the question of management. The Dmbination of the several factors of transport efficiency is the ey to efficiency in operation. For the efficient handling and se of these factors an executive management is required, a lanagement that should not only have full knowledge of the Sencies, means and methods required for the particular type E transport operation with which it is concerned, but should Iso possess ability for the correlation and control of the many isources at its command. Indeed, the whole system of oper- tion depends upon the body of management. As to what is the best organization for management of a rail- ay there are such wide differences of opinion that it is not pos- ble to suggest that any given or particular plan is the correct ae. In England at the head of a railway organization are le directors, presided over by their chairman, who are responsi- le to the shareholders for the efficient conduct of the undertak- ig. All questions of policy are settled by the Board of Directors, id the administrative staff, which is controlled by the general anager, who is directly responsible to the Board of Directors, responsible for the actual carrying out of the work. The gen- al manager cannot actually attend to all the details of operation a railway: he can however see that the policy of the directors carried out by the various heads of the departments. The
chief executive officers are the chief engineer, mechanical engi- neer, traffic and goods managers, secretary, legal adviser, and accountant. In America, where one company is responsible for perhaps 5,000 m. of permanent way, the " divisional organiza- tion," which decentralizes the management, is more extensively resorted to than in other countries, having less track mileage.
A comprehensive view of the whole system is necessary to any manager or body of managers. The American railways recog- nized at an early stage that they could obtain a proper survey of the working of the whole system only by the collection and collation of statistics relating to every branch and section of the industry, and the Interstate Commerce Commission in a recent report stated that the successful operation of American railways is highly dependent upon statistics. The value of statistics is now better appreciated in England than formerly, and statistics relating to railway operation, on the general lines of those in use on the North Eastern railway for many years past, are now officially collected and issued. These have the effect of reflecting the operating efficiency of the various lines. They enable a number of units of efficiency to be arrived at, as, for example, the ton mileage, the train mileage, the waggon mileage, the average waggon load, the net ton miles of freight moved per hour, the percentage of time a locomotive spends in effective work, the proportion of standing and running time, and the proportion of time a waggon is moving. The ultimate object of statistics is to enable railways by comparison to find out the weak points and thus to be operated in the most economical and efficient manner.
As regards shipping, the Board of Directors is again responsible to the shareholders, but the managing staff is much smaller in proportion than in the case of railways. Each department has, however, its executive head, viz. marine superintendent, super- intending engineer, freight superintendent, victualling super- intendent, etc. The operating staff is also much smaller than is the case with railways, and the larger part of a ship's crew is engaged temporarily for a voyage, and when a vessel returns to a home port and the crew is discharged, only a nucleus staff remains. Then again, most shipping companies send their ves- sels for overhaul to shipbuilders and only carry out minor repairs themselves, unlike the railways, who do most of the repairs to their stock in their own shops.
Economics of Transportation. The business of transport, whether by land or water or air, is subject, like any other industry, to those economic laws which govern the production, distribution and consumption of the commodities and services required for the satisfaction of the needs of humanity. From the economic standpoint, therefore, it is essential that the cost of the " pro- duction and distribution " of transport services and the price at which these services are placed at the disposal of the con- sumer shall be so related as to yield a reasonable margin of profit to the undertakings concerned. Where transport services are provided and operated by private enterprise, the applicability of this principle is naturally more obvious than in those instances where the enterprise is undertaken by a municipality or State: but even in this latter case the assumption should be that the benefits derived directly or indirectly by the community con- cerned are sufficiently great to warrant the expenditure which the provision of the service involves.
Railways. In their efforts to attract traffic, railways have to compete not only with other railways but also with transport services carried on by road, river and canal. In certain circumstances an additional element of competition is to be found in coastwise ship- ping, and the competitive influence of air transport agencies still remains to be measured. Railway undertakings differ from road service undertakings in that the former ordinarily bear the whole cost of constructing and maintaining the " way ' upon which the traffic is carried, whilst the cost of roadways is usually borne, wholly or in part, out of public funds. In the case of inland waterway serv- ices also, the expenditure on " way and works " is frequently de- frayed out of State resources in countries other than Great Britain; but against this advantage must be set the slowness of inland water transport and the much greater vehicular capacity which railways can offer. The competition of coastwise shipping on the other hand is frequently severe, the cost of carriage by sea being relatively low, whilst in the conveyance of non-perishable goods, rapidity of service may be a matter of little moment.
