TRUCKS THAT RUN ALL THE TIME
JOHN WANAMAKER runs Packard trucks 24 hours a day , in the delivery service of his New York store. They average about 115 miles a day, although some of the runs are longer. This exceptional sen-ice is accomplished by the use of false or loading bodies which allow the trucks to be constantly on the road without great loss of time in loading and unloading. The seven trucks now in the service of the New York store are operated with a double shift of drivers working twelve hours each. The trucks are on the road about eighteen hours a day. Loading and unloading and meals take about five hours a day and the trucks are in the garage for oiling, inspection and refilling of tanks for an hour or so at the time the drivers are changed. The false or crate bodies are loaded inside the Wanamaker building, on any desired floor, and are carried by the elevator to the ground level, where they are run out of the building and into the empty trucks. This system not only makes loading very convenient, but, prevents the trucks standing idle during the loading process. Furthermore, it avoids the necessity of running trucks into the Wanamaker buildings, which is against the insurance provisions. The crates fit snugly within the truck bodies, but are on rollers so that they are easily handled. It takes but a minute to run one of the crates into the truck. During the daytime, the Wanamaker trucks are principally used for city hauling, carrying heavy loads between the freight yards and the store and for some of the longer hauls of the regular delivery work. The night hauls are generally longer and include many long runs into suburban districts. The seven trucks now in operation take the place of twenty-five horse wagons and sixty horses, but, in addition, they provide speed and long distance hauling which were previously impossible. John Wanamaker also uses Packard trucks in the service of his Philadelphia store.
Strenuous Store Work
The two Packard trucks owned by John Wanamaker, of Philadelphia, are now being run on an average of sixty miles every eleven hours. One truck covers the suburban route over the main line. Starting from the warehouse, Twentieth and Hamilton Streets, at 8.00 a. m., it passes through Overbrook, Bola, Clymoid, Ardmore, Radner, Bryn Mawr, Wayne, Rosemont, Stratford, St. Davids, Devon, Newtown and Piola to Perwyn. This is twenty-five miles. Upon return to the starting point, it fills in the time until 7.00 p. m. on trips from the store to points in West Philadelphia and Germantown. On this trip, the truck replaces sixteen horses, which made up relay teams to these points, before the adoption of Packard trucks. At 8.00 p. m., this same truck is taken out by a relay driver and run until 6.00 a. m. the following morning on trips between the store at Thirteenth and Market Streets, and suburban delivery points located from five to twenty miles from town. The company's other Packard truck covers the run between the warehouse and Newtown Square, a distance of eighteen miles. On days when this trip is not made this truck is used for hauls to the farther outlying suburban points, particularly to Swarthmore and Atlantic City. The latter run is made every week. The truck leaves the warehouse at 3 a. m., covering a total distance of 130 miles. Two stops are made in Atlantic City and the truck gets back to the warehouse at 9.00 p. m. the same day. This is a pretty strenuous eigh teen-hour trip but the company reports it is generally made without a stop of any kind.
The Packard July 22, 1910
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