For Good or Ill, Users Influence Transportation

A few decades ago, common-carrier enterprises dominated the American transportation scene; today, though vital and indispensable, they are losing their position of relative importance. Transportation has become a buyer's market ; users dominate and influence transportation, for good or ill, whether they choose their transportation randomly or on the basis of comparative cost. There currently exists an ill-defined boundary between legitimate use and unauthorized use of privately owned, not for-hire means of transportation. A developing concept of business logistics influences shippers in their analysis and choice of transportation in relation to other aspects of making a product and getting it to the market. Logistical thinking, in the past, has generally fostered the use of company-operated private carriage, but there is no inherent reason why common carriers cannot offer comparable or even greater logistical advantages to users. From mergers, as they are necessary, common carriers can gain increased ability to compete with private carriage. Also, common carriers can and should adjust their services to the needs of available freight, not vice versa. In transportation, common carriers are everybody's stand-by service. Adjustments by common carriers to meet user requirements and over-all equitable regulation among the various modes and types of transportation are indicated for the benefit of users and carriers alike.