RAILWAY WAYBILLS

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 32, 7 February 1930, Page 11

RAILWAY WAYBILLS

BUSY BITS OF PAPER

WORKING OUT RATES

Competition has increased tho difficulties of a section of tho railways staff that does not come very closely into touch with the general public, the'men who make out the waybills for goods from the consignment notes. There has never been much indication of a flat rate for goods on tho railways. Starting off with Class A, classification wanders well down the alphabet, that is, simple classification as unaffected by competition and special districts. Where, the competition is keen, eithor by water or by motors on tho roads, the ordinary classifications, by no means easy for tho layman to follow, arc complicated by a dozen considerations, each witli its percentage adjustment. The system by which tho linger of the accounting officers is kept on the annual pulse of goods traffic and rates is rendered possible only by 'the waybills, all of which, after peregrinations to and fro, gravitate to tho head office where the aggregate results are assessed.

Frequent attempts have been made to simplify the classifications of goods. The ideal would bo a flat rate combining several of the existing classes, with concessions to regular patrons of the railways in the matter of the more bulky and less payable (from the railway point of view) commodities, but so far the ideal has not got to the experimental stage. Filling in a consignment note for the conveyance of goods by rail ends the matter, as far as the sender is concerned, but it is otherwise with the railways, because from the consignment notes are made out the waybills, peripatetic documents which travel through many tribulations before they come to rest. The sender may put cabbages and tinned fish, spades and tomatoes, pickles and pink dye, sugar and flour, all on the one j note, but the maker of waybills has other methods. Frequently the goods are not even remotely related in ah intricate railway classification, and there is always, the possibility that they have been misdescribed, generally unintentionally, but sometimes with the idea of evading a rate. The bag of flour cannot be classified in railway rating with the bag of sugar from the same grocer's shop, nor the packet of seed with the rake. The latter may oven be either an agricultural implement or a domestic adjunct, according to circumstances. The maker of waybills has to regroup the entire consignment to the best of his ability, with an eye on the rates. . Tho latter again, may be the ordinary general rates, but the position on the other hand can become quite complicated. An anticle may, in its own inoffensive entity be Class D, but it may be going into a district where Class D is dominated by a rural rate which makes it really Class B. Perhaps shipping competition gives both classes D and B a special rate for that kind of article in that district. After struggling with these problems, the waybill writer indites the sender, receiver, number of packages, description, marks (if any), weight, rate, amount of freight, whether paid, to pay, or chargeable to the consignee, and other, things, such as any discrepancies discovered. Though classifications repeat themselves, making out waybills it will be seen, is not strictly a routine job.

Tho waybills go to the guards of the trains on which the goods aro to be dispatched, who sort them out accord-ing-to the-.wagons and stations they: are destined, for.- ; Tho .guard walks along the train to see that tho goods are in the right wagons according to the waybills. The waybills are then sorted into different pigeonholes in the guard's van, which are cleared at tho stations as he comes to them. Against his list of wagons he. checks off those, say for Otaki, and when these are taken off the waybills are taken into the office, where the weights, etc., are checked up. The waybill then goes to the foreman of that station, who again checks up the packages. If there are any shortages, these are entered on the waybill. Delivery notes aro made out for all goods as extracted from the wagons. Any shortages are dealt with by telegram or memorandum, and duly entered on the waybill. Tho waybills arc then numberd consecutively at the receiving station, sorted out according to the sending stations, and sent, with a covering abstract, to the chief accountant's office. There all tho waybills have their totals* carded by a machine with which the chief accountant's office is equipped, the most modern carding machine yet imported to the Dominion, and every item of weight, charge, rate, ton mileage, rate per ton per mile, etc., is scheduled and aggregated, the total showing the tonnago- carried on all the New Zealand railways, and the average haul of every class of commodity, which is given a number, which facilitates the accounting, saving/ much repetition of verbiage.

One -of the commonest causes of trouble in tho consignment of goods is putting two stations on tho note. That is all very well in the case of a letter mail to "Plimmerton, Wellington," but in the case of goodß it is not always clear which station is intended. The waybills covering water freights have to be made out in* four copies, and they are moreover much fuller of details than those for rail alone. They must show cartago costs between rail and ship, and other details, and the rates charged are subject to moro complications.