No difficulty and no great amount of work are involved in establishing a
Return-Loads Bureau. All that is necessary is to follow the example of
Connecticut where through the initiative of the State Council of
Defense, Return-Loads Bureaus have been established in 15 cities. The
Council addressed letters to the Chambers of Commerce, inviting their
cooperation in the movement. Return post cards were printed and mailed
to motor-truck owners in the different cities. On the reverse side of
the cards was a brief questionnaire to be filled out by the truck owner
stating whether or not he would carry "back loads" for reasonable
compensation, whether he would rent his truck at full capacity or
partial capacity, number of trucks owned, number of hours a day or days
a week the truck would be available under the return-loads plan, its
capacity in tons, etc. As these reply cards came back, they were filed
in a 3 by 5 card index drawer, arranged by cities and by routes out of
the respective cities. It developed from this canvass that there were in
the 15 cities more than 700 trucks of 1-ton capacity or more available
for such service and that they operated over 49 main routes.
Names and addresses of truck owners may be obtained from the automobile
registration bureau in the office of the secretary of state or the
commissioner of motor vehicles, as the case may be.