CHAPTER VII.

FREIGHT AND EXPRESS ACCOUNTS.

The "way-bill" is the unit upon which is builded a comprehensive system of accounting for merchandise accepted for transportation.

"Blanket" way-bills, which list several items upon one sheet, are used very largely by steam roads and to some extent by electric lines. They have some advantages, one of which is that the forwarding and the receiving agent are not required to list so many separate way-bills in their abstracts. On the other hand, when shipments arrive at their destination, expense bills must be made by the receiving agent. If wagons are waiting to haul away freight, there may be a delay which is annoying and exasperating to the teamsters and consignees.

Without further discussion of the blanket way-bill we will outline a system of accounting which requires a separate waybill for each shipment. When freight is delivered at the freight house or car by the shipper, a short form of receipt, called a dray-ticket, which merely shows name and address of consignee, routing, date, name of shipper, and description of articles, is frequently given the shipper instead of a bill-of-lading. The dray-ticket may be exchanged for the formal bill-of-lading (Fig. 4) if desired.

Before forwarding freight, the agent who sends it, writes a way-bill covering the shipment. The way-bill (Fig. 5) is printed in four parts, perforated, and folded so that by means of carbon paper all the parts of the bill can be filled in with one writing. The first part is the original way-bill which moves with the shipment and is delivered to the receiving agent with the goods. With it goes the second part which is used as an expense bill; when charges are paid it is receipted by the agent and delivered to the consignee as his receipt. The third part is forwarded to the auditor, and the fourth is retained as an office file, by the forwarding agent.

Each agent is required to record the shipments forwarded

and received, on printed forms used for the purpose. The abstract of freight forwarded (Fig. 6) has columns in which are inserted the date, way-bill number, shipper, weight, freight, and the charges, prepaid or to be collected at destination. The way-bills forwarded from a station are numbered consecutively by the agent, commencing with number one on the first of each month. In writing up the abstract of bills forwarded, sufficient space is left so that all the shipments for one destination during the month may be grouped. As the abstract is written up daily, it is not always possible to guess at the amount of space that will be required, but paper is cheap, and ample room should be allowed.

One copy of the abstract is kept in the office of the agent, and the other forwarded to the auditor. Both are written simultaneously by using carbon paper. The abstract may be a bound book with each alternate sheet perforated, to be detached, and sent to the auditor, or may consist of padded sheets, perforated at the binding edge with holes that will fit the ordinary post binder. In either event, the auditor's copy should be thus perforated, so that it may be permanently filed.

At the end of the month, and before sending his abstracts to the auditor, the agent totals the columns of weights and charges, and makes a recapitulation on an additional sheet, showing the totals, separately, of freight forwarded from his station to each other station on the line. This recapitulation is also footed, giving a grand total of freight forwarded from his station during the month.

The receiving agent makes a record of all freight received at his station and in most respects the procedure is the same as in the case of freight forwarded. The way-bills are grouped in the record (Fig. 7) according to the stations at which the freight originated. It is customary with some receiving agents to use a series of their own numbers in addition to the official number These "pro given the way-bill by the forwarding agent. (progressive) numbers are frequently found, by the agent, to be quite a convenience, in identifying the way-bills received. The method of making recapitulation of totals and sending a copy of the abstract to the auditor is the same as used in handling forwarded shipments.

When the abstracts are received at the auditor's office, the

Eastern Traction Co.

UNIFORM BILL OF LADING

190

Received from.

The property described below, in apparent good order, except as noted (contents and condition of contents of packages unknown,) subject to all conditions named on back hereof

FIG. 4.-(Front side)-Actual size 5" wide by 71" high.

UNIFORM BILL OF LADING CONDITIONS.

1. No carrier or party in possession of all or any of the property herein
described, shall be liable for any loss thereof or damage thereto, by causes
beyond its control; or by floods or by fire; or by quarantine; or by riots,
strikes or stoppage of labor; or by leakage, breakage, chafing, loss in
weight, changes in weather, heat, frost, wet or decay; or from any cause
if it be necessary or is usual to carry, such property upon open cars..
2. No carrier is bound to carry said property by any particular train
or vessel, or in time for any particular market, or otherwise than with
as reasonable despatch as its general business will permit. Every car-
rier shall have the right, in eases of necessity, to forward said property by
any railroad or route between the point of shipment and the point to
which the rate is given.

3. No carrier shall be liable for loss or damage not occurring on its own
road or its portion of the through route, nor after said property is
ready for delivery to the next carrier or to consignee. The amount
of any loss or damage for which any carrier becomes liable shall be com-
puted at the value of the property at the place and time of shipment
under this bill of lading, unless a lower value has been agreed upon or is
determined by the classification upon which the rate is based, in either
of which events such lower value shall be the maximum price to govern
such computation. Claims for loss or damage must be made in writing
to the agent at point of delivery promptly after arrival of the property,
and if delayed for more than thirty days after the delivery of the prop-
erty, or after due time for the delivery thereof, no carrier hereunder shall
be liable in any event.

4. All property shall be subject to necessary cooperage and bailing at
owner's cost. Each carrier over whose route Cotton is to be carried
hereunder shall have the privilege, at its own cost, of compressing the
same for greater convenience in handling and forwarding and shall not
be held responsible for deviation or unavoidable delays in procuring such
compression. Grain in bulk consigned to a point where there is an ele-
vator may (unless otherwise expressly noted herein, and then if it is not
promptly unloaded) be there delivered, and placed with other grain of
same kind, without respect to ownership, and if so delivered shall be sub-
ject to a lien for elevator charges in addition to all other charges here-
under. No carrier shall be liable for difference in weights or for shrink-
age of any grain or seed carried in bulk.

5. Property not removed by the person or party entitled to receive it
within twenty-four hours after its arrival at destination may be kept in
the car, depot or place of delivery of the carrier, at the sole risk of the
owner of said property, or may be, at the option of the carrier, removed
and otherwise stored at the owner's risk and cost and there held subject
to lien for all freight and other charges. The delivering carrier may
make a reasonable charge per day for the detention of any vessel or car
and for use of track after the car has been held forty-eight hours for un-

loading, and may add such charge to all other charges hereunder, and
hold said property subject to a lien therefor. Property destined to or
taken from a station at which there is no regularly appointed agent,
shall be entirely at risk of owner when unloaded from cars, or until
loaded into cars; and when received from or delivered on private or other
sidings, shall be at owner's risk until the cars are attached to, and after
they are detached from, trains.

6. No carrier hereunder will carry, or be liable in any way for any
documents, specia or for any article of extraordinary value not speci-
fically rated in the published classifications, unless a special agreement
to do so, and a stipulated value of the articles, are endorsed hereon.

7. Every party, whether principal or agent, shipping inflammable.
explosive, or dangerous goods, without previous full written disclosure
to the carrier of their nature, shall be liable for all loss or damage caused
thereby, and such goods may be warehoused at owner's risk and ex-
pense or destroyed without compensation.

8. Any alteration, addition, or erasure in this bill of lading which
shall be made without the special notation hereon of the agent of the
carrier issuing this bill of lading, shall be void.

9. If the word "order" is written hereon immediately before or after
the name of the party to whose order the property is consigned, without
any condition or limitation other than the name of a party to be notified
of the arrival of the property, the surrender of this bill of lading prop-
erly endorsed shall be required before the delivery of the property at
destination. If any other than the aforesaid form of consignment is
used herein, the said property may, at the option of the carrier, be de-
livered without requiring the production or surrender of this bill of lading.
10. Owner or consignee shall pay freight at the rate herein stated, and
all other charges accruing on said property, before delivery, and accord-
ing to weights as ascertained by any carrier hereunder; and if upon in-
spection it is ascertained that the articles shipped are not those described
in this bill of lading, the freight charges must be paid upon the articles
actually shipped, and at the rates and under the rules provided for by
published classifications.

11. If all or any part of said property is carried by water over any part
of said route, such water carriage shall be performed subject to the condi-
tions, whether printed or written, contained in this bill of lading, includ-
ing the condition that no carrier or party shall be liable for any loss or
damage resulting from the perils of the lakes, sea, or other waters; or
from explosion, bursting of boilers, breakage of shafts, or any latent de-
fects in hull, machinery or appurtenances; or from collision, stranding, or
other accidents or navigation; or from prolongation of the voyage. And
any vessel carrying any or all of the property herein described shall have
liberty to call at intermediate ports; to tow and be towed, and to assist
vessels in distress and to deviate for the purpose of saving life or property.

FIG. 4. (Reverse side).

first step is to make a comparison of the recapitulation figures. If the records have been correctly kept, and no way-bills missed, the total of prepaid freight reported as received from Webster, by the Marcus agent, should equal the total of freight reported forwarded to Marcus by the Webster agent. If the totals are

AGENT WILL IN EVERY CASE WHEN DELIVERING SHIPMENT, TAKE CONSINGEE'S RECEIPT ON THIS FORM, AND FILE IN HIS OFFICE

Received the property described-hocoon, in good order, except∙as noted_

„Consignee.

THIS FORM TO BE SIGNED BY AGENT AND DELIVERED TO CONSIGNEE WITH THE SHIPMENT. Received payment for the Company

FIG. 5.-Actual size 71" wide by 54′′ high.

Agent]

equal, it will be found unnecessary to check each item of the abstracts. Instead, a series of tests may be made by checking a few way-bills at random, proving that collusion has not existed between the agents whose reports are under inspection. When differences between the totals reported are found, it will be necessary to check each item in order to ascertain which