Save the Tires

From the time the Japs first moved toward the Indies, wise old U.S. Transportation Boss Joseph B. Eastman has pleaded for tire conservation. For Eastman, working 16-18 hours a day, seven days a week, to keep all transportation rolling smoothly, knows better than any other man that when trucks and busses wear down to their rims, the traffic snarl on the railroads will be beyond unraveling. Last week, tired of preachments without results, Eastman’s Office of Defense Transportation got tough, slammed the brakes on virtually all the nation’s five million trucks, 154,000 busses and 50,000-odd taxis. After Nov. 15 none of these vehicles can operate without an ODT certificate.

Most big over-the-road truckers will get their certificates immediately. Their 200,000 heavy, rumbling interstate trucks are performing heroic wonders delivering rush shipments of war materials, their highly skilled drivers squeeze better than 100,000 miles average out of tires (with recapping), keep trucks running a million miles or more before scrapping.

But local truckers not performing essential services, retail delivery trucks, and privately owned vehicles still used for nonessential work (such as hauling beer from one city to another) will have their trucking-as-usual sharply restricted. Many will find that their trucks are needed elsewhere, will lease them to operators short of equipment. The area of distribution for many a product will go back to 100 years ago. Result: local industry will spurt.

Hardest to regulate will be the 1,047,000 trucks owned by farmers or leased to carry farm products. Without trucks many farm crops could not get to market, but many truck loads of farm products bypass local markets and rail terminals, travel hundreds of miles to save a few cents’ freight, and return empty.

Hardest hit by the new order are taxis. Better than one-third of them will stop clocking fares. In New York City, where reduced traffic has made a taxi speedway of most streets, the 11,700 cabs will be cut by at least 3,000, possibly more.

To cope with the detail of enforcing this drastic transportation edict ODT will increase its number of regional offices from 50 to 150. With luck, and truck drivers willing, ODT hopes to stretch the tire supply until there is enough synthetic rubber available for civilian needs.