‘Return Loads’ to Increase Transport Resources

United States. Council of National Defense. HighwaProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

1.8

Word count: 10K words
Chapters: 2

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.'Return Loads' to Increase Transport Resources by Avoiding Waste of EmptyAuthor: United States. Council of National Defense. Highways Transport Committee,Language: English, Class: HE: Social sciences: Transportation and communications, Release Date: Nov 11, 2006

Editor's review

This historical document, compiled by the Highway Transport Committee of the U.S. Council of National Defense, centers on how to increase the utilization of wartime transport resources by reducing empty return trips. Its value lies not in literary quality but in presenting the original shape of transport-management thinking from a century ago: how, under conditions of scarce resources, administrators sought to cut waste through scheduling, coordination, and institutional arrangements. It is short and direct in language, with a marked style of official document and practical manual, and is suitable as supplementary material for the history of transport management, wartime economic mobilization, or the evolution of logistics concepts. Readers should not expect systematic theory but should treat it as a historical sample that can be compared with the present: the empty-return problem remains a classic issue in transport economics today, and the organizational ideas proposed in the book can help readers understand how "efficiency" is concretely broken down into executable scheduling arrangements. It is suitable for selective reading in discussions of logistics costs, resource sharing, or comparisons of historical institutions.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers studying the history of transport management and wartime economic mobilization
Practitioners concerned with logistics efficiency and the empty-return problem
Teachers who need English historical documents as course materials
General readers interested in public-administration documents from a century ago

Not a good fit for

Readers expecting systematic theory or modern logistics methodology
Readers who prefer literary narrative or storytelling
Readers who need a Chinese translation and are unused to English official documents

Reading tips

Read the title and opening paragraphs first to establish its official-document nature before deciding how closely to read.
Annotate with basic knowledge of transport economics in mind, marking points that can be compared with the contemporary empty-return issue.
If used for a course, excerpt key passages and discuss them alongside present-day logistics cases.
It is best read in one sitting; being short, it serves well as an introduction to a thematic reading session.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book a literary work?

No. It is a practical document compiled by the Highway Transport Committee of the U.S. Council of National Defense, discussing how to reduce empty return trips to improve the use of transport resources; its language is that of official documents and exposition, without the narrative quality of fiction or essays.

Can someone without a logistics background understand it?

Yes. The book addresses the concrete problem of empty-running waste, and the concepts are not complex, but readers need some basic knowledge of transport scheduling. If completely unfamiliar with freight procedures, it is advisable to first understand the meaning of "empty return trips" before reading.

Why is this old document worth reading now?

Empty return trips remain an important source of transport costs and wasted resources today. This document offers a historical cross-section, showing how early administrators tackled the problem through organizational coordination and scheduling systems, and it can be read in comparison with contemporary practice.

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About the author

United States. Council of National Defense. Highwa Author

United States. Council of National Defense. Highwa is a collective attribution for a highway-related office under the United States Council of National Defense. Due to limited public information, its exact founding date, organizational history, and staffing cannot be described in detail. Judging from the five works listed in the library, this attribution focuses on road transport and the allocation of transport resources in wartime. Representative works include Address, 'Return Loads' to Increase Transport Resources, The Rural Motor Express, and Return-Loads Bureaus To Save Waste In Transportation. These texts are mostly practical reports or proposals, written directly for policy implementation, and concern ways to reduce transport waste and improve capacity through return loads, rural motor express services, and return-loads bureaus. They reflect the context of U.S. transport mobilization around World War I and the emphasis on road freight, offering historical value for understanding transport administration and logistics organization of the period.