This report gives results of a detailed study of motortruck operating costs of 20 farmer cooperatives.

Nineteen of these cooperatives spent over $100 million on transportation in 1962. Operation of their own trucks accounted for 12 percent of this amount, with expenditures on for-hire motortruck and rail transportation amounting to 86 percent of the total.

The 20 cooperatives providing motortruck operating cost information for this study operated 533 truck-tractors, 123 straight trucks, and 832 trailers and semitrailers. The average size fleet was 33 trucks.

The 656 truck-tractors and straight trucks operated by the 20 cooperatives traveled over 38 million miles in 1962. The average round trip, reported by 18 cooperatives, was 178.4 miles.

Each truck averaged 58,100 miles during the year. Pickups per trip averaged 1.9 and stopoffs 6.1. The average miles per gallon of fuel was 5.5.

Total operating costs for this fleet amounted to almost $13 3/4 million in 1962, or an average of 36 cents a mile operated.

Eleven of the 20 cooperatives had motortruck operating costs that averaged between 30 and 39.9 cents a mile.

Direct costs amounted to 25.6 cents a mile, or 71 percent of total operating costs, followed by 19 percent for overhead and 10 percent for indirect costs. Drivers' wages were the largest expense item, accounting for 13 cents a mile, or over 50 percent of direct costs.

Depreciation of motortrucks and facilities was the largest overhead cost item, amounting to 3.7 cents a mile, or 55 percent of total overhead costs. Office and garage salaries and wages accounted for 3,3 cents a mile, or almost 89 percent of total indirect costs.

Information obtained from 18 of the 20 cooperatives showed they had backhauls for only 46,627--or 21.8 percent--of the 213,606 trips their trucks made in 1962, Almost 93 percent of these backhauls were their own goods.

"Adequate service not available for needs" and "more economical" were the reasons expressed most often by management personnel for operating their own trucks.

"Operating problems" and "meeting various State vehicle size and weight laws" were the principal disadvantages or problems in operating their own trucks expressed by manage

ment.

Many of the cooperatives in this study need more detailed motortruck operating-cost record-keeping systems. Records were generally kept on a fleet basis, with no apparent way of measuring the performance of each truck in the fleet.

The 9,294 farmer cooperatives in the United States owned or leased an estimated 33,000 motortrucks as of January 1, 1961, according to a recent study by Farmer Cooperative Service. 1 These motortrucks do an important part of the hauling of agricultural commodities and supplies for members and patrons of cooperatives.

This study was made in response to recommendations made to the Department of Agriculture by the Transportation and Storage Research Advisory Committee. It is the second phase of a study of motortruck operations and costs. These costs are needed to provide benchmarks for the guidance of cooperative managements in helping increase efficiency of operations and thereby increase returns to farmers.

A previous study by Farmer Cooperative Service provided a record of number, types, and sizes of motortrucks operated by farmer cooperatives. Of the 6,171 cooperatives participating in the previous study, 3,469 operated motortrucks. Only 128 of this number, however, operated fleets of 25 or more trucks.

Bowser, William C. Motortruck Operations of Farmer Cooperatives, Gen. Rpt. 109, Farmer Cooperative Serv., U.S. Dept. Agr., Feb. 1963.

? The term "trucks" as used here and hereafter in this report refers only to power units.

Of the 128 cooperatives operating 25 or more trucks, 28 stated that 50 percent or more of their total truck mileage was "over-theroad," 3

These cooperatives were selected for detailed study to determine truck operating characteristics and costs for the larger fleet operators. We scheduled field interviews during 1963 and obtained usable motortruck operating cost information from 20 of the 28 cooperatives. This information is the basis of findings reported here.

Relationship of Truck Operating Costs to Total Transportation Expenditures

While this study pertains primarily to motortruck operating costs, related information on total transportation expenditures was obtained from 19 of the 20 cooperatives in the study. These cooperatives spent over $100 million on transportation in 1962 (table 1).

"Over-the-road" was defined in the questionnaire as hauls other than local pickup and delivery and movements from fields to local concentration points.