Railways as Common Carriers.

Post-war government legislation in many lands definitely extends a helping hand to the railways, and frees them from nineteenth century enactments which tended to restrict their useful activities as common carriers. In Britain there has recently come into operation the Road and Rail Traffic Act, 1933, which affords relief from former legislation, under which the railways were compelled to weigh meticulously the quoting of a rate for a particular commodity, lest they should be called, before the courts upon a charge of conferring undue preference towards one trader as against another engaged in the same business anywhere in the land. This relief has rendered possible a new scheme of rating known as the “agreed charge,” to be determined by the railway and the trader in consultation, and providing for the movement of traffic at a fixed figure per unit, generally per ton.

The new plan, now being taken up enthusiastically by most large consignors, does away with the old system of charging by distance, and dispenses with the time-honoured railway “classification” of merchandise. The trader, on his part, undertakes to forward all his goods by rail service—which, of course, includes railoperated road service—and altogether the new plan promises to prove both simple and efficient.