No Rubber, No Trucks

Half of the 4,750,000 trucks on U.S. highways will be forced out of service before the end of 1943, for lack of rubber. Such was the terrifying gospel brought to the American Trucking Association's convention in Chicago last week. WPB announced that by 1943's end there would be no synthetic for civilian use. The U.S. trucking industry cannot last into 1944 without a miracle.

Yet trucks are essential to the U.S. Some 48,000 communities have no railroad service; most U.S. farm crops are trucked to market; the railroads would bog down if they had to reshoulder the freight load the trucks have taken from them. The trucking industry is only around 20 years old, but its 700,000 common carriers did a business last year of more than $1 billion and, together with the 2,550,000 private and 1,500,000 farm trucks, handled 18% of the nation's freight. The common carrier truckers, moreover, now carry war materials about 50% of the time.

They need new equipment already. But there are less than 15,000 new trucks to be rationed, and Lend-Lease will get a share of those. Only hope for trucks is to make their present equipment last. Said ODT's Joe Eastman last week: "In some way and somehow, we must keep these vehicles in service for essential purposes for the duration . . . and protect and preserve the rubber tires on hand, which constitute the most precious stockpile that our country possesses."

To that end ODT's General Order No. 3 goes into effect next week. No commercial truck (with certain exceptions) can leave on any trip unless it is fully loaded, nor can it head home again less than 75% loaded. The truckers are now setting up regional committees to pool equipment and freight, maximize loads per truck in both directions. The number of trips on certain routes will be cut. By such cooperation, and with the greatest attention to maintenance, highway operators grimly aim to get a million miles of life out of each truck, 125,000 miles (with recapping) from each tire. But none of them can see beyond the end of 1943.

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