[Transportation Committee News Vol.2 No.4]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY THE OFFICE OF PRICE ADMINISTRATION
VOL 2, No. 4
APRIL 1945
FIRST OPA CITATION GOES TO AC SPARK PLUG COMPANY
The first OPA citation to be presented to any plant in the Nation for the adoption and efficient operation of an organized transportation plan was awarded on Wednesday, March 7, to the Ionia, Michigan, plant of the AC Spark Plug Company, a division of General Motors Corporation.
At a ceremony attended by approximately 1,100 employees and company officials, AC’s general manager, George Mann, Jr., accepted the award from Jacob Zwee-* dyk, Director of the Grand Rapids OPA district, in the presence of other company officials, Transportation Committee members, and 5 representatives of the regional and district offices of OPA.
AC’s excellent Transportation Plan, the personnel and facilities assigned to it, the maintenance of records, and the accuracy used in certifying applications, which have resulted in the splendid car-sharing record of 4.5 persons per car, were highly praised by all officials of the Office of Price Administration present. To add the praise of the national office, it can be said that such a record is proof that the Transportation Plan has been efficiently administered and that the employees of the plant are cooperating to the fullest.
The Transportation Plan at AC follows the conventional outline, but is supplemented by transporta-- tion bulletin boards on which each driver and rider is represented by a name tag. This procedure gives an “at-a-glance” picture of the car-- sharing structure within a 20-mile radius from the plant, and is maintained in addition to a complete and up-to-date card file kept by a member of the Transportation Committee. ■
The three-member Transportation Committee at AC should receive a major portion of the praise that is given for the transportation job thaL has been done. The members, C. L. Barger, W. A. Gemuend, Jr., and Alfred Hamblin, have earned the confidence of employees and management alike. The local War Price and Rationing Boards with which the committee has dealings commend the way in which employee transportation requirements have been coordinated at AC.
George Mann, Jr., general manager of AC Spark Plug Division, Flint, Mich., accepts citation from Jacob Zweedyk, OPA District Director, Grand Rapids, Mich. The group includes, front row, left to right: Dale Waterhouse, Cleveland regional gasoline rationing representative; Clifford Houser, Assistant OPA Administrator, Cleveland Region; Mr. Mann; and Mr. Zweedyk. Back row, left to right, Alfred Hamblin, transportation committee member; Edward Wittenrich, superintendent, Ionia AC plant; Edward Golden, OPA district mileage conservation representative, Grand Rapids, Mich.; Harold Stuart, OPA district rationing executive, Grand Rapids, Mich.; C. L. Barger and W. A. Gemuend, Jr., transportation committee members.
The award of the citation was made an event at the AC plant. The plant cafeteria was especially prepared with the speaker’s platform bedecked with flags of the Allied Nations. The speaker’s stand was flanked by the American flag and the flag of the Army-Navy E Award. The presentation took place between the first and second shifts. That evening, a dinner sponsored by the firm was given at a local hotel for AC, OPA, and Ionia city officials.
Page 2
TRANSPORTATION COMMITTEE NEWS
April 1945
Published monthly by the Mileage Conservation Section, Gasoline Rationing Branch, Office of Price Administration, Washington 25, D. C.
The Transportation Committee News is printed with the approval of the Bureau of the Budget as required by Rule 42 of the Regulations of the Joint Committee on Printing.
Address all communications to:
The Editor
Transportation Committee News Room 2202, Run-stop 252-J Office of Price Administration Federal Office Building No. 1 Washington 25, D. C,
Volume 2	No. 4
"KEEP 'EM ROLLING"
The picture on this page has been reproduced from an article on employee transportation that appeared in the January 16 issue of the “Air view News,” employee publication of the Douglas Aircraft Company, Chicago, Ill. It was captioned “Secret of Perpetual Motion.”
However, we are using the picture in the “Transportation Committee News” to illustrate a little different story, but the idea is the same. The “Airview News” article started as follows: “Every day, some Douglas employee puts the old hack in the garage, props it up on blocks, and begins dreaming of the day when he can buy a BRAND NEW CAR!”
Our story starts as follows: How many transportation committees can walk through the parking lots at their plants and see the same picture brought to life? And if they can, how many of them realize the significance of the scene ?
When new passenger car production was stopped following the entry of this country in World War II, there were over 27 million automobiles in operation in America. Today, that number has decreased to about 23 million. How far we can go and still get workers to their jobs is problematical. The Office of Defense Transportation says that 20 million cars is the absolute minimum with which we can continue our wartime economy. If this figure is correct, we are approaching the danger zone.
It is true that passenger cars have been maintained in numbers
far greater than the most optimistic predictions made 3 years ago, but the war is still being fought and, while the ultimate outcome is now certain, when fighting will cease is known to no one. What is certain is that passenger cars must be made to outlast that unknown date.
During 1941, the average age of passenger cars was about 5 years. Today, the average is closer to 8. Of more importance is the fact that vehicles owned by industrial workers and people from rural areas from which many plants obtain a high percentage of their employees are from 1 to 2 years older than the average of all cars. In a study of 1943 motor vehicle registrations in 22 States and the District of Columbia, the Public Roads Administration found that the average age of passenger cars owned by persons in the occupational groups mentioned to be as follows:
Skilled workers . . . 6.0 years. Semiskilled workers . . 6.5 years. Unskilled workers . . 8.1 years. Farmers . . . . . 7.4 years.
When we add the time from 1943 when these figures were valid to
the present, we obtain average ages that cannot be regarded lightly. Our efforts to conserve our passenger car transportation facilities must be intensified.
If reports that have been received from committees can be taken as an indication, problems are being created daily by c^rs going out of service. One committee reports two a week, another twenty a month, another that bus facilities to the plant are becoming overtaxed from passengers who originally rode in cars, and so on.
What can be done about the problem ? Frankly, we don’t know what the answer is in those plants where the situation is reaching a critical point.
If the war continues long enough, it may be necessary to take drastic steps to provide additional means of transportation to those plants.
Fortunately, there is something that can be done about assuring future transportation to many plants where there seems to be no problem at this time. Again the answer is more efficient car-sharing and motor vehicle conservation. And it does not seem necessary to comment further on this theme.
GASOLINE AND TIRES HAVE GONE TO WAR
April 1945
TRANSPORTATION COMMITTEE NEWS
Page 3
NATION-WIDE CAR-SHARING CAMPAIGN
In an effort to obtain better compliance with car-sharing requirements the Office of Price Administration is inaugurating a Nationwide car-sharing campaign during the month of April.
Such a campaign has been made necessary by the impending shortage of automotive supplies which may, if conservation measures are not increased, lead to a breakdown of civilian transportation before the year is ended.
The amount of gasoline available for civilian consumption is still limited by military requirements. Optimism over the gasoline that will be released after Germany capitulates has been high, but the war on that front has not ended. Even when it is concluded, increases in quotas for civilian use are problematical, depending upon military demands for the conduct of the war against Japan.
Of more importance is the situation with respect to tires and motor vehicles themselves. Late in March the War Production Board announced that passenger car tire production during the second quarter of 1945 would be well below the production in the first 3 months of the year, which was approximately 5,000,000—far below the originally anticipated production of 8 million. Following this adjustment in production schedule, the April tire quota was set at 1,000,000 tires, slightly more than 40 percent of the average monthly quota during the preceding 12 months.
The effect of this drastically reduced tire quota is not known. However, the action adds credence to the recent prediction that 1945 will be the hardest year for passenger car owners since the war began.
By the end of 1944 the backlog of unfilled new passenger car tire applications had been reduced to about 115,000. In other words, with a monthly quota of from 1,300,000 to 2,000,000 tires we were gaining on this backlog of needed replacements which at one time was over 800,000. With a monthly quota of only 1,000,000 tires, we can see but one result: Thousands of automobiles may be immobilized through lack of tires.
Monthly quotas of passenger car tires for the last 12 months are as follows:
May 1944	.	.	.	1,300,000
June................. 1,600,000
July................. 1,950,000
August .... 1,950,000 September . . . 1,600,000 October .... 1,850,000 November	.	.	.	1,850,000
December	.	.	.	2,000,000
January 1945 . . 1,800,000 February	.	.	.	1,600,000
March .... 1,600,000 April............... 1,000,000
Because of the lack of replacement parts and obsolescence, thousands of passenger cars are going out of service each month. The Office of Defense Transportation estimates that approximately 4,000 cars are taken off the roads and streets daily. If this rate continues, our supply of passenger cars will soon be below the minimum required to maintain our wartime economy.
All transportation committees are familiar with the answer to the problem. Only through the most efficient use of our transportation facilities can we continue a Nation on wheels. Car sharing must be made to work.
The doming campaign is directed primarily at those drivers whose applications for home-to-work mileage are not certified by transportation committees. However, committees have been made an important part of the program.
While the record of car sharing among drivers under the supervision of transportation committees is admittedly better than among other drivers, committees cannot afford to relax their efforts. Since transportation is basic to production, committees have an important responsibility as long as the need for war production exists. Those committees that have established an enviable record should maintain it; those that have not should reevaluate their responsibilities and bring their results to the top.
The coming campaign has been designed around local board enforcement of the gasoline rationing regulations with a maximum of publicity and informational material to inform the public of the need
for greater motor vehicle conservation and to sell them on car-sharing.
Local boards have been instructed to process all applications for supplemental rations more carefully, and, in the case of those which do not include the signatures of a full complement of regular riders when it is reasonable to assume that car-sharing arrangements can be made and when alternative means of transportation are available, issue a 30-day probationary ration with the warning that a further ration will depend upon the completion of a car club or upon sufficient proof that the applicant has signed as many riders as he can find and that alternative means of transportation are not adequate.
Responsibility for coordinating the program in the field has been assigned to the various Gasoline Rationing Representatives in the OPA District Offices throughout the country. They will have the cooperation of all other District Office personnel including the Information Executives, and local Board Supervisors. Before the campaign gets under way they will contact all Committees.
A maximum of publicity material has been made available. Shown and described on the next two pages are some of the materials that will be used. All of it will be helpful to committees. It is hoped that all committees will use the posters and other material to the best advantage, since they are in a good position to bring the problem to the attention of approximately one-half of the drivers who hold supplemental rations for home-to-work travel, and, in addition, the millions of passengers traveling to plants in automobiles will aid in carrying the message to other members of families who may be owners and drivers of cars.
Watch for the material. If it hasn’t reached your committee by the end of April, contact the OPA district office serving the area in which your plant is located. Also, refer any questions which you may have concerning the campaign to the district office. They are there to help you.
SHARE YOUR CAR
Page 4
TRANSPORTATION COMMITTEE NEWS
April 1945
AIDS TO A BETTER CAR-SHARING AVERAGE
Posters
Thousands of posters on the subjects of car sharing and the conservation of gasoline, tires, and automobiles will be distributed to transportation committees and others who can display them effectively during the campaign.
Starting in April, the first of a series of three small posters, 8x10% inches in two colors, will be distributed. A total of 200,000 are being made available each month.
Also starting in April, local clubs and affiliates of the American Automobile Association will distribute the first of a series of six large, double-faced, industry-sponsored posters on the subject of motor vehicle conservation and car sharing. These posters will also be in two colors. A total of 2,500,000 will be made available in the complete series over a period of 6 months.
Printing matrices of effective small posters are also available. Those committees that have access to printing facilities can obtain the mats upon request to the OPA district office or the editor of the “News.” Many committees have already prepared posters by this method, including in some cases the name of the company and distributing copies to other committees and elsewhere outside their own plant.
The Office of War Information has arranged for the display of the slogan—Join a Car Club—on outdoor billboards during April. Thirty thousand billboards throughout the country will display the slogan in addition to the regular ad.
Printing Matrices
Over twenty-five different printing matrices are now offered free to transportation committees for use in house organs and employee publications to promote car sharing. We have seen many good examples of the use of these mats to illustrate effective stories or alone as cartoons. It is hoped that all committees will obtain as much space as possible in company papers during the campaign. These same mats will be used during the campaign by local newspapers as drop-ins by
•AMBROSE IS LITERAL-MINDED--HE READ . IN THE PAPERS THAT THE CAR SHARING' GOAL IS 3i PEOPLE PER CAR I*
local advertisers. Order mats through the OPA district office in your area or from the editor of the “News.”
Press Releases
The Office of War Information and the Information Department in OPA are prepared to support the campaign with a maximum of educational material through all channels available. Stories will be prepared at all levels. The national offices will release material from that level which will go to all press services; locally, the district offices will prepare materials more applicable to local conditions.
Radio
The same as with press releases, OWI and OPA will use this media in all possible ways. Network programs will carry the story, locally, one or more of the District Directors’ weekly broadcasts will be devoted to the campaign, and local advertisers will be encouraged to include the subject on their time either as spot announcements or features. In the past, gasoline rationing and car sharing has had an important place on the list of Government-sponsored subjects. For many weeks, car sharing has remained in third place, being headed only by War Bonds and Cadet Nurses. During the campaign, the use of this outlet will be increased.
Windshield Car-Sharing Stickers
The windshield car - sharing sticker of which printing matrices were offered in the January issue of the “News” has been printed for distribution to committees. They will be sent to you from the various district offices in the near future. Already a number of committees have printed their own stickers from mats and report that the idea is a good one. Few employee-drivers who are not cooperating in the car-sharing program at a plant care to be one of the few who cannot display the stickers on their cars.
Miscellaneous
Printing matrices for a very effective envelope stuffer or hand-out are available to committees. If you haven’t already received it, a sample of this stuffer will soon be in your hands. Many committees have found that the use of educational material such as this is one of the best ways to bring the subject of car-sharing and conservation to the attention of employees. When distributed in pay-roll envelopes, at the time rations are delivered, or placed in cars on parking lots, the employees usually read them, and many of them, if they are eye-catching, are carried home, increasing the number of people who see them. Mats are available through the OPA district offices and the editor of the “News.”
GASOLINE AND TIRES HAVE GONE TO WAR
April 1945
TRANSPORTATION COMMITTEE NEWS
Page 5
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SHARE YOUR CAR
Page 6
TRANSPORTATION COMMITTEE NEWS
April 1945
Wright Aeronautical Corp.
A total of one hundred and fifteen people spend full or part time on employee transportation at the Wright Aeronautical Corporation, Paterson, N. J. Eighteen are in the Central Rides Bureau, four are in Branch Rides Bureaus and the remainder are department clerks throughout the various plants. Between a thousand and fifteen hundred gasoline applications and two hundred and fifty tire applications are processed each week.
Applications for gasoline and tires are filed with the department clerks. They check the applications to see that they are properly filled out and signed and forward them to the Branch Rides Bureau in the plant. The department clerks also give assistance in forming car clubs and providing information concerning an application.
At the Branch Rides Bureau, the applications are checked against individual control cards by a transportation clerk who has a general knowledge of the rationing regulations and the transportation program at Wright’s. From here the application is transmitted to the Central Rides Bureau.
At the Central Rides Bureau the application is checked against the applicant’s “master file.” Riders are checked against the “riders file.” If the application is in order with a full car club, it is recorded and sent to the plant area pane] which operates at the plant site.
If there is any inconsistency in an application, it is returned tp the applicant for completion or correction. If irregular hours are claimed, the pay-roll department is asked for a time-card check. If satisfactory. car-sharing arrangements have not been completed, the application is acted upon by the joint management-labor transportation committee.
Every effort is made by Central Rides Bureau to obtain riders for drivers who have not been able to complete their car clubs. Complete and current files are maintained of passengers who want rides and of drivers who want passengers or who are willing to join a car club.
When rations are received from the OPA panel, the coupons are checked against the transmittal records, endorsed, and mailed to the applicant’s home address. For applications that are in order, approximately 10 days elapse between the time an application is filed and the time that the employee receives the ration at his home. To insure the filing of applications in ample time prior to the expiration date, the Branch Rides Bureaus maintain an “expiration date file,” and notify the employees 15 days in advance of the earliest renewal date.
In so many words, the Transportation Committee operation at Wright Aeronautical Corporation is RIGHT.
Kentucky Dam Project
Transportation of workmen from home-to-work is a vital and intricate part of the gigantic project of constructing the Kentucky Dam and Reservoir at Gilbertsville, Ky.
Mr. R. E. Fiser, assistant transportation analyst for the Transportation Advisory Committee, gives a brief, but interesting account of the vastness of this project and the efforts exerted by the committee to insure an efficiently operated transportation system in face of many obstacles. He writes “The Tennessee Valley Authority, Kentucky Dam, since the beginning of rationing has had 5,200 employees as the maximum for any 1 month engaged in construction of the huge Kentucky Dam and Reservoir. The Reservoir extends 184 miles down the Tennessee River to Savannah, Tenn. The area in which this project has been constructed has been very sparsely settled, making it necessary that we employ workmen residing in 38 counties of 4 States, namely Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama.- Critical housing shortages near the major construction projects have compelled our employees to live further away from their particular work than might be the case of urban residents and also another problem which we have experienced is the fact that we are unable to have a
full complement of passengers in rural communities.
“In order that our employee transportation system function efficiently, the authority established the Plant Transportation Advisory Committee at the dam site, with subcommittees properly spaced throughout the reservoir, so as to handle transportation problems within their own area.
“Each week our committee has a hand bill printed, calling spécial attention to some particular part of the automobile, and offering suggestions which have been proven successful by major rubber companies, oil companies^ and manufacturers of automobile accessories. The hand bills are placed in all employees’ cars on the parking lots.
“We believe this is a worth-while program and one which will show noticeable results. Even though our project is nearing completion, we feel that it is our responsibility to assist in prolonging the present stock of automobiles, not only for the remainder of this job, but for future employers of our terminated workmen. If this object is achieved, an invaluable service will have been rendered to the Nation as a whole.”
RATION RECOVERY BOASTS
Bath Iron Corp., Maine, reclaimed during 17 months ending January 15, 1945—
Gallons represented- 256,692
Mileage saved____________ 3,850,380
A fine showing of constant vigilance.
U. S. Naval Dry Docks, San Pedro, Calif., reclaimed during 6 months ending December 1944—
Gallons represented- 75,207
Mileage saved____________ 1,128,120
M. W. Kellpg Co., Lake Charles, La., reclaimed in 4% months ending June 14, 1944—
Gallons represented- 48,193
Mileage saved____________722,895
Boeing Aircraft, Wichita, Kans., reclaimed during 5 weeks and 5 days ending Dec. 23, 1944.
Gallons represented- 4,165
Mileage saved____________	62,475
LET’S HAVE MORE RECOVERY BOASTS!
GASOLINE AND TIRES HAVE GONE TO WAR
April 1945
TRANSPORTATION COMMITTEE NEWS
Page 7
Westinghouse Electric
“Few Dull Moments” headlines the story of the rationing office in the plant publication at Westinghouse Electric, Springfield, Mass. We can really appreciate this since the office is headed by W. L. Pease (a “young” man of 69), who believes in adding a little personal wit to every-day routine and . . . “shake well.” When we asked for transportation committee stories for this column he sent us one, fullpage size, from their employee publication with a notation “You asked for it.” Yes sir, . . . Mr. Pease, we did . . . and we can take it.
We’ll let you in on a little story about Mr. Pease and his activities in the transportation office. It goes—“Of a morning—5 a. m., to be exact—the household of Edward P. Norman (an employee of Westinghouse) was blessed with the arrival of a brand-new baby girl. At 10, that same morning, Mr. Pease, aided by papa Norman, was filling in the required information for food ration books numbered 3 and 4. The following morning, less than 24 hours later, the new arrival in the Norman family owned her first ration books. Mr. Pease admits that after a few more such cases, he was greeted one morning at the local board with “Good morning, Mr. Stork.”
But to get back to that “everyday routine”—making sure the 4,600 or more employees of Westinghouse get back and forth to work, in face of wartime transportation is the real problem which keeps the rationing office on its toes. Gasoline and tire applications for approximately 464 cars are processed each month, which entails contacts with no less than 46 local boards from the surrounding towns, including 5 from Connecticut. Employees get gasoline coupons from most of these boards directly from the plant office as well as certificates for new tires. This is not all, however, as the story about Mr. Pease reveals. Like so many other transportation committee offices, they are called upon for many extras—such as safety shoes, bicycles, rubber boots, fuel oil, and food rations.
As a media of matching riders and drivers for car-clubs, Westinghouse uses a map on which different colored pins are placed to denote
neighborhood residences of drivers and their shift working hours. Seven shades of colored pins are needed to identify all shifts. A cross reference file by streets helps locate the nearest driver.
Mr. Pease is the “young” man in the picture below explaining the significance of the pins to Edith Dimock.
Titeflex, Inc.
The plant transportation committee of Titeflex, Inc., Newark, N. J., has an exceptionally well-organized plan for recovering supplemental rations from employees who are no longer using their automobiles in home-to-work driving to that plant.
Briefly outlined, the procedure established for recovery is as follows:
1.	The personnel records department notifies the transportation office of each transfer, termination of employment, or change of address that pertains to any employee. In addition to the form notice used, immediate notification is given on the termination of any employee in order that files may be checked to determine whether supplemental rations have been issued the employee. If such has been the case, inasmuch as the ration was issued to him on the basis of his eligibility for preferred mileage due to employment with an essential plant, the ration is revoked and the book is picked up.
2.	A form is immediately sent to the pay-roll department notifying them of outstanding rations on this terminated employee and these are picked up at the time he comes in for his final pay.
3.	If the case happens to involve an employee who has no final pay due, a notification is sent to the individual at his home address no
tifying him of the necessity for return of the coupons issued to him. His local board is also notified of this fact, along with the return of his file to that board.
4.	After a 10-day period has elapsed, a follow-up letter is sent to the individual’s ration board notifying them that in the intervening period the applicant has returned the outstanding coupons, or, has not returned them and instructs the board that their enforcement panel has complete jurisdiction from this point.
In writing us, Titeflex praises the accomplishments of its war transportation department—
“First, it insures the fact that our employees will be able to get to work and home again. Secondly, it has resulted in preventing absenteeism, and thirdly, through the use of a transportation committee composed of four labor and four management representatives, it has shown that the spirit of cooperation between labor and management is promoted towards solving the problems connected with maximum production needed to win the war.”
Stewart-Warner Corporation
Last September Stewart-Warner Corporation of Chicago, Ill., inaugurated a tire inspection service for employees of their plant.
This inspection service has proved highly successful. A recently conducted survey showed the proportion of cars with proper inflation in all four tires has doubled, and the proportion of cars with four tires underinflated has been cut to one-fourth the original figure.
The following excerpt taken from a recent issue of their plant publication, “War Worker,” describes the procedure followed in checking tires.
“When tires are inspected a tag is attached to the door handle of the car to inform the motorist as to the condition of his tires, air pressure, need of repair, etc. If a tire is discovered to be dangerously soft, the owner is contacted at once so that he can make some arrangement to add air or have the tire repaired before he leaves the plant for home. An incidental feature of the service is the furnishing of valve caps without cost whenever one is found to be missing.”
SHARE YOUR CAR
Page 8
TRANSPORTATION COMMITTEE NEWS
April 1945
No. M-146 4 in. wide
Car-Sharing Posters
Shown here are the first two of the industry-sponsored posters that will be distributed by local clubs and affiliates of the American Automobile Association.
These two posters are sponsored by the Ball and Roller Bearing Institute of America.
The posters are double-faced in two colors, and a total k>f approximately 2^ million will be distributed over a 6-month period starting in April.
Committees which do not receive their copies of the posters before the end of April should contact the AAA office in their area.
Promotional Material Available to Committees
Mats for the cartoons on this page are available in 4-inch size for use in plant publications. Order by mat number.
We also have a limited supply on hand of the following:
Mats for “Rubber Has Gone to War”—full page of 3 pictures and copy appearing in January issue. Mat No. MCS-11, size 8xl0y2 inches.
Mats for “Gasoline Has Gone to War”—layout of 3 pictures, minus copy, appearing in February issue. Mat No. MCS-10, size 8xl0y2 inches.
Address all requests to the Editor. (See page 2 for proper address.)
U. S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 636335°
No. M-136 4 in. wide.
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