TRACING AND CLAIMS

TRACING SHIPMENTS

1. Use and Abuse of Tracers.-While it is becoming increasingly true that most shipments reach their destination with reasonable speed, it is only to be expected that some will not. When a shipment has not reached its destination within a reasonable time after leaving the point of origin, it is a natural move to ask the carrier to find the shipment, and to see that it gets to its destination as promptly as possible. Such action on the part of the carrier is called tracing; and the object of tracing is to find, and get started to destination, those shipments which, for any reason, have been delayed en route, whether the delay be due to action or neglect on the part of the carrier or of the shipper. It may be that the shipment has been overlooked on the platform of some transfer station, or the cause of delay may be incomplete or incorrect marking, or any one of a number of common mishaps.

It should not be necessary to point out that the object of tracing is not to expedite the movement of shipments that are duly proceeding on their way to destination according to regular routine. It is not so very long since shippers thought they were performing a service to themselves and to consignees in requesting that a tracer be started at the time the bill of lading was signed at the point of origin. In other words, it was thought that the tracer would insure the shipment against delay. Another practice for which even less can be said is the starting of tracers as a measure to appease a restive consignee who has not received his shipment. It is a very easy, but ineffective measure, to show how much one is looking out for

COPYRIGHTED BY INTERNATIONAL TEXTBOOK COMPANY. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

the consignee's interest, to start a tracer two days after a shipment has set out on a journey that is never performed in less than five days. This matter is further discussed later on, but attention is here called to the true object of tracing, so that the topic may be taken up with an understanding of its real purpose.

2. Methods of Tracing.-When the sending out of a tracer becomes necessary, there are various methods that may be used, according to the conditions of the case, as follows:

1. Telephone or personal requests may be used as means of getting action started without delay. When these methods are employed they should invariably be confirmed by some form of written request, in order to put the matter on record. It is particularly important that there be a written record, because a request for a tracer is sometimes considered as a notice of a claim, as will be shown later.

2. Forms of the nature of the one shown in Fig. 1 may be used. Note that the form has incorporated in it the statement to the effect that the tracer will serve as notice that a claim will be filed if the property that is being traced is not delivered.

3. Personal letters often prove very effective, in fact much more so than forms.

4. Telegrams serve the same purpose in connection with tracing that they do in other matters, they are the effective method to be used where speedy action is required. The use of telegrams or letters gives the transaction a personal touch, entirely lacking in the sending out of a form, which is, or has the appearance of being, a routine act. It is well known to employes of carriers that many industrial concerns start tracers on all shipments when they have not had specific information that a shipment has been delivered. Hence, very often, when a tracer form is received, this only means that some clerk is performing a purely routine function, in which he has no personal interest, and the tracer is apt to get the treatment that naturally corresponds to such an attitude on the part of the sender. A letter or telegram conveys the impression that

The shipment described below has not been delivered. Please trace and effect delivery as quickly as possible, advising us date and to whom delivered. This tracer will serve as a formal notice of our intention to file claim in the event of your not being able to establish delivery of the shipment described herein.

Kindly acknowledge receipt of the above tracer, giving your tracer number, and oblige,

something special has occurred calling for individual action. Such a communication will carry the force of an emergency call demanding particular attention.

5. A method of tracing that is very expensive, and is justified only under unusual conditions, consists in sending a man personally to locate and expedite the movement of a shipment. During the World War and the congestion that immediately followed it, many concerns had men who traveled with the cars and saw to it that these were not unnecessarily delayed. Their work often involved searching freight yards, interviewing yard masters, trainmasters, and other employes in an effort to keep the cars moving. While this method is always in use to a limited extent by those who can afford it, and where circumstances warrant the outlay, a somewhat less expensive method is to send out men only after the cars have been reported as delayed.

Whatever may be the method used in tracing, it is essential that the carrier shall be given complete information as to the shipment which it is desired to have traced. The form shown in Fig. 1 calls for the essential points of information, to which may be added such things as the waybill number, the bill of lading number, or other things that will aid in identifying the shipment. A copy of the bill of lading is often the readiest means of aiding the carriers to locate the shipment.

3. Where to Start Tracers.-For less-than-carload shipments, it is generally necessary to start tracers with the carrier on whose line the shipment originated, as the identifying mark on such shipments is the waybill number, rather than the description of the shipment. For example, if a shipment is handled by two carriers, the carrier who receives it from the originating carrier will have to have the number of the waybill from the originating carrier in order to locate the receipt and forwarding record. A request to trace a certain number of cases shipped from John Jones to Bill Smith will not mean much to the second carrier without the advice from the first carrier, such as that the cases were delivered to it by the first carrier on "waybill 100, dated July 10th,