FREIGHT CLAIMS INTRODUCTION Until recent years there was probably no greater cause for unfriendliness on the part of the shipping public toward the carriers than the failure to settle promptly freight claims submitted to them by the shippers. It was not uncommon for claims which should have been settled on sight to be held up for six months or a year, and the shipper or claimant, despairing of ever receiving a settlement, would charge the amount off to Profit & Loss and the experience to education. The opposing factions, however, came to see the desirability of co-operation with each other to remove as far as possible cases of unusual delay. Today there is, as a whole, very little occasion for complaint on the score of the time consumed in the adjustment of claims. The improvement that has been effected is probably most forcibly illustrated by the following remarks of Mr. J. M. Belleville, Chairman of the Freight Claims Committee, National Industrial Traffic League, representing some 80,000 shippers. Under the old conditions it was but seldom that a claim for either loss, damage or overcharge, was adjusted in a less time than 90 days, and ten years ago, we considered that if we could get an average of settlements in six months it was a remarkable record. Under present conditions, a majority of what we call straight overcharge claims; that is, where the evidence is perfectly clear and there are no complications, are settled inside. of 30 days, and the writer knows of a number of concerns who have quite large claim accounts whose record for the year 1910 shows an average under 60 days for settlement of claims of all descriptions. AND RAILWAY TRAFFIC COURSE The subjects listed below constitute the basic material of a course in Interstate Commerce and Railway Traffic. This course is especially designed to meet the constantly growing demand for efficiently trained men in railroad sad industrial traffic work; to assist students to pass the examinations for government service under the Interstate Commerce Commission; and to meet the demand for men competent to direct the work of commercial organizations and traffic bureaus. With the exception of the Atlas of Railway Traffic Maps, the subjects listed below are covered in an average of approximately 200 pages each. Atlas of Railway Traffic Maps Traffic Glossary Freight Classification; Some Ways of Reducing Freight Freight Rates: Western Territory; Bases for Freight Freight Rates: Official Classification Territory and Publication and Filing of Tariffs Freight Claims; Investigation of Freight Claims; The Express Service and Rates Ocean Traffic and Trade Railway Regulation The Act to Regulate Commerce and Supplemental Acts Application of Agency Tariffs The Law of Carriers of Goods Practical Traffic Problems LASALLE EXTENSION UNIVERSITY CONTENTS INTRODUCTION CAUSES FOR INCREASE IN CLAIMS. THE FREIGHT CLAIM ASSOCIATION. ORGANIZATION OF RAILWAY CLAIM DEPARTMENTS. THE INVESTIGATION OF CLAIMS. Claims for Overcharge... Loss and Damage Claims.. ADJUSTMENT OF CLAIMS BETWEEN CARRIERS. HANDLING L. C. L. FREIGHT.. Arrangement of a Freight House. Loading Cars Errors in Loading.. 3 4 7 .10 13 .13 .17 .21 23 .23 .27 .29 |