PLAN No. 961. TRANSPORTATION—INTRODUCTORY
Reading edition
Acknowledgment
This monograph was prepared by Clarence E. Bonnett, under the direction of Charles H. Winslow, Chief of the Research Division of the Federal Board for Vocational Education. Acknowledgment is due to Percy R. Todd, General Manager, Bangor & Aroostook Railroad, Bangor, Me., and to Dr. John Cummings of the Research Division for editorial assistance.
What Transportation Involves
In transportation men are concerned with the moving of persons and goods from one place to another. Transportation requires, however, many other operations than simply loading, hauling, and unloading passengers and freight. Charges must be determined and collected, records must be kept, movements of trains, cars, boats, and other vehicles must be directed, repairs to equipment must be made, and numerous other matters must be handled. These numerous operations call for hundreds of thousands of employees in many different trades and occupations.
Occupations Varied but of Great Responsibility
Thus in transportation there are so many different sorts of occupations that nearly any individual who likes responsibility can become interested in some part of the great field. There are occupations in which responsibility rests upon the employee for insuring the safety of property, and this responsibility is not by any means inconsiderable. In other occupations employees are responsible for lives as well as property, and risk their own lives in the service. There is office work for those who like it and plenty of traveling for those who enjoy that. If a life out of doors appeals to you, transportation can give you a job of that sort. In short, if you have a liking for responsibility you can find a job in transportation service that will suit you.
Disabilities and Retraining
If you were engaged in transportation before you were disabled, you are probably still interested in this work, and would return to it if you did not feel that your disabilities unfitted you for your old job. If you wish to go back into transportation and can not take up your old job or a new one in that field without retraining, you want to know how to get retraining and how retraining will help you. Retraining and devices may help you to get your old job again. Retraining ought to do more than simply this. It ought to get you a better job than you had before. It is to help you to analyze and see your own possibilities as they are related to the various transportation occupations that this booklet is written.
Divisions of Transportation
In general, transportation is performed by steam railroads, by street railways, by wagons and automobiles, and by boats. Of these agencies, steam railroads employ the largest number of men in so far as regular occupations are concerned. We shall, therefore, consider first the occupations and trades connected with the operation of steam railroads.